The MSC Objections Process - Consistency with FAO and the obligation to introduce charges
The United Nations FAO committee of Fisheries (COFI) adopted a set of voluntary guidelines ‘Guidelines for the ecolabelling of fish and fishery products from marine capture fisheries’ at their twenty-sixth session held in Rome in March 2005.
Those guidelines set minimum criteria for credible marine eco-labelling and certification programmes and were produced after several years of negotiations and discussions within the FAO. The FAO Guidelines stipulated that a complaints procedure should be independent of the standard setting organisation and paid for by the complainant(s).
To meet this requirement, the MSC has appointed an independent Objections Panel Chair for a term of three years. The Chair will be responsible for implementing the MSC objections procedure. The first Objections Panel Chair will be Michael Lodge, an experienced lawyer with a strong background in the fields of public international law, law of the sea, the marine environment and human rights.
For Mr Lodge's background, skills and expertise please click here.
Furthermore, the FAO Guidelines require objectors to pay the costs of the objections process. Previously these costs were covered by the MSC from charitable funding sources. To comply with the FAO Guidelines, the MSC has developed an objections fees policy that includes provision for the independent Objections Panel Chair to waive all or a portion of these costs based on the objecting party's ability to pay.
Fisheries undergoing an objection
For those fisheries that are going through re-assessment, Certification Bodies may, if necessary, extend the validity of the current certificate to ensure that they remain certified while the objections process is completed. As a result the products from the fishery may continue to carry the MSC label.
For fisheries that have not yet been certified and are therefore undergoing their first certification, no formal certificate or logo licensing agreements may be issued or entered into relating to any fishery product until the objections procedure has run its course in accordance with the MSC Objections Procedure, and the Determination is finalised.
The MSC Objections Procedure is set out in section 4.2 of the MSC's Fishery Certification Methodology version 6, available on request from the MSC. Please email fisheries@msc.org for a copy.
