Sustainable fisheries, including through the 1995 Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of
the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the Conservation
and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, and related instruments
A/RES/68/71
67. Welcomes the ongoing work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of
the United Nations on the development of best-practice guidelines for catch
documentation schemes and traceability, in accordance with its agreed terms of
reference and framework principles;
68. Calls upon States to initiate, as soon as possible, work within the Food
and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on the elaboration, in
accordance with international law, including the agreements established under the
World Trade Organization, of guidelines and other relevant criteria relating to catch
documentation schemes, including possible formats;
69. Encourages information-sharing regarding emerging market- and traderelated measures by States and other relevant actors with appropriate international
forums, given the potential implications of these measures for all States, consistent
with the established plan of work of the Committee on Fisheries, and taking into
account the Technical Guidelines for Responsible Fish Trade of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations;
70. Acknowledges the development of participatory surveillance activities at
sea involving fishing communities in West Africa as a cost-effective way of
detecting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing;
71. Notes the concern expressed by the Committee on Fisheries at the
proliferation of private standards and ecolabelling schemes potentially leading to the
creation of trade barriers and restrictions, and also notes the work by the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to develop an evaluation framework
to assess the conformity of public and private ecolabelling schemes through the
Guidelines for the Ecolabelling of Fish and Fishery Products from Marine Capture
Fisheries;
72. Also notes the concerns about possible connections between transnational
organized crime and illegal fishing in certain regions of the world, and encourages
States, including through the appropriate international forums and organizations, to
study the causes and methods of and contributing factors to illegal fishing to
increase knowledge and understanding of those possible connections, and to make
the findings publicly available, and in this regard takes note of the study issued by
the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime on transnational organized crime in
the fishing industry, bearing in mind the distinct legal regimes and remedies under
international law applicable to illegal fishing and transnational organized crime;
V
Monitoring, control and surveillance
and compliance and enforcement
73. Calls upon States, in accordance with international law, to strengthen
implementation of or, where they do not exist, adopt comprehensive monitoring,
control and surveillance measures and compliance and enforcement schemes
individually and within those regional fisheries management organizations or
arrangements in which they participate, in order to provide an appropriate
framework for promoting compliance with agreed conservation and management
measures, and further urges enhanced coordination among all relevant States and
regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements in these efforts;
74. Encourages further work by competent international organizations,
including the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and
subregional and regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements, to
develop guidelines on flag State control of fishing vessels;
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