The opening conference of the BlueRights COST Action
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The opening conference of the BlueRights COST Action
The opening conference of the hashtagBlueRights COST Action ‘life, liberty, and health at sea’ took place on Friday 24 January 2025 in London. Anna Petrig (University of Basel) and Irini Papanicolopulu (SOAS University of London) co-organised the event with Dr Jean-Pierre Gauci (FRSA) (BIICL (British Institute of International and Comparative Law)).
At the conference, the hashtagBlueRights COST Association – European Cooperation in Science and Technology Action was introduced and there were substantive presentations in three panels and a stakeholder roundtable.
Panel 1 on the right to hashtaglife was chaired by Sir Malcolm Evans, and Richard Barnes, Jacques Hartmann, Ainhoa Campàs Velasco contributed by presenting on the practice and theory of the law at sea, the right to life at sea, and search and rescue obligations.
Panel 2 on the right to hashtagliberty was chaired by Anna Petrig, with presentations by Laura Carballo Piñeiro, Efthymios Papastavridis and Daphne Guelker on forced labour and arrest and detention.
Panel 3 of the hashtagBlueRights conference on the right to hashtaghealth was chaired by Dr Jean-Pierre Gauci (FRSA). There were presentations by Sofia Galani, Arron N. Honniball, Senka Šekularac-Ivošević, Momoko Kitada and Patricia Kennedy on, amongst others, the right to health in crises and conflict, mental health, especially focusing on seafarers.
Finally, the stakeholder roundtable was chaired by Irini Papanicolopulu. Gabriele Goettsche-Wanli (formerly UN DOALOS), Pierandrea Leucci (EU Commission DG MARE), Neil Henderson (Gard), Eve de Coning (Blue Justice), and David Hammond AFNI Hammond (Human Rights at Sea (HRAS)) provided more overarching regional (i.e. European) and global perspectives, as well as thoughts on specific initiatives, such as the Blue Justice Initiative, and the work of the HRAS charity.
We thank all participants who joined in-person and online, and of course all speakers and chairs. Thanks are also due to the COST Action – specifically to the Science Officer, Rossella Magli, who attended the event, and to all persons (sometimes behind the scenes) who made this event possible: Andrea Longo, Matilde Rocca, Amanda D. Brown, Nic McQuillan and Rebecca Caposiena.