As the Western & Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) convenes its annual general meeting, Accountability.Fish is urging members to open the doors to the media in the name of greater transparency.
The pressure group which advocates for open governance of the world’s oceans is calling on the commission to reverse its practice of closing key elements of its Technical & Compliance Committee (TCC) meeting to NGO observers.
“WCPFC continuously brags about the job it is doing from an ocean sustainability standpoint,” said Ryan Orgera, Accountability.Fish global director.
“Yet, despite all the bragging, it conspicuously conducts its key compliance meetings behind closed doors and bars the media from its general meeting.”
Orgera says that these practices ‘fly in the face’ of the commission’s founding charter, which promotes transparent decision making and gives observers the opportunity to participate in meetings.
“The closure of the general meeting to the media is nothing short of gratuitous,” continued Orgera.
“The exclusion of observers from the draft compliance report meeting at the TCC essentially renders the WCPFC region as a massive, unverified gap in the global ocean sustainability picture.
“WCPFC members that talk a good game on sustainability - notably the likes of Tuvalu, New Zealand, Canada and the European Union - can take a big step towards walking that talk by moving to end the commission’s secrecy practices during the general meeting.”
