Human Rights in the Salmon Farming Industry

Norway is the second-largest seafood exporter in the world. While some attention has been paid to environmental impacts of the salmon-farming industry, as well as some social- and governance related issues, not enough attention has been paid to human rights. In light of discussions regarding the development of mandatory human rights due diligence legislation for Norwegian companies in general, there is growing momentum to put human rights higher on the agenda, for the Norwegian salmon farming industry in particular.

In December 2019, the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) and Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB) gathered more than 25 stakeholders, including companies from the salmon farming and aquaculture feed industries and financial organisations, to discuss this topic in Bergen. (This work forms part of IHRB, DIHR and Rafto's wider initiative on shipping, and the ship lifecycle, including roundtables held in London and Singapore in 2019.)

Key findings, highlighted in the meeting report, include:

• The industry is increasingly transparent about the human rights issues and challenges, but lacks access to practical tailored tools and resources.
• Companies in the industry rely on audits to assess impacts, which are not always sufficient.
• Human rights and labour rights issues are also prevalent in global north countries such as Norway, USA and Canada, and should be more proactively addressed in these contexts.
• Financiers have an important role to play in pushing the industry to act more responsibly.

Photo credit: Unsplash/Alex Antoniadis