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Abstract

Fisheries crime has moved beyond illegal harvesting and resource mismanagement to become a complex maritime governance problem in which illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing may intersect with forced labour, human trafficking, violence, document fraud, corruption and transnational criminal networks. This article asks how fisheries crime should be reframed as blue crime and what constitutional and human rights obligations arise for Indonesia as an archipelagic state. Using normative legal research, the study analyses international maritime, labour and anti-trafficking instruments, the 1945 Constitution of the Republic of Indonesia, relevant Indonesian legislation and recent fisheries governance regulations, together with policy materials from international organisations. The analysis shows that existing governance remains fragmented across fisheries regulation, labour protection, migration law, criminal enforcement and human rights accountability. Such fragmentation produces legal invisibility, especially for migrant crews working far from ordinary inspection and complaint mechanisms. The article argues that Indonesia should integrate maritime surveillance, fisheries enforcement, labour inspection, victim identification and protection, port-state measures, data sharing, network accountability, supply-chain due diligence and international cooperation. It concludes that a human-rights-based maritime governance model can strengthen constitutional state responsibility by treating fisheries enforcement as an entry point for protecting both marine resources and human dignity. The principal limitation is that the study is doctrinal and conceptual rather than based on field interviews or empirical case data.

Keywords

blue crime fisheries crime human rights at sea forced labour maritime governance

Article Details

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This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Author Biography

Yogi Putranto, Fisheries Intelligence and Surveillance Task Force, Marine and Fisheries Resources Surveillance Station (PSDKP) Cilacap, Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries, Republic of Indonesia

Currently participating in the MOFA Taiwan Fellowship Symposium on Whole Society Resilience and East Asia Security in Taiwan.

How to Cite
Cahyani, E. D., Putranto, Y., Ardhanariswari, R., & Rahmawati, H. (2026). BLUE CRIME, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND CONSTITUTIONAL GOVERNANCE OF INDONESIAN FISHERIES. Constitutional Law Society, 5(2), 207–233. https://doi.org/10.36448/jcls.v5i2.168
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