Human Rights and the Oceans
Since March 2026, each issue of DTP’s eNews has featured a contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans in the Asia Pacific region. The series highlights reports, statements and articles on issues from deep-sea mining and ocean governance to illegal fishing and the rights of seafarers.
All contributions to the series are collected below, with the most recent first.
In the next contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans, the Pacific Network on Globalisation released a report warning that Pacific governments face growing exposure to Investor-State Dispute Settlement Claims from extractive companies over deep-sea mining decisions. The report calls for regional mechanisms to shield Pacific states from being sued for hundreds of millions of dollars over sovereign policy choices.
The next contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans concerns a pastoral statement from the Episcopal Conference of the Pacific issued on 10 August 2026, which warned that imminent deep-sea mining leases across the Pacific seabed risk irreversible harm given how little is understood about the deep ocean, and called for caution in the interest of Pacific peoples and future generations.
Continuing our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans in the Asia Pacific region is the Third World Ocean Assessment, released by the United Nations on World Oceans Day. The assessment highlights the threat posed by microplastics, climate change and rising sea levels, and emphasises the importance of including Indigenous forms of knowledge in ocean governance and stronger inter-state collaboration to protect the ocean.
This contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on seas and oceans addresses illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and the need for the Indonesian government to act. Writing for Fair Observer, Gilar Budi Pratama sets out how unregulated fishing depletes fish stocks and damages marine ecosystems, and also undermines the food security and livelihoods of the coastal and island communities that depend on them.
This contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on seas and oceans comes from The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition. It reports that a growing coalition of stakeholders is calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining ahead of the Council of the International Seabed Authority meeting in July 2026. The Council’s previous meeting in March failed to adopt a finalised code on mining.
The next contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans is the advisory opinion of the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) delivered in May 2024. Responding to a request from the Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law, the Tribunal found that greenhouse gas emissions absorbed by the ocean amount to marine pollution under the Convention on the Law of the Sea, and that states are under a strict duty to prevent, reduce and control it in order to protect and preserve the marine environment.
The next contribution to our series on the human rights impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans links to a blog entry, “Is Deep-Seabed Mining Compatible with the Human Right to a Healthy Environment?” This is a response to advisory opinions on climate change from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on Climate Change, the International Court of Justice, and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights. The authors point to the tendency to treat human rights as a peripheral issue, whereas the AOs should be intrinsically linked to the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment.
The next contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans is a statement from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources on the impacts of deep-sea mining on human rights. It encourages the International Seabed Authority to adopt policies on the rights to a clean, healthy, and sustainable environment, the right to benefit from scientific progress, and Indigenous rights, including the protection of cultural heritage.
“The edge of war: Why efforts to end the Middle East conflict must include seafarer protection” from the Institute for Human Rights and Business is the latest in our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans. While its main focus is on the rights of some 20,000 seafarers caught in the Gulf conflict, it’s relevant to the human rights of all seafarers.
In the next contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans in the Asia Pacific region, we provide a link to a statement from the International Union for Conservation of Nature. It includes the warning that deep sea mining could negatively impact the rights to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, the rights to benefit from scientific progress, and Indigenous rights, including protection of cultural heritage.
The next contribution to our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans in the Asia Pacific region is a report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the human right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment. In her report, “Ocean and Human Rights”, Astrid Puentes Riaño lists eight main challenges for the ocean and human rights, including weak governance and deep-sea mining risks.
Continuing our series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans in the Asia Pacific region, we provide a link to a statement by UN experts, “Ocean governance must be grounded in international law”. In this document the experts urge States to ensure that any new regulations governing the deep seabed, including a code on mining, are firmly grounded in international law, including international human rights law.
In this issue we begin a new series on the human rights and environmental impacts of corporate and government practices on the seas and oceans in the Asia Pacific region. In the first in the series, we link to an article “Deep-Sea Danger: How The Metals Company Threatens Indigenous and Coastal Communities in Asia and the Pacific” by Prabindra Shakya and Johnson Jament for the Cultural Survival web site. In it they document how Indigenous Peoples’ rights over their customary marine use areas and resources, as well as the coastal waters and the ocean, remain unrecognized and not respected.