REVIEW article
Front. Mar. Sci.
Sec. Marine Affairs and Policy
Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmars.2025.1657709
Myth and Reality on Human Rights at Sea in the Era of Globalisation
Provisionally accepted
- 1Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China
- 2Jimei University, Xiamen, China
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The twenty-first-century maritime sector, shaped by globalization, technological advances, and economic shifts, faces persistent gaps in safeguarding seafarers' rights. Despite international efforts like the ILO's Maritime Labour Convention 2006, their effectiveness is undermined by the industry's polycentric governance, weak compliance mechanisms, and the isolated nature of seafaring profession. Through a review of regulatory gaps and case studies, it demonstrates how current standards fall short in practice, arguing that their decentralized structure and weak implementation fail to address systemic risks. This study proposes supplementary measures to strengthen accountability and compliance, emphasizing the need for coordinated action to protect seafarers in an increasingly deregulated industry.
Keywords: Seafarer, International labour standard, maritime governance, Maritime Labour Convention, Globalization
Received: 01 Jul 2025; Accepted: 02 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Cui, Xingguo and Zhang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
CAO Xingguo, Dalian Maritime University, Dalian, China
Pengfei Zhang, Jimei University, Xiamen, China
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