The Blue Justice Forum, facilitated by the UNDP’s Blue Resilience project in conjunction with the Blue Justice Initiative’s Secretariat, was launched on 27 August 2020 by a highly informative webinar entitled ‘How do the UN Sustainable Development Goals address and help to tackle organized crime in the fisheries sector?’
Julia Kercher, Senior Expert on Governance and Peacekeeping (SDG 16) at the Oslo Governance Centre, presented on the topic followed by a Q&A session.
Attended by 36 participants from a total of 10 countries and IGOs, the webinar highlighted the imperative of cross-sectoral institutional cooperation in addressing organized crime in the fisheries sector.
In sum, the presentation underscored that:
- The 2030 Agenda recognizes that Planet, People, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership cannot be tackled separately.
- Organized crime in the fisheries sector is a major impediment to the pursuit of several core SDGs.
- SDG 16 ‘Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions’ is key to addressing organized crime in fisheries due to its targets and as an enabler of realizing other SDGs, including SDG 14 ‘Life Below Water’.
- The 2030 Agenda calls for policy coherence and the UNDP’s Blue Resilience project aims to strengthen interagency policy cooperation to tackle organized crime in fisheries.
The next webinar will be on 3 September at 11 CET, hosted by the Indonesia Ocean Justice Initiative. Information and registration here.