Human Rights At Sea

Aadithya Aravindh, Jindal Global Law School

Mihika Ajit Pandit, Jindal Global Law School, University of Arizona

Introduction

Seventy-one (71) percentage of Earth is covered with water. While many countries enjoy sovereign rights over the water bodies surrounding their immediate land territories and while several treaties have been established to deal with the Property Acquisition and Delimitation rights of Sovereign Countries within these various waterbodies, the High Seas and vast portions of the ocean remain uncharted and more importantly non-delimited. This presents the theory of the ‘common heritage of all mankind’ which essentially promotes the aspect that such portions of the ocean are common property to all of mankind and therefore, a single sovereign entity cannot claim maritime rights over the same.

Essentially, this places such areas from outside the ambit of any country’s jurisdiction and therefore, outside the ambit of enforceability of Human Rights Laws. The present paper therefore aims to explore the avenue of Human Rights Law within the ambit of High Seas and Ocean Bodies and the implementation of these laws by various sovereign states.

The Statutory Regulations

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea

With regards to Human Rights at Sea, there are no specified conventions which determine the same and therefore, there is no definitive protocol that a Vessel must follow in compliance of Human Rights. However, though human rights have not been established in a distinctive manner through the sovereign nations, there have been statutory regulations which lay down procedure for determination of jurisdiction which is then countered with the applicability of the specific states’ adjudicating authorities to rule upon the violations meted out on a vessel.

Most importantly, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) is the most noteworthy statute in this regard as it provides for the delimitation of a state’s boundary with regards to the water surrounding the same and furthermore, with regards to the authority a state possesses on any vessel/ship that is located near or within this jurisdiction.