Press Release
Immediate
Human Rights at Sea is pleased to announce the appointment of a new Trustee to the Charity, Professor Steven Haines, and to announce the retirement of Mr. Jens Dieckmann.
Steven Haines is Professor of Public International Law in the University of Greenwich and a Research Associate of the Centre for Rising Powers in the University of Cambridge. His research today is increasingly focusing on Ocean Governance and the maintenance of the rule of law at sea. Prior to taking up his current post in Greenwich, he was for four years on the Management Board of the Geneva Centre for Security Policy and latterly both an Adjunct Faculty member of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and a Visiting Professor in Security Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH) in Zurich. Before moving to Geneva in 2008, he had been the founding Head of the Department of Politics and International Relations at Royal Holloway College, University of London.
From 1971 to 2003, he was an officer in the Royal Navy. He served at sea in a variety of surface warships, including deployments to the Far East, the Indian and South Atlantic oceans, the Caribbean, and the Mediterranean, as well as in North Atlantic waters. Operationally, his experience included UN economic embargo operations, coastal security and maritime counter-terrorism operations and three years enforcing fisheries law as a British Sea Fisheries Officer. His final operational deployments, in 2001, were to NATO’s KFOR in Pristina, Kosovo and to the UK Joint Task Force HQ in Freetown, Sierra Leone. He served for a total of eight years in the Ministry of Defence (the Naval Staff and the Central Policy Staff), before taking early retirement in 2003. He was the author of the Royal Navy’s maritime strategic doctrine and was Chairman of the Editorial Board of the UK’s official Manual of the Law of Armed Conflict.
Professor Haines is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA) and was elected a Fellow of the Nautical Institute (FNI) in 1995.
Professor Haines said: “I am delighted and feel greatly privileged to be joining the other Trustees of Human Rights at Sea, a truly vital new civil society organisation working to ensure the human rights of all who find themselves coping with the challenges of life on the world’s oceans. It is already proving its worth in raising awareness of threats to human rights in the 70% of the Earth’s surface not incorporated in the territory of states. It is especially important that the human rights of seafarers are monitored and protected and not simply forgotten. States are clearly not doing anything like enough to ensure the employment rights of seafarers, the protection of the vulnerable men, women and children who find themselves at the mercy of people smugglers and traffickers, and the freedom of those trapped in slavery onboard vessels engaged in illegal fishing and other criminal activities. Human Rights at Sea is working to fill this glaring vacuum in the promotion of the rule of law at sea. There is much work to be done and I look forward to becoming involved in this significant initiative.”
Human Rights at Sea CEO, David Hammond, said: “The Trustees and I are delighted to welcome Professor Haines to the Board of Trustees having stepped up from the Advisory Board. He is no stranger to the maritime world, having served at sea before pursuing a rigourous and demanding academic career. His CV speaks for itself and I have no doubt that he will add significiant energy and experience to the Charity as it further evolves.”
Retiring
Retiring from the Board of Trustees is Mr. Jens Dieckmann who has proved significant input for the establishment of the Charity from its earliest stages. He has been a firm supporter of the work undertaken by the Charity from its start in April 2013 and he has undertaken extraordinary efforts to raise the Charity’s profile in Germany and Europe.
Mr. Dieckmann said: “”I am proud and honoured that I was part of Human Rights at Sea from the very beginning and that could contribute to its foundation. There are so many global challenges ahead. I wish HRAS, its founder David Hammond, the Trustees and the worldwide supporters all the very best on this journey.”
Human Rights at Sea CEO, David Hammond, said: “I am very grateful to Jens for his hard work, dedication and professionalism in the establishment of Human Rights at Sea. His counsel has often been needed and has always been always provided without hesitation. I wish him well with his international practice in Bonn and with the ICC.”