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
organizations and arrangements, initiated either by the organization or arrangement
itself or with external partners, including in cooperation with the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, using transparent criteria based on
the provisions of the Agreement and other relevant instruments, and taking into
account the best practices of regional fisheries management organizations or
arrangements and, as appropriate, any set of criteria developed by States or other
regional fisheries management organizations or arrangements, and encourages that
such performance reviews include some element of independent evaluation and
propose means for improving the functioning of the regional fisheries management
organization or arrangement, as appropriate;
130. Calls upon States, through their participation in regional fisheries
management organizations and arrangements, to undertake performance reviews of
those regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements on a regular
basis, and to make the results publicly available, to implement the recommendations
of such reviews and to strengthen the comprehensiveness of those reviews over
time, as necessary;
131. Recalls that in “The future we want”, States recognized the need for
transparency and accountability in fisheries management by regional fisheries
management organizations and the efforts already made by those regional fisheries
management organizations that had undertaken independent performance reviews,
called upon all regional fisheries management organizations to regularly undertake
such reviews and make the results publicly available, encouraged implementation of
the recommendations of such reviews and recommended that the comprehensiveness
of those reviews be strengthened over time, as necessary;
132. Urges States to cooperate, taking into account those performance
reviews, to develop best-practice guidelines for regional fisheries management
organizations and arrangements and to apply, to the extent possible, those guidelines
to organizations and arrangements in which they participate;
133. Encourages the development of regional guidelines for States to use in
establishing sanctions for non-compliance by vessels flying their flag and by their
nationals, to be applied in accordance with national law, that are adequate in
severity for effectively securing compliance, deterring further violations and
depriving offenders of the benefits deriving from their illegal activities, as well as in
evaluating their systems of sanctions to ensure that they are effective in securing
compliance and deterring violations;
134. Recognizes the importance of ensuring transparency of reporting of
fishing activities within regional fisheries management organizations and
arrangements in order to facilitate efforts to combat illegal, unreported and
unregulated fishing, as well as the importance of respecting the reporting obligations
within those organizations and arrangements, notes in this regard the measures
adopted by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas 17 and
the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, 18 and encourages other regional fisheries
management organizations and arrangements to consider establishing similar
measures;
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17
18
24/31
International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas, recommendation 11-16.
Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, resolutions 12/07 and 13/07.