In recent years concrete progress has been made to increase the well-being of ship crews, but there are still many shadow areas. The Conduct highlights the results of the report "Five Years into the Code of Conduct: What's Changed for Seafarers?" realized by the Sustainable Shipping Initiative (SSI) in collaboration with the Instituto for Human Rights and Business (IHRB), The Mission to Seafarers, RightShip, Rafto Foundation for Human Rights and TURTLE, which was released today and reaches five years from the "Delivering on Seafarers’ Rights

The Code of Conduct of 2021 is used by shipowners and naval operators to assess to what extent their operations respect the rights and well-being of seafarers, and by charterers and owners of the cargo to strengthen the two diligence that directs the decisions of rental. The document aims to strengthen compliance with the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) and other relevant maritime conventions, but goes beyond the MLC by placing the attention on the valorisation of seafarers and on the full spectrum of their human rights, intervening both on the rights already provided by the MLC but not properly applied in practice - such as hours of rest, recruitment commissions and access to the mechanisms of complaint - both on areas in which the Convention, even strengthened by the amendments of the 2022

From the 2026 report, which compares business data with the direct voice of seafarers, the picture that emerges is twofold: on the one hand a solid and measurable growth in the adoption of responsible practices by shipping companies, on the other the evidence that for many crews those higher standards are not yet a daily reality.

The main instrument of measurement of progress is the Crew Welfare Self-Assessment (CWSA) of RightShip, which in five years has collected 2.069 reports from 1,072 companies, covering more than 13,000 ships and about 300,000 seafarers. A significant figure concerns the extension of the base of participants: if initially the CWSA attracted above all the great operators, with an average fleet of 33 ships, the companies that joined more recently have fleets on average composed of 6-7 ships, sign that more solid welfare practices can be adopted also by smaller operators. Even more important is the tendency to repetition of self-evaluation over time, indicating that the issue of welfare is becoming a continuous management priority rather than a one-off exercise: in 2026 57% of the participating companies had already presented a report before, against 35% of 2023, and of the 685 companies with an active relationship in August 2026, 409 had presented it more than once and 115 four or more times.

On the content level, among the participants of the CWSA there are high levels of conformity in six of the seven chapters concerning shipowners and operators, greater than 88%: fair conditions (90%), crew protection (92%), complaint management (92%) and implementation of the Code (90%). This means, however, that between 10% and 12% of the participating companies do not yet meet the commitments set out in each chapter, including some of the most fundamental areas of the Code.

The report explains that the chapter presenting the greater margin of improvement is the one dedicated to the welfare of the crew, with a total compliance level of 76%, although with clear signs of progress. On the front of connectivity, the percentage of companies that charged to seafarers the cost of internet access has dropped from 18.4% of 2024 to 8.5% of 2026, although 72% of companies still apply data limits, with monthly thresholds ranging from 300MB to 50GB.

On mental health support, the share of companies offering seminars and training in the presence rose from 64% of 2024 to 76% of 2026. The picture, however, is not uniform: in the same period post-trauma proactive psychological support fell from 83% to 73%, family mental health support from 71% to 61% and post-accident psychological fitness ratings from 84% to 72%.

The novelty of the 2026 report is that focused on two new direct investigations aimed at seafarers, to listen to their voice: a TURTLE survey of 892 seafarers conducted in 2026 and a series of discussions and workshops carried out by Mission to Seafarers in the Philippines. This data, deliberately kept apart from CWSA's corporate ones and not attributable to the individual participating companies, returns a more crude image of the conditions actually lived on board: only 49% of the respondents said that during their last contract the crew was enough to work safely, without excessive fatigue or violations of the agreed working hours and rest; 32% responded negatively and 19% "sometimes". Only 59% would feel safe in raising a serious concern without fear of consequences; 16% responded that they would not feel safe and 25% were uncertain. Moreover, only 50% trust that their employer would support him and his family in case of a serious event on board; 27% is uncertain and 23% do not trust.

On the subject of fatigue, a marine interviewed in the workshops of the Mission to Seafarers has effectively described the gap between documentation and operational reality: "on the card - he said - your rest hours are complete. But in reality, you are exhausted from work». Another has specified that "if you look at the overtime, you can get to more than 200 hours, yet the employer recognizes only about 120. The rest is work done only for a "thank you"". The research of the World Maritime University, recalled in the report, indicates that this discard between registered conformity and experience lived by seafarers is not occasional, but structural.

A specific study of the 2026 report is devoted to illegal recruitment commissions, prohibited by MLC 2006 except for limited exceptions (medical certificate, navigation book, passport). According to an IHRB-TURTLE survey of 2024 on 2,627 seafarers, at 31% it was asked to pay one and 74% of these has actually paid. Most requests come from crewing agencies (62%) rather than directly from shipping companies (12%), which explains why the company's only policy seldom fills the gap, since risk exposure is more downstream in the supply chain. The lowest seafarers are the least able to refuse: only 20% of the ratings said no, against 29% of the officers. Some seafarers have come to pay over $10,000 for a single job, and 73% report a direct impact on mental health - financial stress, depression, anxiety, sleep disorders - while 80% never denounces the incident, mainly because they do not know who to turn or do not believe that they can serve something.

A chapter of the report is dedicated to the protection of the crew that, while resulting in the area with the most solid performance among the participants in the CWSA (92% compliance), compares with alarming industry data. In 2025 the abandonment of the marine ones has reached record levels: according to the data of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), 6,223 marine ones have been abandoned on 410 ships, with an increase of +31% regarding 2024 and the sixth consecutive year in which the number of ships involved in cases of abandon has established a new record. The seamen involved collectively boasted 25.8 million dollars of unpaid wages, and in 185 of these cases the ships did not have the compulsory financial guarantee provided by the MLC, precisely the protection that this chapter of the Code asks the companies to make effective.

The report also addresses the issue of security, with the data of the International Maritime Organization (IMO) that record an increase of +17% of the episodes of piracy and armed robbery at global level in 2025, while in the Strait of Hormuz and in the wider Middle East were recorded 65 confirmed incidents and 17 victims among the marines to August this year, with ongoing attacks that continue to affect the ships in transit in the Red Sea and in the Gulf. The report also reports a growing number of commanders and crews held, investigated or pursued despite having acted in good faith, and welcomes the support expressed by the IMO Legal Committee, which met last April, for a wider implementation of the IMO/ILO guidelines of 2024 on the fair treatment of seafarers inmates.

The report closes with an appeal to the action addressed to each actor of the chain of the marine value. To shipowners and operators it is asked to build on what already demonstrated by the companies leader, with particular attention to the fundamentals indicated by the marine ones: adequate crew and rest; fair and predictable use; reliable complaint mechanisms; connectivity and support in times of difficulty. To charterers and owners of the cargo you ask to use the commercial relations to reward good employment practices, making the welfare a significant part of the two diligence and the decisions of selection of the ships. Insurers, financiers and investors are asked to integrate credible information on welfare in the processes of two diligence and investment decisions. Finally, flag states are asked to implement stronger and more effective control, verifying whether the minimum standards actually translate into safe conditions in everyday practice.