This guide will focus on raising the standard of living and enjoyment of human rights of informal small-scale fishers and fishworkers as well as their communities (including Indigenous Peoples).
The guide will aim at raising awareness about human rights (and duties), about violence arid corruption, about access to education, justice, etc., and about various government ministries and departments responsible for the realization, protection and promotion of human rights (at the level of individuals, men and women, citizens, non-citizens, communities, Indigenous Peoples, collectives and as migrants). It will highlight how the fisheries department, for example, could act as midwife on behalf of the vulnerable and marginalized in small-scale fisheries (both marine and inland) in particular.
The guide, in this context, will highlight the role of national human rights commissions (NHRCs), the OHCHR Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, and the Universal periodic review in protecting the human rights of fishing communities. The target audience will align with that outlined in paragraph 2.3 of the SSF Guidelines.
The guide will then go into the pillars of decent work-rights at work; employment; social protection; and social dialogue as elucidated by ILO-and will provide guidance on strengthening these pillars, especially in the informal marine and inland fisheries sector as fishers and fishworkers-both men and women. This will be mainly based on ILO’s work in the informal economy (see, for example, Decent Work and the Informal Economy Report VI, International Labour Conference 2002).