Democracy lies in the ruins of Agadir
Yesterday I dreamt that the IWC was going to end up being a closed-door meeting, but now it seems that dreams do become nightmares.
Only a few hours after the long anticipated 62nd annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was opened in Agadir, Morocco, the meeting was immediately closed to all but Government delegates.
How can we hope that the IWC can actually represent the people of the world to do the right thing for whales when we see yet another sign of how the pro-whalers and the USA manipulate the IWC system to take their dirty dealings behind closed doors. When all that the public get to see is reports of scandal and corruption, why should any of us trust anything these countries are doing out of the light of media and NGO scrutiny.
Excluding civil society from the negotiations when the fate of thousands of whales is hanging in the balance is certainly not the way forward for the IWC.
If the IWC member governments want to regain the trust of their peoples they need to pull the plug now, stop these flawed and ‘lowest common denominator’ negotiations and leave the moratorium untouched. Anything else can only be seen as a victory for the powers of blackmail and corruption
This has now become a test of the principle of democracy and not just of where Governments stand on the issue of whaling.
Countries should not harpoon our rights as they cowardly hide behind closed doors to harpoon the moratorium that so many fought so hard to achieve and maintain
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