From 10 – 11 October 2016 the annual Fisheries Crime Symposium was successfully held in Indonesia, and was co-organized by the Government of Indonesia, the Norwegian Ministry of Trade, Industry, and Fisheries, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), and the PescaDOLUS Network at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University.
Recommendations
of the 2nd International Symposium on Fisheries Crime
To instigate, conduct and facilitate investigation of fisheries crime by relevant law enforcement agencies within appropriate national jurisdictions along the entire fisheries supply and value chains.
To use the broader range of laws in which investigations of fisheries crime throughout supply and value chains can, in addition to fisheries legislation, utilize criminal codes and penal provisions in tax legislation, labour laws, organized crime laws and the law criminalizing document fraud, money laundering and corruption. States are also encouraged to fully utilize the FAO Port State Measures Agreement, RFMOs rules and regulations, the United Nations Convention on Transnational Organized Crime and its protocols and United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and relevant ILO conventions. States should be encouraged to criminalize appropriate offences committed along the entire fisheries supply and value chains.
To facilitate cooperation between relevant domestic authorities. Inter-agency and multidisciplinary cooperation is useful when conducting investigations along the whole fisheries supply and value chains. Such cooperation should be organized in multiagency teams which include relevant agencies, such as police, fisheries authorities, tax authorities, customs, anti-corruption agencies, labour inspection authorities, coast guard, coastal administration and immigration authorities.
To cooperate across borders between governments and law enforcement agencies, as well as broader inter-agency cooperation at national and international level, is key to conducting successful international criminal investigations that can trigger prosecutions and secure convictions and deterring penalties.
To conduct capacity building which can support countries to significantly improve national law enforcement responses toward all forms of fisheries crimes. It is highlighted that there is a need to recognize the inter-continental flow of illegal fish products, finance and human trafficking victims in transnational organized fisheries crime cases.
To stimulate cross-disciplinary research on transnational organised fisheries crime and to encourage academia and governmental institutions to do so in order to assist governments develop effective strategies and legal frameworks nationally and internationally.
