September 2021
MUSINGS OF A MARITIME ADVOCATE Amsha Gengan, Advocate - High Court of South Africa Amsha Gengan is currently a practicing advocate in Johannesburg at the Pan African Bar Association of South Africa (PABASA). She completed her BA, LL.B and LL.M degrees at the University of Natal, Durban. She has experience as a legal and compliance executive both within South Africa and across 16 jurisdictions in the African continent and the Indian Ocean Islands. I am the 4th generation product of indentured labourers who set sail from the Port of Madras in 1861 to Port Natal, South Africa. I live in a country which is regarded across the world as a beacon for human rights, its history dominated and intertwined with the legacies of two of the world's most impressive statesmen, Mahatma Gandhi and Nelson Mandela. It is in taking inspiration from this personal history that I write on the interface between Maritime Law and Human Rights.
intended to create and increase global awareness of abuse of human rights at sea and to drive a focused international effort to end it.
Shipping’s diversified persona provides the perfect ground for human rights abuses. This combined with illegal migration, human trafficking and unsafe working conditions in ship recycling facilities has led to the spotlight on the industry.
The definition of abandonment may vary depending on the laws of the flag state and most importantly the laws of the port state. It most commonly refers to where seafarers have not been paid for two months, or when the shipowners fail to cover the cost of repatriation. In extreme circumstances it results in the vessel and seafarers being abandoned in a foreign port without fuel, supplies and remuneration.
These abuses contrast the honour-based maritime tradition that all mariners have a duty to save the lives of others in peril without expectation of reward. The Geneva Declaration on human rights at sea, released in March 2019 is a ‘soft law’
Issue 3
The welfare of seafarers has long been a contentious subject. The Covid-19 pandemic has catapulted “abandonment” in particular onto the world stage. The Neptune Declaration, the industry response to the crew change crisis seen during lockdowns, highlights seafarers as keyworkers.
The International Labour Organisation and the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) have recorded nearly 7000 seafarers
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