Human Rights at Sea Celebrates Fifth Anniversary

April 3 marks the fifth anniversary of Human Right at Sea. The past five years have seen steady development of the organization from the genesis of an idea in early 2013, to a public promotion of the platform concept at the first London International Shipping Week in September 2013, to an initiative launched on April 3, 2014 resulting in an independent charity that now helps to drive the narrative concerning human rights protections at sea.

We have worked from Year One – Year Two on “Establishing the Standard” to “Raising the Bar” in Years Three and Four, to deliver the current professional independent platform for driving global awareness on human rights abuses at sea.

Through education, advocacy, research and lobbying, Human Rights at Sea has, and continues to advocate for effective human rights protections, while constantly challenging and recording abuses at sea through investigations and resultant publications.

With over 20 case studies reporting on human rights abuses and over 30 publications in the wider field of human rights protection at sea, these four words “human rights at sea” are now increasingly part of the global maritime lexicon. This is a far cry from the position in 2013 when such explicit subject matter profile and online platform did not exist internationally.

With the generous support of our core donors, as well as increasing commercial, State and public support we have been able to carry out our work efficiently and effectively, though increased support will result in greater output.

Our charity looks forward to the next five years of hard work continuing to develop global awareness of our founding principle and core message that: "human rights apply at sea, as they do on land."