HOW CAN IT BE “ILLEGAL”, JAPAN DOESNT RECOGNISE AUSTRALIA’S ANTARCTIC CLAIM?

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(5) HOW CAN IT BE “ILLEGAL”, JAPAN DOESNT RECOGNISE AUSTRALIA’S ANTARCTIC CLAIM?

Australia has indeed laid perfectly valid Antarctic claims on the area in question. The treaty was open for signatures in 1959, so the claims are not “NEW” and were around way before Japan started whaling in the Southern Ocean. Australia’s claims are justified by the Australian & British explorers who mapped the Antarctic ice shelf in the early 1900’s.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_Antarctic_Territory

Japan would be indulging in hypocrisy to not recognise these claims. Japan has its own disputes with South Korea over the Liancourt Rocks (a small cluster of islands between Japan & Sth Korea), yet Japan heavily defends these islands using their coastguard and Navy.

Put all that aside, Japan is still breaking 5 INTERNATIONAL treaties by whaling in the Southern Ocean.

The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) hired 3 international panels of independent legal experts who all ruled Japan to be in breach of the following International treaties and laws;

- United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea,

- United Nations Charter on Nature,

- The Antarctic Treaty System,

- The Convention on International Trade in Endangered
Species (CITES) and

- The International Convention on the Regulation of
Whaling

http://www.ifaw.org/ifaw/general/default.aspx?oid=223096

http://news.corporate.findlaw.com/prnewswire/20071114/14nov20071142.html



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