1. On October 31, the UN Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review Working Group held a session to review the human rights situation in Japan. This was based on the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) system, founded by the adoption of UN General Assembly Resolution 60/251 (this resolution also established the Human Rights Council). Since 2008, the UPR has reviewed every UN member-state’s human rights situation in a four-year cycle. Japan was reviewed for the first time during the second session in 2008, and was reviewed again for the fourteenth session in October, 2012.
2. At the first UPR, 26 recommendations were adopted against Japan, and the Japanese government accepted 13 of them (including the foundation of an independent institution for reviewing claims of human rights violations within Japan; the acceptance of the individual complaints procedure of human rights treaties; and the development of legal systems to ensure gender equality). However, the implementation process is still insufficient, and consultation with civil society has not yet been sufficiently guaranteed.
Human Rights Now (HRN) has repeatedly criticized the Japanese government over its ineffective implementation of the UPR recommendations. At the recent session, on 31 October, many member-states made the same recommendations as in 2008.
In particular, the following issues have been raised repeatedly by many states, demonstrating a strong level of concern from the international community.
These issues are listed as follows: The foundation of an independent human rights protection institution based on the Paris Principles; the realization of the individual complaints procedure of human rights treaties; the total visualization of investigation and the attendance of defense counsel to the investigation; the reform of criminal justice, including the reform of the pre-trial detention system; the suspension of capital punishment and the encouragement of debate about the abolition of capital punishment; reform of the treatment of condemned criminals based on international human rights standards; the solution of the comfort women issue; an effort to end violence against women and human trafficking, and the empowerment of women; and the revision of the Civil Code provisions which discriminate against women and illegitimate children.
At this session, in particular, several recommendations were made to request the Japanese government to take further measures to combat the discrimination against women, disabled people, foreigners and LGBT people. It is required that the Japanese government put real and effective policies in place to bring an end to the discrimination against these groups of people. The Japanese government should take the strong concerns of the international society into consideration and begin work towards the implementation of the recommendations.
3. In addition to the above, the necessity of human rights education for civil servants and at school education was raised by several states. The Japanese government is required to review and improve current human rights education policies.In regard to the issues raised at the first UPR session, HRN has been involved in efforts to disseminate information on human rights violations of people affected people by the Great East Japan Earthquake which hit on March 11th, 2011, and the subsequent accident at the Daiich Nuclear Power Plant in Fukushima. At the UPR session on October 31st, 2012, recommendations asked the government of Japan to take necessary measures to protect the health of people living in Fukushima, and to comply with the visit of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Health scheduled for November, 2012, and to secure opportunities for civil society to meet with the Special Rapporteur. These recommendations are highly important, and HRN urges the government to implement them in a serious manner.
5. HRN also requests that the Japanese government accept all recommendations made in the UPR session on October 31st, and also to implement them with the active collaboration of civil society in order to work towards the improvement of the overall human rights situation in Japan.