Australia accused of 'affront' to Japan's dignity in whaling case

Japan has accused Australia of an affront to its national dignity as it launched a robust final defence of its controversial whaling program at the international court of justice in The Hague.

The court is the setting for an unprecedented legal battle between the two countries that could put a permanent end to Japan's annual whale hunts in the Antarctic.

Australia has accused Japan of using scientific research as a cover for commercial whaling, which was banned by the international whaling commission in 1986, and is demanding that the court revoke the fleet's whaling license.

Japan uses a "lethal research" clause in the international convention for the regulation of whaling to kill more than 900 minke whales in the Southern Ocean every winter.

Meat from the slaughtered mammals is sold legally in Japanese restaurants and supermarkets.

Payam Akhavan, a lawyer acting for Japan, told the court that Australia had unfairly accused Japan of lying about the purpose of its whaling program.

"Needless to say, this is a serious accusation, and an affront to the dignity of a nation. Surely it is not an accusation to be made lightly," he said.

Akhavan claimed that Australia supported the direct action taken against Japan's whaling fleet by the marine conservation group Sea Shepherd, and that it would continue to back the activists if it loses its legal challenge at The Hague. "Even as the court deliberates, the [whaling] vessels will face another season of violent attacks," he said.

Japan has killed more than 10,000 whales since the IWC ban went into force, although its fleet has returned to port with only a fraction of their intended catch in recent years, following confrontations with Sea Shepherd.

Akhavan said Japan had decided not to leave the IWC because it preferred to settle the whaling dispute peacefully and according to the rule of law.

"Australia comes before this court to take advantage of that commitment," he said. "To unfairly and unreasonably portray Japan as a rogue state at the IWC; to level accusations of bad faith against what it deems to be a friendly state that it can mistreat with impunity ?"

Australia's agent to the court, Bill Campbell QC, reiterated his claim that Japan's whaling program had no scientific value.

"The position remains fundamentally the same; we say that what's going on is commercial whaling," he said. "We don't believe it falls within the research exception, and that remains the case despite what Japan said this morning."

Opponents of Japan's whale hunts say research into the animals' migratory, reproductive and other habits can be conducted without killing them.

The 16-judge ICJ panel is expected to issue a ruling later this year. When the hearings opened late last month, the Australian attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, said he was confident that the court would ban the hunts before the next hunting season begins at the end of the year.

Whale meat consumption has fallen dramatically in Japan since the end of the second world war.

Australian accusations that the whaling program is a purely commercial venture are wide of the mark, the conservative newspaper Yomiuri Shimbun said in an editorial this week.

"The whaling regulation convention requires that whales killed for scientific purposes should be processed as much as is practicable," the newspaper said. "Using whale meat as a byproduct of research activities for food is in line with the spirit of the convention."

Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2013/jul/16/australian-accused-whaling-case-affront-japan

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