Draft New IMO Guidelines on the Fair Treatment of Seafarers – an international human rights law perspective

The Legal Committee of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) has recently produced a draft version of proposed new Guidelines for the Fair Treatment of Seafarers suspected of criminal offences. 

The guidelines are a response to the phenomenon whereby seafarers are arrested under coastal states’ criminal powers, and sometimes detained aboard vessels for long periods in challenging conditions, when they have individually done nothing wrong. 

Authoritative industry voices have denounced seafarers being ‘held hostage’ or being used as ‘bargaining chips or political playthings’ amid higher-level disputes with shipowners or other states. See this case of Alex Tinsley's as an illustrative example.

The objective of the guidelines is to achieve the swift release and repatriation of those whose detention is unnecessary and abusive, and for any legitimate criminal charges to be brought expeditiously and fairly.

Ahead of the draft new guidelines being considered by the Joint Tripartite Working Group of the IMO and International Labour Organization in November 2024, Alex Tinsley has produced a paper considering the draft from an international human rights law perspective.

With due deference to the expertise of maritime stakeholders, a set of issues is raised which it is suggested the Joint Tripartite Working Group should consider. These include the issue of jurisdiction in the law of the sea and in human rights law, and certain missing human rights standards.

The paper also includes a short exploration of some of the procedural avenues to complain of rights violations within the existing IHRL frameworks (at UN or regional level), in the current absence of specific mechanisms for recourse within the IMO.

The paper can be accessed below.