WASHINGTON—The HSUS is condemning the results of a special meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) that took place this week in Cambridge, U.K. Yesterday, Iceland was readmitted to the IWC with a reservation to the current moratorium on commercial whaling, allowing that country to legally resume commercial whaling and undermining the IWC’s core obligation of ensuring the continued survival of whale species.

Iceland had originally agreed to the global ban on commercial whaling when it was implemented in 1986. But in 1992, frustrated with the IWC, they quit. Iceland made two previous attempts to rejoin the IWC and not be bound by the moratorium in 2000 and 2001, but these attempts were unsuccessful.

“The results of this meeting set a very dangerous precedent for all international treaties,” said Kitty Block, United Nations and treaties special counsel for The HSUS. “If a country doesn’t want to be bound by the restrictions of a conservation measure to which they have already agreed, they can just quit and rejoin without being bound to that measure.”

This week’s special intercessional meeting of the IWC was initiated by the United States, which successfully sought to push through the Commission a joint proposal with Russia to allow aboriginal subsistence hunting of bowhead whales from the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas. The proposal had been defeated by Japan’s blocking of a consensus in a bad-tempered response to not getting their way at the IWC meeting in Shimonoseki in May. “The United States must shoulder much of the blame for what’s happened here in Cambridge,” said Block. “The U.S. was so eager to get the subsistence whaling proposal passed that it created the opportunity for Iceland’s re-admittance with a reservation. Some countries that would have voted against this could not attend the meeting or could not vote, leaving the way open for Japan and its bloc to gain another pro-whaling advocate and to gather strength in the attempt to undermine the IWC.”

In an apparent quid pro quo deal with Japan, the United States voted in favor of a coastal whaling proposal by Japan in exchange for that country agreeing not to block a consensus on the aboriginal subsistence hunt of bowhead whales. The U.S. has never supported Japan’s coastal whaling in the past. Though Japan’s proposal was defeated, U.S. actions have set the stage for Japan to reintroduce its coastal whaling proposal at the next meeting of the IWC in Berlin next year and have angered many of its allies at the Commission.

“The U.S. has shown itself completely out of step at this meeting with other countries who are truly concerned about whale conservation,” Block noted. “Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., and Mexico all deserve praise for speaking out against Iceland’s re-admittance and for voting against Japan’s coastal whaling proposal. These countries are fighting to ensure the continued survival of the great whale species.”