Brussels — In a written submission to the
German Government, UN Special Rapporteur Baskut Tuncak has expressed serious
concerns related to the substandard shipbreaking practices of German ship
owners, in particular fatalities and toxic chemical exposure of workers and the
local population. The Special Rapporteur on the implications for human rights
of the environmentally sound management and disposal of hazardous substances
and wastes has raised shipbreaking as one example where German companies face
challenges to prevent harm caused by toxic and hazardous substances.
“German ship owners operate the world’s third
largest merchant fleet (in terms of number of vessels), and have been linked to
fatalities and toxic chemical exposure of workers and local populations
including children, who dismantle end-of-life ships in deadly conditions. In
2014, German ship owners sold a record high 95 percent of their end-of-life
tonnage for substandard breaking on the beaches of South Asia,” he writes.
The Special Rapporteur calls on the
Government to ensure that companies reduce the use of hazardous substances and
prevent double standards. Moreover, he calls on the German Government “to
create the much needed incentives and frameworks for German businesses to foster
a positive human rights record”. The Special Rapporteur undertook an official
country visit to Germany late in 2015, where he met with key stakeholders on
the National Action Plan on Business and Human Rights.
“We could not agree more with the Special
Rapporteur’s conclusions. German ship owners need to take responsibility for
sustainable recycling and stop the dumping of toxic end-of-life vessels via
cash buyers in developing countries. When it comes to end-of-life management,
human rights due diligence translates into the ship owners’ responsibility to
prevent environmental pollution and the workers’ exposure to hazardous
substances,” says Patrizia Heidegger, Executive Director of the NGO
Shipbreaking Platform.
The NGO Shipbreaking Platform calls on the
German Government to raise the issue with the shipping community and to address
their unacceptable practices in the National Action Plan. In 2015 alone, 23
large commercial vessels from Germany ended up in substandard shipbreaking
yards, making German ship owners the fifth biggest dumpers globally. Several
German ships were broken down in Bangladesh where environmental pollution,
hazardous waste dumping and working conditions are the worst: „Apart from
Germany’s largest ship owner Hapag Lloyd, which has a progressive ship
recycling policy, the rest of the ship-owning community has remained shamefully
inactive with regards to finding sustainable and safe solutions to the issue.“
The Platform has been able to link fatal and severe accidents in Indian and
Bangladeshi shipbreaking yards to the demolition of German vessels.
Source: recycling portal. 27 May 2016
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