The International Court of Justice has ordered a temporary halt to
Japan's annual slaughter of whales in the southern ocean after
concluding that the hunts are not, as Japan claims, conducted for
scientific research.
The UN court's decision, by a 12-4 majority among a panel of judges,
casts serious doubt over the long-term future of the jewel in the
crown of Japan's controversial whaling programme.
It also marks a dramatic victory for the Australian government, whose
four-year campaign to ban the hunts rested on whether it could
convince the court that Japan was using scientific research as a cover
for commercial whaling.
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In its 2010 application to the court, Australia accused Japan of
failing to "observe in good faith the zero catch limit in relation to
the killing of whales".
Under the International Whaling Commission's 1986 ban on commercial
whaling, Japan was permitted to kill a certain number of whales every
year for what it called scientific research.
The sale of meat from the hunts in restaurants and supermarkets, while
not illegal, prompted accusations from Australia and other anti-whaling nations that Japan was cloaking a commercial operation
"in the lab coat of science".
In a lengthy ruling, the presiding judge in the Hague, Peter Tomka,
said Japan had failed to prove that its pursuit of hundreds of mainly
minke whales in Antarctic waters every winter – under a programme
known as Jarpa II – was for scientific purposes.
"The evidence does not establish that the programme's design and
implementation are reasonable in relation to achieving its stated
objectives," Tomka said.
"The court concludes that the special permits granted by Japan for the
killing, taking and treating of whales in connection with Jarpa II are
not for purposes of scientific research," he added, before ordering
Japan to cease its whaling programme "with immediate effect".
Campaigners welcomed the ruling. "This is an historic decision which
lays to rest, once and for all, the grim travesty of Japan's so-called
'scientific' whaling and exposes it to the world as the blatant
falsehood it clearly is," said Clare Perry, head of the cetaceans
campaign at the UK-based Environmental Investigation Agency.
"With this ruling, Japan must clearly cease its whaling activities in
the Antarctic."
The court ruled that Japan had not complied with its obligations
covering scientific research as set out in article 8 of the 1946
International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
Japan, though, had maintained that its annual slaughter of 850 minke
whales
and up to 50 endangered fin whales every year was necessary to examine
the age, health, feeding habits, exposure to toxins and other
characteristics of whale populations, with a view to the possible
resumption of sustainable commercial whaling.
Officials in Tokyo said the data could not be obtained through
non-lethal methods.
Tomka, however, said Japan had not offered sufficient scientific
justification for the slaughter of a large number of minke whales,
while failing to kill enough fin and humpback whales to be of any
scientific value. It had also failed to explore the possibility of
gathering certain scientific data without resorting to killing the
mammals, he added.
In its defence, Japan cited only two peer-reviewed scientific papers
relating to its program from 2005 to the present, during which it has
harpooned 3,600 minke whales, a handful of fin whales, and no humpback whales.
Tuesday's decision, though, leaves room for Japan to revamp its
whaling programme to meet an international whaling treaty's
requirements for scientific whaling.
And it does not mean the end to all whaling. Japan hunts a much
smaller number of whales in the northern Pacific, while Norway and
Iceland continue to kill whales for their commercial value, in
defiance of the IWC ban.
Japan has slaughtered more than 10,000 whales since the IWC moratorium came into effect, according to the Australian government.
Japan had questioned the court's right to rule on the case, but said
before the ruling that it would accept its verdict. The court's
judgements are binding and cannot be appealed.
Monday's ruling is unlikely to have much impact on the Japanese
public, whose appetite for whale meat has declined dramatically since
the immediate postwar period.
In recent years, stocks of whale meat have remained unsold, with
almost 4,600 tonnes stored in port freezers at the end of 2012,
according to Japanese government statistics.
Campaigners said they hoped the verdict would result in a permanent
end to Japan's whaling programme in the southern ocean.
"The myth that this hunt was in any way scientific can now be
dismissed once and for all," said Willie MacKenzie, oceans campaigner
for Greenpeace UK. "We urge Japan to abide by this decision and not
attempt to continue whaling through any newly invented loopholes."
