Source: High North News, No.11, Nov. 1996, published by the High North Alliance
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Inuit Circumpolar Conference:Demands that US Lift Marine Mammal Product EmbargoAt a meeting with the American ambassador in Copenhagen in January 1996, the Inuit Circumpolar Conference presented a letter demanding that the US lift their general ban on the import of marine mammal products as a contribution to the UN’s Decade of the Indigenous Peoples. The letter states that the ban has contributed to damaging Inuit culture and economy: “The ban not only caused the Inuit to lose an important market, but of even greater importance was that the ban resulted in an international opinion believing that seal skins were a suspicious and unacceptable product - AND that the hunting of seals was an environmental threat to an endangered species.” Furthermore, the letter maintains that the ban “presents itself as irrational and inconsistent” and is “directly in violation of the obligations the US has undertaken in international agreement”. Here, the etter is referring to the final document from the Nordic Council of Ministers’ Seminar for Indigenous Peoples’ Production and Trade which took place in Copenhagen from January 15 - 17, 1996. Part of the document reads as follows: “the Seminar urged the Nordic Council of Ministers and the governments of the Nordic Countries to work for a removal of trade barriers that are inconsistent with the GATT/WTO agreement, such as the US ban on marine mammal products.” Representatives from numerous indigenous and international organizations worldwide were present at the conference. The Inuit delegation also handed over to the ambassador a report by Canadian professor of international law, Ted McDorman, on the GATT legality of the import ban. Available on the High North Web: The McDorman report can be obtained from the High North Alliance: |
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