Human Rights Now, a Tokyo based international human rights NGO in special consultative status with the ECOSOC, has submitted the following written statements to the forthcoming 25th session of the UN Human Rights Council.
■Human Rights Situation in Myanmar (PDF)
[Summary] Although there are constant improvements on human rights situation after military regime ended in, there are still a lot of media restrictions in Myanmar, and journalists are being arrested and sentenced to imprisonment. Also many of political prisoners are still in jails even after the military government promised to release them, and oppression against those who are regarded as anti-government still continues. Moreover, HRN points out that because of the ‘Development projects’ conducted by foreign governments and firms including Japanese Government and JICA to remove and plunder lands, lives of many people including aborigines are threatened. For those reasons, we request the council to establish a guideline for corporate activities that comply with human rights standards and to act to make sure that they are being abided.
■Children and Armed Conflict Violation of Rights to health of children in Iraq needs immediate international attention (PDF)
[Summary] Following the survey conducted by HRN in 2013about birth defects which was generated at extraordinary high rates in the area where USA and UK intentionally attacked (such as Fallujah and Basra), metal and depleted uranium is thought to be the cause. Therefore, HRN requests the USA and UK to provide the detailed information of the weapons which they use in that area, and also requests the government of Iraq and WHO which denied the causal linkage without any reason to re-exam and take measures based on the data from local hospitals and other institutions.
■Extremely hazardous Child Labour in coal mines in Meghalaya, India (PDF)
[Summary] HRN requests the Indian government to abide the Indian law which is prohibiting child labor and the ‘Convention on the rights of the child’ based on the investigation conducted in 2010 on the child labor at coal mine in Northwest India Area. We report the severe condition the children are in and request the international society to reinforce the supervision and countermeasures.
■Fukushima the Japanese government to protect people’s right to health in accordance with recommendations by the UN Special Rapporteur Anand Grover (PDF)
[Summary] HRN criticizes the government for not considering the requests of Mr. Anand Grover, who is the UN Special Rapporteur on the right to health, which he stated in the investigation report (2013), and continues to deny the effects of the accident on health without any reliable sources. We request the government to guarantee the victims’ rights to health and offer enough compensation to those victims.