One of the major subjects of the second day of the plenary meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) was related to administrative matters of the Commission. While a priori one might think that administrative issues in the plenary of an international organization are quickly resolved, in this opportunity it was not the case.

One of the issues under discussion today was the possibility of reorganization of the IWC in biannual plenary meetings - currently the full Commission meets annually. In this regard, the establishment of a Working Group to assess the feasibility of biannual meetings was approved and the results will be presented next year at the 64th IWC meeting. The Scientific Committee, the Conservation Committee and other working groups’ meetings would continue to be annual.

Another important point discussed today was the participation of NGOs. Since long ago, this issue generates conflict between those in favor of a participation of NGOs in a more active way and with greater space for expression, as is the case in other international meetings, and those who believe that this is not necessary and impedes the functioning of the Commission. In this regard the Buenos Aires Group (GBA), as it has expressed on several occasions, declared itself in favor of the broad participation of NGOs and their right to express themselves on specific issues on the agenda.

Also, today one of the more sensitive matters of the meeting came up, which relates to changes in the methods of payment of the annual quotas of the member countries of the Commission to the Secretariat. This proposal would forbid the payment by check and cash to the Secretariat. This will eliminate the suspicions of payments of quotas from some country to others, vote buying and other matters of perceived lack of transparency which, in general, even when they are difficult to prove, were always going round in previous meetings.

All these issues would end up being incorporated in the resolution submitted by the United Kingdom and the countries of the  European Union that are members of the IWC.

However, at the end of the day, discussions had not yet finished. To be continued ...

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