Fishing is unequivocally critical to the lives of coastal communities in the Pacific Island Countries (PICs); for many, fishing is essential source of food supply and protein, since other sources are often not readily available (Govella, 2024). For example, in PICs fishing is intimately interconnected with food, social, economic, personal, environmental and community security, with key areas of vulnerability stemming from the heavy reliance on the oceans (Govella, 2024). Fisheries, being important to coastal developing countries, need to be sustainably exploited to address food inadequacy, food deprivation, and food security concerns of coastal communities.
Addressing the human rights challenge in the PICs' fishing industry, Otumawu-Apreku, et al. (2024), examined the nature and drivers of rights violation in specific country contexts. The authors identified a number of drivers that force migrant workers and coastal communities to fall prey to rights abuse in the industry. In particular, they point out social pressures, economic motives, poverty, misinformation, and hunger, as crucial forces pushing young and unsuspecting men and women into exploitation and abuse.
Fishing Communities
PICs are mostly dispersed landmasses with vast water coverage (Otumawu-Apreku et al. 2024), comprising of three main ethno-geographic groupings (Melanesia, Micronesia and Polynesia). PICs' food systems significantly contribute to global food supply chain (FAO and WFP, 2022), including tuna. The Western Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO), home to the PICs, account for over half (54 percent) of the world's tuna supply, with estimated value of US$5.8 billion caught in the PICs (Azmi and Hanich, 2021; Williams and Ruaia, 2020). The rich tuna industry, notwithstanding, PICs are, characterized by small economies, remain largely agrarian, and depend on primary resource extraction, tourism, remittances, foreign aid, imported food and other commodities (FAO and WFP, 2022). Typical of archipelagic states, communities in PICs are generally far removed from the urban centers, and depend largely on fishing for food and livelihood. Consequently, in spite of the rich tuna resources, the rural coastal communities in PICs remain vulnerable to a number of challenges, including food insecurity; largely dictated by climate change, and worsened by rising cost of food and high global fuel prices.
A recent report by the Food and Agricultural Organization and World Food Programme (FAO and WFP) indicate that rising food prices not only threaten the communities' food systems but put their food security and livelihoods at further risk (FAO and WFP, 2022) and, thus, exacerbating the food insecurity challenge. Food security, nutrition, and livelihood monitoring by WFP since 2020 in a number of PICs including Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, Kiribati and Samoa, shows that significant proportion of households has poor to borderline food consumption scores, with notable shift in consumption to cheaper food options to address financial challenges (FAO and WFP, 2022). High prevalence of non-communicable diseases and climate change threat to food systems make food security an overarching issue to address in the communities. Mitigating food security shocks through country-led programs that boost production and productivity, and address gender disparities especially in fisheries, is a priority.
Human Rights, Resource Conservation and Implication for Food Security
Addressing the human rights question in coastal communities is not only a food security issue, it is also a subject of resource conservation, improvement in socioeconomic circumstances of the vulnerable in coastal communities, provision of livelihood options, and strengthening of cultural systems and values that promote equity and equality among men, women, and the youth. The central assumption here is that all else being equal addressing the fundamental challenges will promote resource sustainability, enhance individual and states' capabilities to safeguard food security and eradicate, or significantly reduce, basic forces that put individuals into traps of economic deprivation, make them vulnerable and drive them into circumstances of human rights abuse. Ratner, et al. (2014) point out that vulnerable people whose human rights are routinely violated do not make effective guardians of fishing rights or environmental stewards. It is particularly perilous for fishing communities whose source of food security and livelihood is heavily dependent on fishery resources, if the future stewards (the children) remain vulnerable to human rights challenges.
Tackling the right-to-food question as a human rights subject should therefore not be limited to resolving a vulnerability challenge alone, but should provide inroad into gaining local trust and subsequently addressing resource management challenges (Ratner et al., 2014). This implies that effective management of fisheries resources requires putting human rights at the center of the value-chain equation. Small-scale fishers account for over 90 percent of the world's fishers, and need to be central to any attempts at reforming fisheries management and governance; reforms that seek to identify and tackle the challenges of fisherfolks in fishing communities (Allison et al., 2012). Fishing and fishing activities have been shown to impact food, economic, personal and community security (Govella, 2024); echoing the point that fisheries reforms that resolve property rights should be complemented by efforts to analyze and advance human rights in fishing communities more broadly (Ratner et al., 2014).
Improving resource conservation and ensuring that fisheries sectors generate net positive economic contributions has been a major focus of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, such as the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) (FFA, 2020), major development agencies, including the World Bank, as well as global initiatives such as the Global Partnership for Oceans (Ratner et al., 2014). There is also growing attention to tackling the human rights question in the sector in recent times (Otumawu-Apreku et al., 2024). It is, however, important to note that FAO's adoption of the Right to Food in 2005, leading to a wider adoption of rights-based approaches in its technical assistance and normative programming (FAO, 2009), has brought significant attention to the human rights dimension of food security. Human rights abuses in the fisheries industry pose substantial threat to the overall sustainability of fisheries globally (Otumawu-Apreku et al., 2024; Watson and Kelling, 2024), affect all facets of human security and, importantly directly and indirectly, affect food security (Govella, 2024). Adopting the Capability Approach that provides direct support for a broad characterization of fundamental freedoms and human rights (of small-scale fishers) that takes account of poverty, hunger and starvation as freedom-restricting conditions (Willmann et al., 2017), is not only desirable but essential.
Human rights-based approach (HRBA) is critical in small-scale fisheries management; besides its recognition of non-economic benefits derived from marine resources, it complements fisheries-focused rights-based management to promote conservation and ensure sustainable extraction of the resource intergenerationally. Recognizing the importance of HRBA in coastal fisheries, PICs are working to improve food and nutrition, increase rural income and livelihoods, with a focus on empowerment, especially of women. The effort includes gender assessments in several countries, including Fiji, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga and Vanuatu (Graham & D'Andrea, 2021). A new song for coastal fisheries - pathways to change (Noumea Strategy), for example, seeks to address rights concerns: empowerment of coastal communities; reliance on community-based fisheries management; equitable access to benefits and decision-making within communities, including women, youth and marginalized groups; and diversifying sustainable livelihoods for coastal communities to generate income (O'Connor et al. 2023; Graham & D'Andrea, 2021).
Conclusion
Human rights abuses in the fisheries industry are closely tied to the food crisis facing many coastal communities, particularly in small island developing states and other developing regions. These violations stem from entrenched socioeconomic vulnerabilities, including poverty, hunger, lack of education and limited livelihood opportunities, which make individuals, especially women and children, highly susceptible to exploitation. The effects extend beyond individual suffering; when communities are denied their right to adequate food and fair employment, they lose economic stability, social cohesion, and the capacity to manage marine resources sustainably. Practices such as "Sex for Fish" exemplify how food insecurity can normalize exploitation, perpetuate gender inequality, and trap future generations in cycles of deprivation, thereby undermining environmental stewardship and the long-term health of fisheries.
Addressing these interconnected challenges demands a rights-based approach to fisheries governance that embeds human security, particularly the right to food, at the core of policy and practice. Tackling root causes requires integrated measures such as poverty alleviation, equitable access to education, livelihood diversification, stronger social protection, and culturally sensitive interventions that challenge harmful norms while respecting community values. Enforcing labor standards, strengthening anti-trafficking laws, and ensuring fair working conditions are essential to breaking the link between exploitation and resource depletion. International and regional frameworks provide valuable policy guidance, but lasting change will require coordinated action among governments, communities, civil society and development partners. Ultimately, sustainable fisheries cannot be achieved without social justice; protecting human rights is not only a moral imperative but also a strategic necessity to ensure food security, safeguard marine ecosystems, and empower coastal communities to thrive as stewards of the resources on which they depend.
Kofi Otumawu-Apreku works at the Faculty of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry, Department of Fisheries Studies, Solomon Islands National University, Solomon Islands. Rosalie Masu, is a doctoral candidate at the University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia.
For further information, please contact via e-mail: Kofi Otumawu-Apreku - kofi.apreku@sinu.edu.sb; kapreku@gmail.com; Rosalie Masu - rosaliemasu2023@gmail.com
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