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A three-week competency-based International Fisheries Law Training Course is ongoing at the IMO International Maritime Law Institute (IMLI), Malta.

This first edition of the Course, jointly developed by the FAO and IMLI, hosts officials of national administrations responsible for fisheries governance, fisheries monitoring, control and surveillance, and law enforcement from Ghana, Indonesia, Namibia, and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines.

The objectives of the course are fourfold: (i) increasing participants’ knowledge of the international legal framework for fisheries governance, including the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; (ii) raising participants’ awareness of the rights and responsibilities in international fisheries law of coastal, flag, port, and market States; (iii) enhancing participants’ understanding of national fisheries law and emerging issues; (iv) improving national administrations’ capacities on how to enforce against violations of fisheries laws.

The Course consists of a highly engaging mix of lectures covering, among others, subjects such as the law of the sea, international fisheries law, fisheries management, fisheries monitoring, control and surveillance, relationship between international and national law; interactive learning exercises, including simulated court proceedings, and; field visits, exposing participants to best practices in fisheries’ monitoring, control and surveillance. The Course is being delivered by the Faculty of IMLI and FAO officials, with contributions from, among others, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

The Course has been developed and is being delivered within the framework of FAO's global capacity development programme to support the implementation of the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures, in particular through funding provided by the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad) and the Swedish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.