Tuesday, JULY 19, 2011 13:49
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The International Whaling Commission (IWC) (1) is holding its 63 th annual meeting in the islands of the Channel. This year 61 nations participating in the meeting, among them Argentina, as part of the Latin American bloc.
The discussions of this meeting will focus on the proposal by Argentina and Brazil to create a sanctuary to protect whales in the South Atlantic, this means an area prohibiting hunting and promote research and non-lethal use of whales as watching tourism.
“Greenpeace is critical to the progress towards adoption Sanctuary, as the tenth anniversary of its presentation and, since then, as Japan tried to stop this extortion by the countries members of the commission,” said Milko Schvartzman, representative Greenpeace Latin American on the island of Jersey.
The proposal of the Buenos Aires (GBA), as known to the alliance between Argentina and Brazil, has the support of a majority of representatives, but the shackles of the whaling nations could prevent you from getting 75% of the votes required to build the sanctuary. The decision to take a vote on Wednesday will be taken at the last minute, after evaluating the development of previous meetings, as well as agreements on strategic issues.
“Japan not only preys on marine resources in international waters, but also fails to Latin American countries to protect whales, to take conservation measures in their own regions,” analyzes Schvartzman.
Also, as a result of these irregularities, the United Kingdom presented a proposal raising public access to documents issued by the commission to turn the IWC into a more transparent organization.
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“The CBI has a criminal record of corruption, lack of transparency and confidence, resulting from the lobby of a small group of countries whalers. Without going any further, last year Japan hotel and expenses paid to the Chairman of the CBI, who had to resign after evidence of this extortion, “said Schvartzman.
For its part, Denmark, Norway and Iceland are strongly opposed to NGOs and scientific representatives of civil society, have minimal rights of expression in the debate.
Instead, “the Latin American bloc is clearly the most active conservation force in the IWC: Colombia and the Dominican Republic recently joined the Commission and demonstrate their strong belief and to defend the whales and the rights of expression of civil society,” Schvartzman concluded.
Notes
The IWC was created in 1946 by a group of countries, mostly whalers. Its mission was to regulate hunting, since this activity was decimated whale populations. Over time additional members and many countries before they stopped hunting whales, they became important conservation and development activities of whale watching tourism. Currently has 89 members. Argentina was one of 12 founders.
The Latin American bloc in Jersey is comprised of: Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico, Panama, Dominican Republic and Uruguay.