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A Thumbnail Sketch of the History of IWC

• 8 June 1937 - The International Agreement for the Regulation of Whaling expressing concern for the need to regulate whaling for the conservation of whales is signed in London, England.

• 2 December 1946 - The birth of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW). ICRW was created to provide for the conservation of whale stocks and the orderly development of the whaling industry. The ICRW authorized creation of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). IWC was given statutory authority over the conservation of 12 great whale species, but no such jurisdiction over smaller cetaceans including dolphins and porpoises.

• 1974 - IWC endorses the New Management Plan (NMP). Whaling of overexploited species was banned under the NMP. Regulated whaling of abundant species was allowed.

• 1982 - A "pause" or moratorium on whaling was agreed to by IWC delegate nations to allow time to gather scientific data on stock populations of the 12 IWC regulated great whale species. Aboriginal subsistence whaling was allowed. The moratorium had a deadline of 1990. The moratorium remains in effect today, a decade later.

• 1991 - IWC adopts the Revised Management Procedure (RMP), a formula for sustainable, regulated whaling. With its final form adopted in 1994, the RMP has never been implemented.

• 1992 - Australia proposes the Revised Management Scheme (RMS) adding observers and other safeguards for whale populations to the RMP. The RMS has not yet been implemented.

• 1997 – "Australia emphasised that, despite some press comments to the contrary, its position is one of seeking an end to whaling, and it will not support the RMS or engage in the debate." (Chairman's report of the forty-ninth annual meeting, page 36)

The failure of the IWC to implement the RMP with the RMS - proposed by Australia, which later announced it will not support it or participate in its work -is the reason behind the continued extension of the 1982 moratorium on whaling. Critics of IWC inertia allege that IWC member nations opposed to the resumption of whaling are using the stalling tactic as a means to keep whaling "illegal" ad infinitum.

Legal analyses of IWC's failure to end the moratorium, refusal to implement the RMP, and foot-dragging on completing the RMS make convincing arguments that the IWC's inaction constitutes a breach of statutory obligations dictated by the ICRW.�