London. UK. HRAS Commentary. Early last week, the Office of Dunja Mijatović, the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights, published 'A distress call for human rights', a comprehensive follow-up to the 2019 recommendations drafted in 'Lives saved. Rights protected. Bridging the protection gap for refugees and migrants in the Mediterranean'. Human Rights at Sea has reviewed and today, highlights its recommendations in support.
the Administrative Court in Palermo preliminarily suspended the detention of the Sea-Watch 4 pending the decision of the Court of Justice of the European Union on the general legality of the application of the European Directive on Port State Control to humanitarian vessels.
the UN Human Rights Committee (HRC), the treaty body responsible for the monitoring of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, found Italy in violation of its obligations under the Covenant in particular in violation of the right to life as provided in Article 6 of the ICCPR read alone, and in conjunction with Article 2 (3), in the context of Search and Rescue (SAR) operations of migrants at sea. According to the HRC, Italy delayed and failed to actively provide rescue to 200 migrants on the high seas.
London, UK. Human Rights at Sea is delighted to replicate the following breaking press release from our partners at the civil society search and rescue NGO, SOS MEDITERRRANEE highlighting the decision by the Italian Coastguard to release their SAR vessel, the Ocean Viking.
London. UK. As part of the Shoreline insurance podcast series, Human Rights at Sea along with Control Risks participated in the most recent episode covering the policy and legal issues raised by the recent Maersk Etienne case in the central Mediterranean during August 2020.
Press Release Immediate Thursday 2 July 2020 LONDON.UK. Human Rights at Sea has today signed the Open Letter to the IMO Secretary General Mr Kitack Lim prepared by the civil liberties organisation Statewatch which was delivered on 29 June 2020 signed by hundreds of individuals and organisations. The letter openly calls on the Secretary-General to revoke the Libyan...
"Then the Medkon Lines ship passed close by but didn't stop. Three of us started screaming desperately, then jumped in the water and tried to reach the ship. They drowned in a minute." "They looked at us as if we weren't human beings." London.UK. Human Rights at Sea re-publishes a devastating translated witness-based testimony on the events of the Easter weekend 10-12 April in the Central Mediterranean taken from the Italian Repubblica newspaper. This follows previous reporting by the charity as to the tragic and unacceptable circumstances of the weekend's events.
London. UK. In the days following Easter 2015, more than 1200 migrants and refugees lost their lives in the Central Mediterranean Sea across a handful of incidents spanning just one week. 800 people were reported missing from a single capsized boat, to this day one of the deadliest shipwrecks recorded in Mediterranean history.
Press Release Thursday 20 February 2020 London.UK. The Ocean Viking, a rescue ship operated by SOS MEDITERRANEE in partnership with Medecins sans Frontieres (MSF) is waiting for a port to disembark 274 men, women and children, rescued over three rescue operations in the Central Mediterranean on February 18 and 19, 2020. Among them are 22...
Central Mediterranean. On Sunday evening[22 October 2019], the Ocean Viking, a humanitarian rescue ship chartered by SOS MEDITERRANEE and operated in partnership with Médecins sans Frontières (MSF), received instructions from the Maritime Rescue Coordination Center (MRCC) of Rome to proceed to Messina, Italy, to disembark 182 people rescued at sea.
Press Release 22 July 2019 London, UK. The Norwegian Flag and Norwegian owners have stepped up to provide a new civil society humanitarian rescue vessel the Viking Ocean to be operated in the central Mediterranean reflecting a renewed joint partnership between SOS MEDITERRANEE and Doctors Without Borders (MSF) for the rescue of persons in distress at sea...
Press Release 18th July 2019 Reproduced Article. GENEVA (18 July 2019) – UN human rights experts* have expressed grave concern over the detention and criminal proceedings in Italy against the German captain of the migrant rescue vessel Sea-Watch 3, and stated that the threats to the judge who ruled her release were unlawful. “Rescuing migrants...
OP-ED 5 July 2019 Photo credit: Reuters Geneva, Switzerland. Captain Carola Rackete has now been freed, but the European political controversy continues. The judicial decision delivered a much needed victory for both common-sense and humanitarian acts of rescue at sea, thereby setting a precedent to be reflected on for all vessel Captains and policy makers alike....
Press Release April 23rd 2019 London.UK. Not-for-profit organisation Team Humanity’s founder Salam Aldeen through the representation of the Global Legal Action Network, have decided to take the Greek government to the Strasbourg Court, to held them accountable for the legal ordeal they have put Salam Aldeen and his crew through since 14th January 2016, when...
Press Release 26th February 2019 London. UK. Human Rights at Sea has published a new Briefing Note on the ‘Legal and Policy Matters Arising from the Increased Criminalisation of the Civil Society Search and Rescue Activities in the Mediterranean’. This is the second publication on the issue of the increasing levels of criminalisation of civil society...
