Australia is asking the United Nations to get involved with Japan's alleged defiance of the international ban on commercial whaling, according to reports.
The country claimed in court on Wednesday that Japan is using scientific research as an excuse to conduct commercial whaling. According to the Guardian, Australia, with New Zealand's support, "has asked the International Court of Justice to withdraw all permits for future whale hunts from the Japanese fleet."
"Japan seeks to cloak its ongoing commercial whaling in the lab coat of science," Australia's agent to the court, Bill Campbell, told the 16-judge panel.
The goal of Australia's legal bid is to end the annual slaughter of reportedly 1,000 whales in the Southern Ocean. The hearings will last three weeks and a decision is expected before the end of the year.
"You don't kill 935 whales in a year to conduct scientific research," Campbell told reporters. "You don't even need to kill one whale to conduct scientific research."
Once the UN's top court makes the decision, it will be final as there is no appeal process. Japan will reportedly challenge the court's jurisdiction to hear the case.
"Japan's research programs have been legally conducted for the purposes of scientific research, in accordance with the [convention]," Japan's deputy minister for foreign affairs, Koji Tsuruoka, told reporters outside the courtroom. "Australia's claim is invalid. Japan's research whaling has been conducted for scientific research in accordance with international law."
Those who oppose the whale hunts say research on the animals can be conducted without killing them. Japan claims that lethal research is necessary to see if the ban is necessary and if future sustainable commercial whaling is possible, according to the Guardian.
Japan is set to defend its actions next week, and insists they have followed the terms of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.
