Report: Delivering on Seafarers’ Rights - 2026 Progress Report

The Delivering on Seafarers' Rights 2026 Progress Report, published by the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI), is a collaborative effort with the Institute for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), the Mission to Seafarers, the Rafto Foundation for Human Rights, RightShip and TURTLE. Five years after the launch of the Delivering on Seafarers' Rights Code of Conduct, the report assesses industry progress against it and the realities facing seafarers today.

The report draws on several sources of evidence. Company-level data comes from RightShip's Crew Welfare Self-Assessment (CWSA) tool, covering 2,069 valid submissions from 1,072 companies between 2021 and 2026. Two further sources were commissioned specifically for this report and are published here for the first time: a 2026 TURTLE survey of 892 seafarers, and qualitative workshops held with seafarers by the Mission to Seafarers in the Philippines. The report also draws selectively on Marine Benefits' Re:fresh Global 2024 study of 36,446 seafarers. These datasets are separate, cannot be matched company to company, and are not presented as representative of the entire global fleet.

Five years on, the Code of Conduct is driving more than 1,000 companies to participate in the CWSA, resulting in measurable change in crew welfare standards. For many crews, however, those higher standards are not yet a daily reality, according to research among seafarers themselves. The next five years must be about scaling good practice across more of the global fleet. Charterers, insurers and financiers determine which operators thrive, and good welfare needs to be visible, measurable and valued in their decisions.