Responsible Shipping from Shipyard to Scrapyard - Singapore Roundtable

Following a successful inaugural roundtable on Human Rights in the Shipping Sector in London in May 2019, IHRB, along with the Danish Institute for Human Rights, Anglo American, Maersk, and the Rafto Foundation are co-hosting a roundtable of maritime industry experts in Singapore to discuss human rights risks, responsibilities and good practice from the commissioning and financing of a ship right through its lifecycle to its dismantling.

To date there has been little attention within the shipping industry on human rights risks and operational responsibilities. Globally, the maritime industry tends to look at sustainability and the global development goals (SDGs) from a predominantly environmental perspective. However, from the workers in the shipyards to the seafarers across the globe and those who dismantle ships on the beaches of South Asia, the risks of exploitation and harm are manifest and also raise significant risk to the business. From business customers to ship operators and owners, is there sufficient due diligence being undertaken to assess and minimise the risks of harm to maritime workers? Is there a need for a wider application of the frameworks that already exist including the Maritime Labour Convention, UNGPs or OECD Guidelines, that stretches across the entire lifecycle? And what guidance, tools and benchmarks are needed for the industry actors to operationalise human rights due diligence? We will frame discussions around a new framework, The Ship’s Lifecycle: Human Rights from Shipyard to Scrapyard to address risks and responsibilities by all actors.

Discussing risks, responsibilities, good practice, and gaps, you will hear from:

• investors in the industry, whose leverage starts at the shipyard;
• leading shipping companies, about how to drive progress and greater focus on human rights within the industry;
• business customers, about how to effectively extend measures to tackle forced labour from Tier 1 suppliers to transport and logistics;
• civil society organisations, who seek to give voice to the human cost of a globally competitive industry with falling margins.

This event is free to attend, but spaces are strictly limited. If you fall into one of the above categories and would like to join, please email events@ihrb.org.