Maritime security and people at sea: utilising human security as a framework to bridge the gaps in protection

It is known that people at sea are vulnerable to harsh weather conditions and maritime security threats. Nowadays, case law highlights how maritime security operations that are meant to be a source of security for these people also constitute a source of vulnerability – as such operations may be undertaken in a manner that violates their rights. This issue emanates from the friction between maritime security operations and human rights law linked to the dissonance between international human rights law (IHRL) and the international law of the sea (LOS). Scholars suggest a systemic integration between these two fields of law, alongside other relevant fields of international law, to protect people at sea. The problem is that the existing research does not contemplate the gaps within the law as a stumbling block to protecting people at sea. By utilising the human security framework to guide the doctrinal analysis of IHRL and LOS vis-à-vis maritime security, this thesis finds that people at sea are still rendered vulnerable by gaps in protection resulting from legal uncertainties (including, but not limited to, maritime ‘legal black holes’). For example, legal uncertainties cause de jure rightlessness affecting the protection of migrants visible in the Mediterranean Sea and de facto non-enforcement affecting the protection of civilians within the Gulf of Guinea. These issues are genuine conflicts within international law that a traditional conflict avoidance technique cannot remedy. This thesis proposes the novel perspective of human security as a framework relevant to maritime security and international law that can strengthen the protection of people at sea. It argues that the tenet of human security allows it to function as a bridge over the maritime legal black holes, as it unifies traditionally set apart laws (IHRL and LOS), policies, governments, organisations, civil society groups, etc. By examining the potential and limits of the human security approach to deal with identified gaps in protection, this thesis concludes that the core benefit of the human security framework to maritime security and international law is that it promotes a coherent people-centric interpretation and application of state-centric concepts, policies, and laws towards the goal of protecting people at sea