Small-scale fisheries: on rights, trade and subsidies

Abstract

This paper provides a preliminary exploration of current debates over the nature and interaction of rights within small-scale fisheries, and the connection of these rights with issues of global trade, subsidies and food security. Specifically, the paper highlights linkages between fishing rights and human rights; the applicability of these rights to discussions of fishery markets and trade; and how a focus on rights, together with Millennium Development Goals and food sovereignty initiatives, can inform global trade negotiations and fishery subsidy reform.