Somali Piracy and the Human Rights of Seafarers
| Author | Sofia Galani |
| DOI | 10.1177/016934411603400105 |
| Published date | 01 March 2016 |
| Date | 01 March 2016 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Netherlands Qu arterly of Human Ri ghts, Vol. 34/1, 71–98, 2016.
© Netherlands I nstitute of Human Rig hts (SIM), Printed in the Net herlands. 71
SOMALI PIRACY AND
THEHUMANRIGHTS OF SEAFARERS
S G*
Abstract
Somali piracy has attracted the world’s attention over the last decade and whilst
Somali piracy abates, the debate on its various aspects remains lively. is paper aims
to shed light on one particular aspect of Somali piracy that remains unexplored – the
violations of the human rights of seafarers , and especially those taken hostage. Despite
the su ering of seafarers at the hands of pirates, their protection seems to fall beyond
the human rights framework due to the non-State statu s of pirates. e lack of a human
rights-oriented approach is re ected by signi cant counter-piracy responses, including
the United Nations Security Council Resolutions, criminal responses and the conduct
of naval operations that are reviewed here. e refore, it is suggested that the traditional
negative obligations of States and the evolution of the positive human rights obligation s
of States can o er a legal avenue for the better p rotection of the human rights of seafarers.
Keywords: hostages; huma n rights; non-State actors; piracy; seafarers
1. INTRODUCTION
Piracy has been k nown since antiquity, but it drew the world’s attention over the last
decade when pirate attacks rev ived o the c oasts o f Somal ia.1 e h igh rates of Somali
pirate incidents produced various responses from the international community.
Coordinated counter-piracy e orts yielded signi cant results and over the last year
Somalia-based attacks dropped to their lowest level in six years, with only nine
* So a Galani is a L ecturer in Law at the University of Bristol Law School. I am indebted to my
supervisor, Profes sor Sir Malcolm Evans , for his comments on earlier vers ions of this paper.
1 e term pir acy will be broadl y used in this paper to encomp ass piracy and arme d robbery. Piracy
is de ned in Article 101 of the 1982 UNCLOS. Armed robbery is de ned by the International
Maritime Organisation (IMO) in its Resolution A.1025 (26) (2009) Art2 (2.2) ‘Code of Practice
for the investigat ion of crimes of piracy and a rmed robbery again st ships’. For the re-emergence of
Somali piracy see Andrew Palmer, e New Pirate s: Modern Global P iracy from Somalia t o the South
China Sea (IB Tauris 2014) 123–124.
So a Galani
72 Intersentia
recorded pirate attacks.2 Arg uably, the international community did not only commit
to put an end to the ‘evils’ of pirac y, but also demonstrated its com mitment to achieve
this goal without sacri cing huma n rights. erefore, human rights law seems to have
played a crucial role in how counter-piracy responses have been shaped and States
seem to have acknowledged their human r ights obligations towards pirates.
Nevertheless, th is paper is neither aimed at assessing the e ectiveness of counter-
piracy e orts per se nor their compliance with the human rights obligations of
States to pirates. e aim of this paper is to examine counter-piracy responses from
the perspective of the victim. More speci cally, this paper aims to shed light on a
piracy-related problem that has not gained the attention it deserves – the violation
of the human rights of seafarers, and especially those who have been taken hostage.
Although there has been no successful hijacking over the last year, as of July 2015,
there were still 26 seafarers in captivity for more than two years.3 e development
of Somali piracy into a business model generating pro ts through ransom has made
pirates daring a nd violent.4 Som al i p ir ate s do no t he sit at e to emp loy le tha l f orc e d ur ing
their attacks or in ict severe pain on seafarers w ith a view to extracti ng their ransom.
is means that seafarers, and particularly those taken hostage, su er a signi cant
risk of human rights v iolations, such as threats against thei r life, ill-treatment, illegal
detention and breach of their privacy. Seafarers in other regions around the world
a ected by piracy are also confronted with the same risks. While the focus of this
paper is on Somali piracy, it should be noted that the ‘ kidnap and ransom’ model of
piracy has been steadily employed by pirates around the world and this makes the
analy sis of this a rticle rele vant to the prote ction of huma n rights of se afarers at tacked
and held hostage in other regions .5
While there have been some regional so law instruments, namely the Djibouti
Code of Conduct and the Declaration Condemning the Acts of Violence against
Seafarers, which pay due attention to the su ering of seafarers attacked and held
2 ICC-IMB, ‘Piracy and Armed Robber y against Ships: 1 January- 30 September 2014’
ABRDGED.p df> accesse d 11October 2015. Ocean s Beyond Pirac y (OBP) reported 142 incidents of
pirate activ ity in the Western Indian O cean Region, ‘ e State of Mar itime Piracy 2014’ (2015) 27
accessed 11October 2015. e low numbers of pirate attacks h ave been challenged on the grou nd
of inaccurate re porting. See Jon Huggins a nd Liza Kane-Harnett, ‘ Somali Piracy – Are we at the
End Game?’ (2013) OBP 2–3 acy.org/sites/default/ les/attachments/ Jon%20
Cleveland%20Document%20_ nal.pdf> acces sed 11October 2015.
3 UNODC, ‘Marit ime Crime Progra mme’ (2014) 28; OBP (2015), ibid, 29.
4 For a full ana lysis of the functioning of Somali piracy as a business model, see World Bank (a),
‘Pirate Trails: Track ing the Illicit Financial Flows from Pirate Activ ities o the Horn of Africa’
(2013) 37–75 and World Bank (b), ‘ e Pirates of Soma lia: Ending the reat, Rebui lding a Nation’
(2013) 108 –110.
5 OBP, ‘ e State of Maritime Piracy 2013’ (2014) 68 / les/
attachments/SoP2013-Digital.pdf> accessed 11October 2015; OBP, ‘Human Cost of Maritime
Piracy 2012’ (2013) 13 les/attachments/View%20Full%20
Report.pdf > ac cessed 11October 2015.
To continue reading
Request your trial