International Whaling Commission Says No to Japan

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) has passed a crucial resolution on the International Court of Justice ruling that Japan’s ‘scientific whaling’ program in the Antarctic was illegal. The resolution was proposed by New Zealand and supported by Australia. It translates the court’s judgement into IWC practices and so places limits on the ability of countries to unilaterally set quotas for lethal research whaling in the future. There had been attempts to water down the resolution and potentially weaken the effect of the court’s judgment, but it was passed by majority following a vote.

“The International Court of Justice judgement was a critical milestone in the history of the commission and global whaling. It was crucial that the full effect of that judgement was brought into the International Whaling Commission. Today’s resolution by the New Zealand government, supported by Australia, has done just that,” said Darren Kindleysides, director of the Australian Marine Conservation Society (AMCS) who is a delegate at this year’s IWC meeting.

“The Government of Japan has failed in its damage limitation operation at the International Whaling Commission. Despite attempts to undermine the landmark judgment of the world court, the commission passed a resolution enshrining the ruling within the IWC. The government of Japan should now withdraw their proposal to resume whaling in the Antarctic next year,” Kindleysides concluded.

The government of Japan announced its intention to return to Antarctic ‘scientific’ whaling next year at this week’s IWC meeting. The Japanese IWC commissioner confirmed plans to undertake lethal research of whales in the Southern Ocean in the Austral summer 2015-16, and that they will present draft plans to IWC scientists in November 2014.

Dr Bernard Unti, part of Humane Society International's (HIS) IWC strategic and communications team, says: “Japan lost its bid for small-type coastal whaling today, decisively and deservedly. For the last two decades this country sought to create a new category of whaling, small type coastal whaling. But it is commercial whaling pure and simple, and nobody within or outside of the IWC thinks differently. The commission upheld the global commercial whaling moratorium with this vote and strengthened it with its approval of the New Zealand resolution to secure implementation of a UN court’s decision concerning scientific whaling by Japan.”

The Guardian reports that Japan has responded by announcing that it will proceed with a new round of culls in the Southern Ocean next year regardless. Japanese diplomats at the summit said that they would not be bound by the resolution because they took a different interpretation of the ruling.