Regional dialogue focuses on Human rights, gender and social inclusion in Pacific Tuna fisheries

About 27,000 Pacific Islanders are employed in the tuna fisheries sector.

This very important industry however, is unfortunately highly gender-segregated - with the harvest sector being dominated by men while women are predominately employed as line workers in the processing sector - and known for the poor working conditions, challenges faced by migrant fishers, ambiguous recruitment processes and gender-blind workplaces. Moreover, the fishing industry in general is a major cause of plastic released into the ocean (lost nets and fishing gears).

At ISLANDS, we are adopting a gender transformative approach aiming to change the gender dynamics in the regions we work in. Hence, I am happy to see that a regional dialogue has started in Fiji, to prepare the tuna fisheries sector to better address the human rights, gender and social inclusion issues in the Pacific region by using a human rights-based approach. Indeed, it is something that I think it should be done for other sectors too.