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Investigate Corruption in the International Whaling Commission
  1. Signatures
    2,038 out of 2,500
    Petitioning
    1. The President of the United States (+ 10 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • The President of the United States
      • International Whaling Commission (Secretariat)
      • Chair (Ambassador Cristian Maquieira)
      • Antigua and Barbuda (Mr. Anthony Liverpool)
      • U.S. Commissioner (Ms. Monica Medina)
      • Australia Commissioner (Ms. Donna Petrachenko)
      • U.K. Commissioner (Mr. Nigel Gooding)
      • France Commissioner (Stephane Louhaur)
      • Netherlands Commissioner (Commissioner Jenniskens)
      • Minister of Agriculture, Germany (Ilse Aigner)
      • Austria Commissioner (Andrea Nouak)
  2. Created By
    Stephanie Feldstein
    Ypsilanti, MI
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
Why This Is Important

Update 06/28/10: At last week's IWC meeting, the Commission was unable to reach a compromise, so the whaling ban still stands (although Greenland was granted permission to hunt a small number of humpback whales off its coast). The proposal to lift the ban has been tabled for another year. Please ask the commissioners to investigate the corruption leading up to this year's vote and to continue to uphold the moratorium in the future.

On June 21, 2010, the International Whaling Commission will vote on a proposal to lift the ban on commercial whaling.

The process leading up to this vote has been anything but transparent. Closed door meetings were just the beginning. Recent investigations have shown that Japan has spent over 60 billion yen disguised as "foreign aid," buying votes of IWC members by paying for their travel, sponsoring their membership fees, and even offering call girls and envelopes of money.

The countries involved in this corruption should be held accountable for their actions. Whale protection should not be based on special interests and bribery.

Ask the IWC to take immediate action to investigate this corruption before they vote on the future of our whales.

Recent Signatures

Investigate IWC Corruption Before the Next Vote on the Whaling Ban

Greetings,

Recent information about corruption in the IWC leading up to the vote on lifting the moratorium on commercial whaling raises serious questions about the integrity of the Commission.

The truth about Japan's vote buying is already internationally known; a huge investment of over 60 billion yen in total, disguised as "foreign aid," paying membership fees of IWC members, their flight tickets, luxury hotels, and even offering them call girls and envelopes of cash, as the recent undercover investigation by The Times reporters reveals.

I urge the IWC to take immediate action to call an independent investigation of these allegations, and to expel any members found guilty of bribery and corruption from future IWC decisions. Many of these countries have no national interest in whaling or whale protection, and their votes driven by Japan's money threatens the credibility of the entire organization.

Here is some of the evidence of the corruption among IWC members:

1. http://chikyu-to-umi.com/kkneko/english/oda2e.htm (a detailed analysis of Japan's expenditures on "foreign aid")
2. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article7149086.ece (the undercover investigation by The Times reporters)
3. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMp2vgZXv7o&feature=related
4. http://www.caribbean360.com/index.php/opinion/18900.html
5. http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fb20100425a1.html

I urge you to call for an immediate investigation of all members, and the voting process, and to impose sanctions on Japan and the countries which sell out their votes.

The future of whales cannot rest on special interests and bribery. The proposal to lift the ban on commercial whaling should be suspended indefinitely, pending an investigation into IWC corruption and a more tranparent process of considering the global impact of such a proposal.

I urge you to take concrete action to uphold the mission of the IWC. The decision to allow commercial whaling should not be tainted by corruption.

Please grant whales permanent protection. The IWC should be about conservation, not "resource management."

Thank you.

[Your name]