Group photo of participants – Liberia Reviews Draft FCWC Protocol on Fisheries Decent Work
The Fisheries Committee for the West Central Gulf of Guinea (FCWC) in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and Liberia’s National Fisheries and Aquaculture Authority (NaFAA) held in a two-day national consultation workshop on 1 – 2 August 2024 at the Corina Hotel in Monrovia, Liberia.
The workshop the fifth in the series of national consultation workshops in the FCWC region organized to review the draft Protocol to Address Labour Standards for Crew and the Elimination of Forced Labour on Fishing Vessels in the FCWC region.
Under the FCWC-ILO 2022 MOU, the draft protocol was developed as an addition to the Convention for the Establishment of the FCWC, to more comprehensively expand the FCWC’s mandate to address decent work deficits in the region. The protocol requires input from stakeholders at the national level for each FCWC Member State, following which a consolidated version will be produced and submitted for adoption by the FCWC Conference of Ministers.
ILO Ghana National Project Coordinator, Mr Emmanuel Kwame Mensah delivered a presentation on the 8.7 Accelerator Lab project, as preparatory steps to share the core ideas (fundamental principles and rights at work (FPRW), the provisions of Convention 188 (C188), and forced labour indicators) necessary for a fruitful review of the draft protocol.
Through a series of breakout sessions, two groups separately reviewed the articles of the draft Protocol, noting key aspects for editing and revision to effectively address Liberia’s national context. Participants in the meeting included representatives of FCWC, ILO, NaFAA, House of Representatives (HOR), Ministry of Defense (MOD), Ministry of Justice (MOJ), Ministry of Labor (MOL), Ministry of Gender, Children and Social Protection (MGCSP), Liberia Maritime Authority (LIMA), Liberia Coast Guard (LCG), Liberia Artisanal Fishermen Association (LAFA), Collaborative Management Associations (CMA), and the United Seamen Ports & General Workers Union of Liberia (USPOGUL).
The meeting concluded with the collation of inputs from of the review of the draft protocol, the successful correction and update of the national assessment questionnaire, and the nomination of three national focal points for the regional working group on labour standards in the FCWC region.
