Nauru, Solomon Islands Support Japanese Whaling

This is copied from the official website of the Solomon islands Prime Minister and Cabinet.

CABINET RESOLVES TO ABSTAIN ON THE ISSUE OF WHALING
By George Tausiria

Solomon Islands will abstain on the resolution on the moratorium on commercial and scientific whaling during the 58th Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC).

The Solomon Islands Government decision was made during a cabinet session on Wednesday this week.

Instead the Minister for Fisheries and Marine Resources, Hon. Nollen Leni, revealed that his government would be calling on the IWC to make an urgent commitment to complete the Revised Management Scheme which enables the commission to inspect, monitor and control the sustainable harvesting of whale quotas.

The Minister said:“The government is concerned that the issues of commercial and scientific whaling have been allowed to continue without any positive signs of these issues being resolved by IWC.

“The situation can no longer be tolerated hence appropriate action must be taken by the IWC or member states to put an end to what has amounted to too much political wrangling between anti-whaling and pro-whaling nations”.

Mr. Leni also said that given that the International Convention on the Regulation of Whaling lacks a dispute resolution mechanism “members are at liberty to call for its amendment so as to ensure that disputes such as that of scientific whaling are resolved”.

Mr Leni said one way of persuading pro-whaling nations to put an end to scientific whaling is to challenge pro-whaling nations like Japan at the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea.

“If indeed the government of Japan had erred, then the onus is on anti-whaling nations to take the matter to the tribunal to prove their point.

“Government therefore regards the continual arguments over scientific and commercial whaling as highly unnecessary”, adding that:“ IWC must be allowed to dwell over its core business. This is the only way member countries can reap the benefits.”

Failing this Mr Leni warned that this may leave Solomon Islands very little choice but to consider the need to review its membership of IWC.

The 58th Meeting of the IWC from June 16 to 20 will be attended by Mr Leni and his Under-Secretary, Sylvester Diake.

By Alfred Maesulia at 8 Jun 2006 - 18:08 | Press Releases | login or register to post comments | 36 reads
Copyright 2006 Solomon Islands Government

The whaling issue is a controversal one that has indeed caused political upheaval between our neighbouring states. Hence, everbody's view on the issue varies and depends very much on where you are sitting and at what angle analyses are made. The underlying fact however is that it is a sovereign issue and the decision to vote "for or against" is one that has to be made by the sovereign government of any state. Any Minister defying cabinet decision should therefore face appropriate consequences, and similarly no other sovereign state should influence the decision and the stand of another on the issue. Every sovereign state should be allowed to vote on thier on free will.

However,for the case of Solomon Islands, the cabinet has agreed as it has announced in the local media that it will abstain from voting, meaning that the Minister should not vote for or against the resumption of whaling. The fact is that he has indeed abstained from voting. He only voted when a motion was moved calling on the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to return to its original purpose of regulating whale hunt. He did not vote in support for the resumption of commercial whaling, as reported in the media. In this case it is the media (as often) that has reported inaccurately, for the motion calling on the IWC to return to its original mandate of regulating whale hunt does not mean Japan would resume commercial whaling.

Hence, to say that the Minister voted in support for the resumption of commercial whaling is NOT TRUE.

Chad wrote:

The whaling issue is a controversal one that has indeed caused political upheaval between our neighbouring states. Hence, everbody's view on the issue varies and depends very much on where you are sitting and at what angle analyses are made. The underlying fact however is that it is a sovereign issue and the decision to vote "for or against" is one that has to be made by the sovereign government of any state. Any Minister defying cabinet decision should therefore face appropriate consequences, and similarly no other sovereign state should influence the decision and the stand of another on the issue. Every sovereign state should be allowed to vote on thier on free will.
However,for the case of Solomon Islands, the cabinet has agreed as it has announced in the local media that it will abstain from voting, meaning that the Minister should not vote for or against the resumption of whaling. The fact is that he has indeed abstained from voting. He only voted when a motion was moved calling on the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to return to its original purpose of regulating whale hunt. He did not vote in support for the resumption of commercial whaling, as reported in the media. In this case it is the media (as often) that has reported inaccurately, for the motion calling on the IWC to return to its original mandate of regulating whale hunt does not mean Japan would resume commercial whaling.
Hence, to say that the Minister voted in support for the resumption of commercial whaling is NOT TRUE.

Thank you for clearing that up.

Chad - do you know what his motivation was for voting the way he did when he did, rather than obstaining on that issue as well?

The net effect of that vote is to bring things closer to resumption of whaling. The IWC had evolved over time from that original mandate (as hopefully most organisations do in order to remain relevant).

Presumably his vote means that the Solomons Government is in favour of regulated whaling? Are its people in favour of that?

Paul Huggett-NZ wrote:

Chad - do you know what his motivation was for voting the way he did when he did, rather than obstaining on that issue as well?
The net effect of that vote is to bring things closer to resumption of whaling. The IWC had evolved over time from that original mandate (as hopefully most organisations do in order to remain relevant).
Presumably his vote means that the Solomons Government is in favour of regulated whaling? Are its people in favour of that?

To be frank, I can bet that most people in Solomon Islands are really not into this issue because they are not aware of the issue and whats at stake(due to low literacy rate etc..).However, as I said I am just trying to put to the surface what really happened because how the issue has been presented seems that the Minister has voted directly for the resumption of whaling which is not true. And to add, any decision made on such issues must be made on the basis of sovereign will to act and decide on ones own affairs. As I said any minister defying the decision of cabinet should be dealt with accordingly, and likewise any soveregn decision made by any soveregn state on behalf of its people must also be respected. I for one, "whales or nor whales" does not really matter to me at all.

That wrong !

STUPID !