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Thank You Australia! There Will Be No More Whale Hunting In Japan

March 31, 2014

Via SBS.com

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The UN's top court has ruled that Japan's whaling hunt in the Southern Ocean is not a scientific program as Tokyo has always claimed.

"The court concludes that the special permits granted by Japan for the killing, taking and treating of whales in connection with JARPA II are not for purposes of scientific research," President Peter Tomka told the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Monday.

The court ruled Tokyo should cease its whaling program "with immediate effect".

The ICJ, by 12 votes to four, said Japan hadn't acted in compliance with its obligations under the international whaling convention.

Australia had asked the 16-judge panel to ban Japan's annual hunt on the basis it was not "for purposes of scientific research" as allowed under Article 8 of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.

Canberra argued Tokyo was cloaking a commercial whaling operation "in the lab coat of science" despite agreeing to a 1980s ban on harpooning.

Japan, however, countered during a three-week hearing in mid-2013 that the ICJ didn't have the authority to decide what was, or wasn't, science. It insisted lethal research was both lawful and necessary.

The court on Monday dismissed Tokyo's argument.

Source: SBS.com