Saint Lucia approves new IWC thrust
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Contact: Claudia Monlouis
Thursday, July 10, 2008 – Saint Lucia's Commissioner to the IWC Honourable Jeanine Compton, along with alternate Commissioner and Chief Fisheries Officer Vaughn Charles recently returned to the island from attending the 60th annual meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), held in Santiago, Chile from June 23 rd to 27th.
Mr. Charles said Saint Lucia went to the meeting in a highly prepared mode and is satisfied that some of the outcomes of that meeting will redound to the good of the organization. This year, he said, the IWC devoted part of the intercessional meeting to evaluate the organization and committed to new ways of adding vitality and cohesiveness to its operations.
“Decision was taken to remove some of the contentious issues from the agenda. Some of the issues forced voting and divided the IWC,” Mr. Charles said in a GIS interview. “Before the IWC meeting we had our own preparatory meeting among sustainable use groups in Saint Lucia, where we discussed our approach to these countries in the OECS that has supported the sustainable use policy. We basically profiled the agenda items and planned our strategy.”
Those agenda issues that were removed included small type whaling for coastal communities in Japan; a sanctuary proposal by Brazil and other Latin American countries; and the secret ballot agenda items, which have been supported by the Caribbean and some African countries. The IWC, at the end of the meeting, was resolute that decisions arrived at will be by consensus and compromise. For the first time ever this was put into immediate practice, and as such, there was no voting on agenda items at this year's meeting. |
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