EU launches project to investigate human rights at sea

The European Union is investing in growing protections for persons at sea with the newly established BlueRights project. 

The study investigates how the most fundamental universal human rights – the right to life, liberty and health can also be granted to people at sea, and what states and other actors must do to achieve this goal.

The project will run for four years and will bring together academics and practitioners working at the interface of the law of the sea and human rights. At the time of application, the network comprised 73 people from 38 different countries working for universities, international organisations, public authorities and NGOs.

“While the oceans are attracting growing attention, people at sea still receive little consideration by stakeholders, scholars and the public at large. The frequent violations of their most basic human rights, which safeguard their life, liberty and health, often go unseen and unpunished,” the backers of the project in introducing the study, warning that death, slavery, unlawful arrest and other human rights violations result in the practical negation of the universality of human rights – the idea that all persons are equally entitled to human rights – advocated by the European Union and the United Nations. 

The action aims to assess, from a legal perspective, how human rights can be enjoyed also by people at sea and by all people at sea. It will answer two fundamental questions: What is the content and scope of the rights to life, liberty and health when applied at sea and who is responsible for protecting them and how?