View all news

Human Rights Implementation Centre: Second Flag States and Human Rights Report Published

20 June 2019

Human Right Implementation Centre News

Human Right Implementation Centre, Law School, University of Bristol, in partnership with Human Rights at Sea, on 9th June issued the second independent public report: ‘An evaluation of Flag State Practice in Monitoring, Reporting and Enforcing Human Rights Obligations on Board Vessels’ as part of an ongoing study into the engagement, policies and remedies affected by flag States in relation to their duties to uphold human rights at sea.

The independent flag State research project was established to comment on the under-explored issue of flag State practice, and their international and national human rights obligations. In doing so, this project aims to reveal deficiencies in human rights protection to offer informed recommendations. Such insight, it is hoped, will better flag State assessments, and eventually flag State practice, in the future.

This year Panama, Denmark and Taiwan have been reviewed with the individual registries directly and repeatedly contacted, though unfortunately with little or no engagement with public enquiries.

The central question asked was:

‘How do flag States comply with their international human rights obligations’ vis-à-vis persons on board vessels registered under their flag?’ with three supporting questions:

1).What registries do the flag States hold?
2). What are the human rights obligations of the flag states?
3). How do flag States monitor human rights compliance on board vessels?

To read more on this report, please click here.

Edit this page