Just a week ahead of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Commission (EC) visit to Tokyo to assess the city’s bid to host the 2020 Olympic Games, animal rights activists gathered in 42 cities across 21 nations Friday in an international effort to end the annual dolphin drive hunts in Japan.
Demonstrators from Sydney to Seattle, Durban to Dusseldorf, across six continents are urging the IOC to deny Tokyo the opportunity to host the Olympic Games until the dolphin hunt is stopped and the Japanese government addresses international concerns about the issue. Receiving widespread media attention, the dolphin hunt issue became mainstream after the movie “The Cove”, a documentary about the Taiji hunt, won a 2010 Academy Award.
Shona Lewendon, a working single-mother from Glasgow, Scotland launched a petition in January asking for signatures of people who want the IOC to deny Tokyo’s bid for the Olympics until the Taiji Dolphin Drive Hunt is abolished. It now has over 270,000 names.
“It was a light bulb moment,” Lewendon told GamesBids.com as she described hearing about Tokyo’s bid book handover in Lausanne on January 7th, around the same time she saw a documentary about the hunt. She decided there was a window-of-opportunity to act by leveraging Tokyo’s bid and the IOC and pressuring the Japanese government to take action.
Along with the petition, she put together an international team to help organize the simultaneous peaceful demonstrations worldwide.
She also sent letters to the IOC including President Jacques Rogge and head of the 2020 Evaluation Commission Sir Craig Reedie, as well as various National Olympic Committees.
Outlining her concerns in the letter, Lewendon says that by awarding the Games to Tokyo, the IOC would be ignoring its own charter.
“It … does not comply with the Olympic charter’s mandate of the host country having a responsible concern for environmental issues,” she wrote.
“The methods used to hunt the dolphins are cruel and inhumane, as is the method of slaughter.”
In a short response to Lewendon’s letter, Reedie said “The IOC is aware of the issue you have raised.”
“The visits of the Evaluation Commission to candidate cities is co-ordinated with each city and is an intense programme of presentations and site visits. If a meeting with the Commission is requested this should be done with the co-operation of the Tokyo Candidature Committee and considered in light of the very busy programme.”
Lewendon says efforts are being made to organize a meeting with the IOC in Tokyo during the EC visit, which is scheduled between March 4 and 7. The IOC typically does make time to meet with organized opposition groups when reasonable requests are made.
Lewendon hopes to attend the meeting make her case.
“I want to explain to them in basic terms that this doesn’t make sense,” she said.
“They cannot be considered to host an international Games, they can’t be the world stage while they continue to do these hunts which are internationally condemned.”
Activists demonstrated at Japanese embassies and consulates, and one group made their point at Seaworld in Orlando, Florida. Among the cities hosting gatherings were London and Rio de Janeiro – 2012 and 2016 Olympic hosts respectively, New York, Los Angeles, Miami, Sydney, The Hague, Edinburgh, Mexico City and Toronto.
Demonstrators in Rome were reportedly invited into the Japanese Embassy to plead their case and leave a letter to be sent to Tokyo. In Ottawa, activists said the Ambassador exited the consulate from the back entrance – avoiding any confrontation.
The Tokyo 2020 Bid Committee had no comment on the issue.
In Tokyo’s bid book, a response to an IOC question explains that there is no “major movement” against the bid. However, the bid book was published prior to the organization of Lewendon’s cause.
In July, the IOC will publish an evaluation report outlining the pros and cons of Tokyo’s bid. That document, along with a final presentation will be used by IOC members in September to decide whether to elect Tokyo, or one of the city’s two rivals – Istanbul or Madrid – to host the 2020 Games.
Activists are already planning further demonstrations on June 29th, just ahead of important presentations by Tokyo 2020 to the IOC in Lausanne, Switzerland.
