Declaring an International Day for the Fight against IUU Fishing

Abstract

At its thirty-ninth session in 2015, the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean of the FAO (GFCM) proposed that an initiative be launched to declare an International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. Following extensive consultations, a proposal has been submitted to the attention of the thirty-second session of FAO Committee of Fisheries (COFI). This initiative could not be timelier as the world’s first internationally binding instrument specific ally targeting IUU fishing, the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, has entered into force on 5 June 2016. Upon its approval by COFI, the proposal should be submitted to the FAO Council and subsequently to the FAO Conference in July 2017 for endorsement. Once it is adopted as a resolution, the FAO Director-General will approach the UN Secretary-General with a view to declaring an international day at the UN level and including it in the UN calendar of international days and observances.