Advisory Board Meets for Human Rights Conference

Starting the 2016 countdown to the International Maritime Human Rights Conference (IMHR) on September 14, 2016, the IMHR Advisory Board has held its inaugural meeting in London.

The Advisory Board members are Martin Foley, National Director of the Apostleship of the Sea, Robert Greenwood, Safety and Training Officer for the National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations, Nigel Shattock, Director of Fundraising and Communications for Seafarers UK, and Andrew Wright, Secretary General of The Mission to Seafarers. 

The aim of the Advisory Board is to ensure that the conference takes a balanced and objective approach to the topical and emerging matters in maritime human rights. The IMHR event will focus on explicitly addressing the issue of maritime human rights and associated welfare issues throughout the maritime environment. 

At the first meeting, the members of the Advisory Board pledged their support to the IMHR conference and its objectives, and provided valuable input on the development of a comprehensive and exciting event program with an impressive line-up of high level, expert speakers. A list of speakers and session panel members will be announced soon. 

Nigel Shattock, Seafarers UK said: “I am particularly pleased to have been invited onto the IMHR Conference Advisory Board. I hope that this conference will raise awareness, and encourage open debate, of the issues and trends around human rights abuses within the maritime environment, and in particular help to clarify whether existing international legislation and regulation is enabling the protection of such rights, or not.”

Martin Foley, Apostleship of the Sea, also commented: “The International Maritime Human Rights conference is the first of its kind. It will provide a welcome focus on seafarers and fishers, the human element that can all too easily be overlooked in the maritime sector. I hope that the conference will illuminate key issues regarding seafarers’ human rights, leading to more effective action in support of human rights at sea from flag States, employers, trades unions, NGOs and others.”

Robert Greenwood, National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisation, added: “I feel that the seafarers around the world are thought of as family amongst the rest of the seafarers, whether in fishing, merchant or pleasure, and it causes great concern to know that fellow seafarers have and are being treated in ways that is not acceptable. It is important to raise awareness of these issues and most importantly to start to look into the social and economic situations that allow these situations to occur. 

“I hope that this conference will unite like-minded people around the world into working together and supporting each other in finding ways to identify the root causes and find solutions to the problems. It is imperative that through education, enforcement and social engineering we give back the seafarers human rights wherever in the world they are from or choose to work.”

Llewellyn Bankes-Hughes, Director of Ensign Events and Managing Director of Petrospot, commented: “We are delighted to have the support of such a high-level and experienced Board of Advisors who I am sure will make an important and valuable contribution to making the first IMHR Conference a successful event which, most importantly, will shine a searching light on the often ignored human rights abuses in the maritime sphere.  We are looking forward to working closely with the Advisory Board members to shape this major new initiative.”

The IMHR Conference, which is taking place at the Royal College of Surgeons, London on the September 14, 2016, is already registering delegates and has experienced a high level of international interest, so early booking is advised via the website and a wide range of sponsorship opportunities are also available. (http://mar-rights.com/sponsorship/). 

The conference will be followed by a networking cocktail reception and evening dinner.