At its Special Meeting in Cambridge on 14 October 2002, the International Whaling Commission (IWC) formally agreed that Iceland is a member of the Commission. An integral part of Iceland's instrument of adherence is its reservation with respect to the so-called moratorium on commercial whaling. While not all IWC members had hoped for this outcome, they all accepted that the decision had been made and there is no longer a dispute over the status of Iceland within the IWC.

Iceland has made it very clear that it is not joining the IWC in order to resume commercial whaling in the immediate future. The purpose of joining the Commission is to work within it to finalise the Revised Management Scheme (RMS), the IWC's management framework, and resume commercial whaling at some point in the future in accordance with the RMS. Upon joining the IWC Iceland commited itself not to authorise Icelandic vessels to conduct commercial whaling before 2006 and thereafter not to authorise such whaling while progress is being made in negotiations on the RMS. It has furthermore been made clear that under no circumstances will commercial whaling be authorised in Iceland without a sound scientific basis and an effective management and enforcement scheme.