Some in Canada hope that an international declaration on ethical seal hunting will solve the seal products dispute:
In an effort to challenge the European Union’s trade ban on Canadian seal products, a Quebec senator is proposing that provinces and countries involved in the seal hunt sign on to an international declaration on ethical sealing.
Senator Céline Hervieux-Payette visited Iqaluit, Nunavut, last week to promote the Universal Declaration on the Ethical Harvest of Seals, written by a panel of experts and scientists from Canada and the United States.The senator, who went on an Inuit seal hunt while in Nunavut, says the declaration has already been endorsed by the governments of Newfoundland and Quebec. She is also seeking an endorsement from Greenland. The IWMC World Conservation Trust, an international organization for animal conservation, officially supports it.
“I am quite confident that there will be no reason on the part of the Europeans to continue their boycott, because as far as I'm concerned the boycott itself is illegal right now,” says Hervieux-Payette.
She says the declaration could strengthen Canada’s consultations with the World Trade Organization in seeking to overturn the ban ...
What would this Universal Declaration say?
The 13-page Universal Declaration on the Ethical Harvest of Seals states that seals must be killed rapidly in a professional manner that doesn’t cause “avoidable pain.” It seeks to strike a balance between animal welfare, sustainable development, protecting ecosystems, and maintaining people’s way of life in sealing communities.
It says signatories to the document care about animal welfare, and calls for establishing a common international position on ethical standards for the seal harvest.
I think the declaration is here: http://www.sealsonline.org/seal-universal-declaration.php
So what impact, if any, would this kind of international legal instrument have? The web site linked to above notes the goal of having "a United Nations Universal Declaration on the Ethical Seal Harvest ratified." How many countries will endorse it? What will the EU's reaction be? Will the attempt to negotiate such a treaty have an impact on the interpretation of the relevant WTO rules?
More here.
