Australia must see through ICJ whaling ruling with Japan

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruling against Japanese whaling has been welcomed in Australia, which brought the case, but the government has been warned it must step up diplomatic pressure to ensure Japan abides by the decision. The ICJ ruling forbidding the issue of further whaling permits was handed down as Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott prepares to visit Japan this month to finalize a free trade agreement, which, campaigners said Tuesday, was a good time to raise the issue. The decision was a major victory for Australia, which had argued Japan's whaling program was carried out for commercial reasons, rather than for scientific research as Japan claimed, Australian National University Professor of International Law Don Rothwell said in a statement. "The court's finding that Japan's JARPA II research program in the Southern Ocean is not conducted consistently with international law means that Japan will have to cease JARPA II," said Rothwell. "The judgment does provide significant guidance as to how a legitimate research program could be conducted consistently with Article VIII of the Whaling Convention and this could provide Japan with a basis to undertake future whaling programs consistently with its international legal obligations." Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus, who helped prepare Australia's case, when it was launched at the ICJ in 2010, said the ruling had brought to an end a program that enabled Japan to kill thousands of whales in the Southern Ocean. "The decision of the Court vindicates Australia's arguments that Japan's whaling programs in the Southern Ocean are in fact the continuation of Japan's commercial whaling programs, dressed in the lab coat of science, and are therefore contrary to Japan's international legal obligations," Dreyfus said in a statement. "The government should now take up discussions with Japan to cooperate on genuine and non-lethal methods of whaling research," he said. Opposition Green Party spokesperson for whaling, Senator Peter Whish-Wilson said the result needed "bedding down" and Australia should see it through to the end. "When Tony Abbott visits Japan in just over a week, whales must be top of the agenda," Whish-Wilson said in a statement. Attorney-General George Brandis welcomed the court's findings, saying he did not think it would have any effect of free trade talks between Australia and Japan, ABC News reported. "The fact that Australia and Japan were able to be in dispute on this narrow issue in the International Court of Justice, but nevertheless maintain an excellent relationship notwithstanding that difference, I think demonstrates very clearly what a strong relationship this is," he said.