International Court Of Justice Rules That Japan’s Whaling Program Is Unchill


After years of attempts at a diplomatic solution and then four years swimming through legal channels the International Court of Justice (ICJ), as a representative of the United Nations, has found in favour of Australia’s submissions against Japan’s JARPA II Southern Ocean whaling program.

The decision was made based on the parameters outlined in Article VIII of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (1.”Notwithstanding anything contained in this Convention any Contracting Government may grant to any of its nationals a special permit authorizing that national to kill, take and treat whales for purposes of scientific research subject to such restrictions as to number and subject to such other conditions as the Contracting Government thinks fit, and the killing, taking, and treating of whales in accordance with the provisions of this Article shall be exempt from the operation of this Convention”), and sets a precedent for how this article can be interpreted.

A range of factors including the number of whales being killed, which was found to be outside of a reasonable number for scientific purposes, and the limited amount of research produced by the program (only two peer-reviewed papers since 2005), showed the program to be unchill by international standards.

Though Japan argued JARPA II was a genuine research mission and that Australia’s case was an ‘alarmist crusade intended to impose Australian cultural preferences over the Japanese’ ultimately a spokesperson for the Japanese Government, Nori Shikata, told ABC News Radio: “We are deeply disappointed and regret that the court ruled that Japan’s research whaling program in the Antarctic did not fall within the special permit clause of the treaty. However Japan will abide by the judgement of the court that places a great importance on the international legal order and the rule of law.”

Mark Dreyfus, the former federal attorney general, said of the decision: ‘It was the first time an environmental convention like this was taken before the world court…the pioneering nature of the case shouldn’t be forgotten…we’ve shown what Australia can achieve as a nation if we are willing to stand up and fight for what we believe in.” He went on to commend Japan as an international citizen and assert his belief that the ruling will not harm international relations between our nations:

So now, options for Japan moving forward: they will either decide to cease whaling altogether, they may seek to justify or modify the whaling program so that it does comply with international law, or they may withdraw from the Whaling Convention and then undertake any whaling they damn well please.

It is unclear which route they will take but in the meantime, in the words of Pete Buthane (founder of Earthrace Conservation), “Today will go down in history as a great day for whales, for conservation and for justice.”

Here’s to a ~ great day for whales ~

via ABC, The Guardian 

Image via Photoshop

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