Ocean Governance and the Exclusion of Global South Seafarers

Ocean Governance and the Exclusion of Global South Seafarers
Katie Earnshaw May 19, 2026 https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/ocean-governance-and-the-exclusio...

Global ocean governance rests on an extensive body of international law, institutional frameworks, and technical standards. Instruments such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC), and the regulatory infrastructure of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) are often cited as evidence of a robust governance system. Yet for those who work at sea—particularly seafarers from the Global South—the existence of regulations on paper has too often failed to translate into safety, dignity, and protection in practice.

This gap between regulation and reality is, to a very significant degree, the result of uneven implementation, coupled with weak oversight and enforcement. Beyond this, however, it also reflects deeper inequities in how ocean governance is designed, whose knowledge is prioritised, and who is meaningfully included in decision-making. Equity, in this sense, is not a peripheral concern but central to the very fabric of ocean governance.

A comprehensive understanding of the gap between maritime regulation and real-life implementation is often difficult to achieve, in part because seafarers’ lived experiences are not systematically captured or reflected in governance processes.

The Missing Voice in Ocean Governance

A comprehensive understanding of the gap between maritime regulation and real-life implementation is often difficult to achieve, in part because seafarers’ lived experiences are not systematically captured or reflected in governance processes. Evidence from welfare organisations, trade unions, academic research and incident reporting bodies highlights persistent failures in the implementation of labour protections, safety standards, and welfare provisions at sea. However, these insights remain partial and fragmented, emerging through a patchwork of helplines, voluntary reporting mechanisms, and case-based interventions rather than through consistent, institutionalised systems. As a result, the realities of life at sea are often only visible in moments of crisis. They are rarely aggregated in ways that can meaningfully inform policy and decision-making.
Beyond Weak Enforcement: Exclusion by Design

Many challenges faced by seafarers stem not only from weak enforcement of existing regulations but also from a systemic lack of consultation and inclusion in the design of maritime systems and transitions. Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of human-centred design, seafarers are rarely meaningfully consulted on decisions about vessel design, operational processes, and technological change, even though they are responsible for operating these systems in practice. This exclusion carries tangible safety implications. As the maritime safety charity Confidential Human Factors Incident Reporting Programme (CHIRP) emphasises in its 2025-26 annual digest of accidents and near misses at sea, poor design can lead to operational hazards, as systems designed without seafarer input can meet regulatory or technical standards while proving difficult, unrealistic, or unsafe in practice.

Despite widespread acknowledgement of the importance of human-centred design, seafarers are rarely meaningfully consulted on decisions about vessel design, operational processes, and technological change, even though they are responsible for operating these systems in practice.

This pattern is now evident in maritime decarbonisation. Although the Maritime Just Transition Task Force, a global sectoral initiative established to navigate the transition to green shipping, aims to put seafarers at the heart of maritime decarbonisation, to date, focus has been primarily on the skills and training required for the sector to reach its zero-carbon obligations, while seafarers’ perspectives have often remained less visible in practice. International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN)’s research on the well-being impacts of rapid technological change demonstrates the consequences of this lack of voice. Over half (53.8 percent) of the seafarers who responded to an ISWAN survey reported that the introduction of decarbonisation technologies and regulations had increased workload, whilst 44 percent reported increased stress and just under a third (32.8 percent) said that navigating the complex regulatory requirements that underpin maritime decarbonisation had increased their fear of criminalisation. These findings indicate the consequences and potential risks of introducing major change without adequate consultation or support, highlighting how exclusion undermines both equity and safety.
Exclusion as an Equity Issue for the Global South

While these systemic issues affect seafarers across the maritime industry, their impacts are far from evenly distributed. Despite the growing visibility and influence of major seafarer-supplying nations in key forums such as the IMO, power, decision-making authority and profit remain largely concentrated in a small number of major maritime economies that are distinct from—and largely separate from—the Global South countries that supply the majority of the labour sustaining global shipping.

Most starkly, economic inequity in the maritime sector is entrenched through pay disparities. Beyond wages, imbalances in power frequently translate into heightened vulnerability and exposure to exploitation for Global South seafarers. Whilst the number of people training to become seafarers has declined steeply across much of the Global North, it remains a potential avenue for greater financial security for many in the Global South. ISWAN’s research with Gujarat Maritime University highlights how the desperation of many newly qualified cadets to secure their first contract is fuelling widespread recruitment fraud, with unscrupulous agents leaving young seafarers in debt or working in exploitative and often dangerous conditions aboard unseaworthy vessels. As a result, these seafarers are disproportionately exposed to the most severe forms of labour abuse, including abandonment, which has risen sharply in recent years, reaching record levels globally in 2025.

Economic inequity in the maritime sector is entrenched through pay disparities. Beyond wages, imbalances in power frequently translate into heightened vulnerability and exposure to exploitation for Global South seafarers.

Beyond economics, the location of decision-making power in higher-income nations, often in the Global North, embeds inequity in more subtle ways. Systems, policies and support mechanisms are frequently designed around predominantly Western frameworks of work, well-being, and personhood. This is particularly evident in approaches to mental health, where training and support frameworks may not resonate with how many seafarers from the Global South understand or express distress, leaving seafarers who often find themselves in the most vulnerable situations without access to culturally relevant, effective support. This risks reinforcing exclusion even where support formally exists.

Taken together, these dynamics mean that seafarers from Asia, Africa, and Latin America are more likely to bear the risks created by governance, design, and policy decisions made far from their lived realities. The very architecture of the maritime sector facilitates and reinforces this imbalance: through the widespread use of flags of convenience, ownership, regulation and labour are separated, enabling shipowners to operate across jurisdictions while drawing on lower-cost labour. This structure can, when misused, leave seafarers particularly marginalised and vulnerable when things go wrong. Addressing equity in ocean governance, therefore, requires not only better enforcement but a fundamental shift in whose voices shape the systems that govern life and work at sea.
Rethinking Ocean Governance

If ocean governance is to be both effective and equitable, it must move beyond legal frameworks towards effective implementation and, crucially, meaningful inclusion. This requires recognising seafarers’ lived experience as a form of governance expertise and ensuring these perspectives are systematically incorporated into decision-making, particularly those of Global South seafarers, who form the majority of the workforce yet remain underrepresented.

At present, pathways through which frontline experience informs policy are fragmented, reactive and inconsistent. Strengthening them is essential, including through clearer mechanisms for capturing seafarers’ voices, structured feedback linked to regulators, reporting channels beyond incident data, and recognition of welfare data alongside technical and economic indicators. Crucially, these mechanisms must acknowledge and address inequalities in power, access and representation across the global workforce.

If ocean governance is to be both effective and equitable, it must move beyond legal frameworks towards effective implementation and, crucially, meaningful inclusion.

Addressing inequity also requires incorporating seafarer consultation into system design and transition processes, ensuring changes do not transfer risk onto lower-income regions. Strengthening accountability across fragmented governance structures is critical to ensuring that responsibility is not displaced across jurisdictions. In parallel, developing culturally responsive approaches—particularly in relation to mental health, support frameworks and leadership cultures—is essential to ensure that protections are accessible, effective and embedded in practice across diverse contexts.

Ultimately, the question of who governs the oceans cannot be separated from whose voices shape maritime systems and who bears the risks and consequences when those systems fail. Until seafarers, particularly those from the Global South, are recognised as stakeholders in the design and implementation of ocean governance, the gap between regulation on paper and life at sea will persist.

Equity in ocean governance is therefore not an abstract aspiration or ethical add-on. It is a practical requirement for safer, more resilient and more legitimate systems at sea.

Katie Earnshaw is Policy and Research Adviser at the International Seafarers Welfare and Assistance Network (ISWAN).