A new scholarly paper by a team of environmental experts proposes the expansion of a model originally designed to protect global fisheries from depletion — known collectively as “Fishery Improvement Projects” (FIPs) — to include the protection of fishers’ human rights in the scope of their initiatives;

Authors launch “call to action” proposing collaboration between FIPs and Worker-driven Social Responsibility (WSR) efforts with goal of “increas[ing] uptake and implementation of worker-driven, enforceable agreements, and mandatory HRDD [Human Rights Due Diligence] in seafood value chains”

Summary:

FIPs paper’s authors recognize WSR as uniquely effective for human rights enforcement in global supply chains, writing, “any supply chain intervention must look towards worker-driven social responsibility models for effective and enduring change for fishworker communities,” going on to elaborate that fishers must, “know their rights, have access to effective grievance and remediation mechanisms, and have agency over the design and implementation of processes that may directly or indirectly affect them.”
Authors also recognize shortcomings of FIP model for purposes of human rights due diligence, writing, “We completely agree and acknowledge the the FIP model is not the panacea for improving fishworkers’… rights,” explaining further “we also agree that the current policies, frameworks, and assessment tools in use are imperfect.”
Authors launch a “call to action” for FIPs to affirmatively expand their goals and actions to include monitoring and protecting fishers’ human rights as part of a broader coalition with WSR initiatives. In this proposed coalition, FIPs efforts and their existing buyer relationships around environmental protection of fisheries “may be leveraged to support binding and enforceable agreements between buyers and fishworker representative organizations advancing human rights and labor rights protections in seafood supply chains.” The authors add, “FIPs should require participating businesses to undertake HRDD. Specifically, brands and retailers must commit to effectively supporting human rights and environmental due diligence in their supply chains and ensuring it is reflected and enforced in their procurement polices with suppliers.”
As efforts toward the launch of a pilot WSR program based on the CIW’s Fair Food Program continue in northeast Scotland, the authors’ analysis and call to action offer cause for hope. The new paper reflects both the growing recognition of the WSR model as a powerful new paradigm for human rights enforcement, as well as the rise of Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) laws and regulations as an emerging force driving increased corporate interest in engaging with WSR initiatives to address longstanding human rights violations in their suppliers’ operations.
The history of the traditional CSR model offers abundant cause for concern, however, when contemplating the crossover of existing CSR initiatives into the field of human rights enforcement, and we offer two key cautionary notes for consideration:
1. Do not underestimate the importance of fishers’ expertise in the design and, most importantly, operation of any monitoring mechanisms, and
2. Do not overestimate the commitment of most brands to meaningful human rights enforcement in their suppliers’ operations.

Bottom Line: With these two key caveats as guiding principles, a clear path forward toward the expansion of WSR in the global seafood industry begins to take shape behind the leadership of organized workers and worker-based human rights organizations. While a future of collaboration between workers and their organizations, on the one hand, and existing environmental organizations such as the FIPs, on the other, may certainly hold advantages for both groups, it will only be successful in achieving its stated purpose of enforcing workers’ fundamental human rights in the workplace if workers and their organizations are seated squarely at the head of the table. In other words, FIPs supporting worker and human rights organizations in advancing WSR projects in the fishing industry will benefit both parties; FIPs undertaking to lead WSR projects in the fishing industry, however, will benefit neither.