Accountability.fish blasts “unprecedented” Chinese proposal at Indian Ocean Tuna Commission

Calling a move to curtail stakeholder participation at a meeting on 13 May 2024 of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) an “unprecedented and unnecessary infringement on the right of stakeholders to submit data and have it be openly considered”, accountable marine governance advocates Accountability.Fish has called on Commission parties to reject the proposal.

The move, in the form of a resolution amendment proposed by China, aims to demand that the right to make submissions of data to the IOTC be limited to official observers. It was proposed in response to submissions by the Environmental Justice Foundation incorporating evidence of vessels’ participation in illegal fishing in waters in IOTC’s jurisdiction.

The IOTC meeting continues through Friday, May 17.

“The fact that an organization is not an official observer should have no bearing on whether IOTC members can take this incriminating evidence into their deliberations. This resolution is an unnecessary infringement on the right of stakeholders – from civil society and elsewhere – to submit relevant data. Allowing this to move forward would be another setback to the principle of equal access to the RFMO decision-making processes, one that could well be copied by other RFMOs if allowed to pass here,” said Ryan Orgera, Accountability.Fish Global Director.

Accountability.Fish (www.accountability.fish) is a global NGO focused on improving transparency and accountability in the global Regional Fisheries Management Organization system and is promoting a set of Equal Access Principles (www.principles.fish) as standards for open participation for the RFMO system to adopt.