More news from IWC54 in Shimonoseki, Japan

23 May 2002, 13:00

Japan and its bought countries hold indigenous people hostage at IWC

Never before in the history of the IWC has an aboriginal whaling quota been denied.

But today all but one of the countries bought by Japan voted with them at the IWC to deny the Inuit people of Alaska and the Chukotka people of Russia their indigenous subsistence whaling quota.

Bowhead whale surfacing in the Arctic. © Seapics.com/Ursus

Greenpeace oceans campaigner Richard Page says indigenous peoples are being held hostage so the government of Japan can further its push to resume commercial whaling.

Indigenous subsistence whaling is allowed by the IWC in order to meet the basic nutritional needs of indigenous people. The government of Japan is likening indigenous subsistence needs to whaling carried out by Japanese coastal communities for commercial profit.

"This is a cynical move by the government of Japan to hold the IWC to ransom in order to try and get a coastal whaling quota of 50 minke whales, that it had asked for and was refused earlier this week,"says Page. "The IWC rightly sees Japan's request for a coastal whaling quota as pure commercial whaling and has denied its request for 14 years running."

The IWC recognises two different categories of whaling, indigenous subsistence whaling and commercial whaling.

Many countries were appalled by the results and said that it was undermining of the democratic process of the IWC meeting.

The Russian delegate highlighted the hypocrisy, saying that those countries, like Japan, which complain of double standards had actually applied triple standards. He suggested that new member Mongolia may have been “misorientated” in its voting.

The vote on whether to grant the Inuit and Chukotka people their aboriginal whaling quota was defeated by a vote of 30 in favour, 14 against, with China abstaining. The vote failed to achieve the necessary three quarters majority.

The Commissioners have now adjourned to a private meeting.

You can support whale conservation by voting in the BBC news online poll and CNN online poll.

Help put pressure on countries bought by Japan

You can help put pressure on three of the newest countries bought by the Japanese government and ask them to stand up for whale conservation, not commercial whaling by sending a fax to the Foreign.

Mongolia is a land locked country and the latest to join the IWC. It is hard to image what there interest is in whaling except as a route to Japanese aid. Send a letter to their foreign minister.

Send a fax to the minister of Palau.

Send a fax to the minister of Benin in Africa.

Send a fax to Gabon.