Published: 2 October 2007

The Australian Government can stop Japan’s ‘scientific’ whaling program, delegates have been told at a legal symposium held at UQ.

Professor Donald Rothwell, Chair of the Sydney Panel of Independent International Legal Experts commissioned by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) to examine the Japanese whaling program has argued that Japan’s rapidly expanding ‘scientific’ whaling program breached the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the Antarctic Treaty System, the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling.

“Japan’s whaling program is illegal and will remain so until a government takes steps to challenge this unlawful activity”, he said.

The symposium, which addressed a number of ethical, legal and diplomatic issues, was opened by the Honourable Malcolm Turnbull MP, Federal Minister for the Environment and Water Resources and chaired by Mr Chris McGrath, Counsel in the Humane Society Case.

Other speakers included Mr Darren Kindleysides, the Marine Campaign Officer for the IFAW, and Dr Rachel Baird, an expert in international law of the sea from the TC Beirne School of Law.

In his address, Professor Rothwell, who is also a Professor of International Law at the Australian National University, examined international options for legal and diplomatic challenges to the Japanese whaling program.

“Australia and New Zealand had a number of international legal options open to them to challenge the ongoing conduct by Japan of its whaling program in the Southern Ocean”, he said.

These options include sponsoring meetings of scientific, legal and policy experts to canvass alternative options for the resolution of a dispute within the International Whaling Commission and potential international litigation before the International Court of Justice.

Mr Kindleysides spoke on the growth of the anti-whaling movement in Australia in the 1970s and how a public consciousness shift towards anti-whaling lead to the commissioning of the ‘Frost Report’ by the Fraser government in which the ethics of whaling were first discussed.

Mr Kindleysides went on to argue that there is highly compelling evidence that so-called ‘scientific’ whaling was not for scientific purposes.

Dr Baird gave a brief history of the exploration of the Southern Ocean and the mix of nationalities who explored the region.

She talked about the history of the Antarctic Treaty, enforced in 1960, and how it became the foundation treaty for subsequent agreements addressing environmental management in the Antarctic region.

“These treaties, which relate to the conservation of seals, marine resources, mineral resources and some bird species regulate the harvesting of Antarctic marine living resources and commit its parties to comprehensive protection of the Antarctic environment”, she said.

Dr Baird said that in the more than 45 years since the Treaty came into force, whaling had been specifically excluded from such agreements.

The symposium was hosted by the TC Beirne School of Law’s Centre for Public, International and Comparative Law at The University of Queensland’s St Lucia campus in August.