Obituary/Clotilde de Jamblinne: A Sparkling, Committed Fighter

Clotilde de Jamblinne was a gently persistent champion of small-scale fishers across the world

This article is by Claude Lagasse (samasbl@skynet.be), Honorary Chair, CFFA

My name is Claude Lagasse and I chair the Coalition for Fair Fisheries Arrangements (CFFA). It is with great sadness that our team, the members of the association and the CFFA secretariat, learned that our honorary president Clotilde de Jamblinne, affectionately called Clo, has left us.

She was a pioneer. Back in the 1980s, she and Pierre Gillet helped launch the European office of the world’s leading network for the defence of small-scale fishers rights, the International Collective in Support of Fishworkers (ICSF). Then in the 1990s, when CFFA was set up to enable African small-scale fishers to defend their rights before European institutions, she volunteered to lead and became its first chair.

Clo was a committed woman, always on the side of the small-scale fishing communities of Africa, Asia and Latin America. Those struggling to survive and to give their children a decent future. She was always at our side too, welcoming people from all over the world who came to Brussels to fight for the rights of small-scale fishers.

For all this, we thank you, Clo.