Peter Espeut
VOTE-BUYING in international organisations is not a new phenomenon, neither is it new to the Caribbean. But it is, of course, a breach of International Law. The 1970 Declaration on Principles of International Law Concerning Friendly Relations and Cooperation among States in accordance with the United Nations Charter states, inter alia, that "No State may use or encourage the use of economic, political or any other type of measure to coerce another State in order to obtain from it the subordination of the exercise of its sovereign rights and to secure from it advantages of any kind".
By all accounts Japan has provided upwards of US$100 million in fisheries aid to six eastern Caribbean states since 1998, and receives their voting support in the International Whaling Commission (IWC). This is my second IWC meeting (my first was in 1999) and over the period the support that Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) have given to Japan has become noticeably more resolute.
NO STOMACH FOR WHALING
Commercial whaling has never been done in any of these countries; in the 19th century two foreigners set up a whaling base on the Grenadine island of Bequia and did their own thing, but the practice did not spread; today only one person occasionally goes whaling. The government of the SVG uses this to claim that they have a 'tradition' of subsistence whaling, and has received from the IWC a 'subsistence' quota of four whales/year; they have never had the stomach to take more than two (killing a whale produces a lot of blood), and in the last year have taken only one. In addition, eastern Caribbean stomachs and palates have not taken to eating whale meat, nor do they use whale-bone or blubber.
In his opening address to the 2006 IWC meeting, Foreign Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis, the Hon. Tim Harris stated that "St. Kitts and Nevis will never sell its national interest" and spoke of a "congruence of policy position" between his country and the pro-whaling interests. "Japan is the largest giver of foreign aid in the world" others have said in their defence; "and some receivers support Japan in the IWC and some don't".
VOTING FOR JAPAN'S CAUSE
Whaling is not a subsistence or commercial activity anywhere in the region, and so we have no direct national or regional interest to defend. It is hard to understand the passion with which these countries advocate the cause of Japan in the forum of the IWC. I wish our delegates to various other international bodies would advocate our national and regional interests with the same vigour!
The U.S.A., Australia and New Zealand do not support a resumption of commercial whaling; only Denmark of the 17 European Union (EU) nations which are members of the IWC sometimes votes with Japan to support commercial whaling (a pre-condition of EU membership is an anti-whaling stance). The only IWC member countries which today support whaling and have a history of whaling are Japan, Norway and Iceland. In recent years, Japan has been able to co-opt about 30 other countries to its cause through strategic disbursements of foreign aid. Not all of it has been fisheries aid; Mongolia, for example, is com-pletely landlocked, and has no marine fisheries, never mind whaling.
In addition, Japan pays the (relatively high) IWC membership fees for all these countries (about US$12,000/year each), and covers all their costs to attend IWC meetings, including airfares, accommodation and subsistence.
(To be continued)
Peter Espeut is a sociologist and is executive director of an environment and development NGO.
