Article 9 of Japanese Constitution is a treasure for Japanese people as well as for all the citizens

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https://blogs.yahoo.co.jp/jrfs20040729/29093113.html

WrittenStatement for the 37^th Session of the Human Rights Council (February26 to March 23)

Article 9 of Japanese Constitution is a treasure for Japanese people as well as 

for all the citizens of our planet

Japanese Association for the Right to Freedom of Speech (JRFS)

NGO in Special Consultative Status with the ECOSOC

project peace 9

We, members of the Japanese Association forthe Right of Freedom of Speech (JRFS) call on you to join us in the parallelevent ¡ÈProject Peace 9¡É aiming at spreading Article 9 all around the word to protectArticle 9 and build peace in Japan, Asia and the world in the eve of the 70^thanniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

 

Wecall on you to press the Japanese Government to establish the rule of law byratifying the all the optional protocols regarding the individual complaintsmechanism for the human rights instruments that Japan has already ratified.

 

Please urge the Japanese Government to acceptall the recommendations from the third Universal Periodic Review (UPR) andimplement them jointly with the NGOs and citizens.

 

This year marks the 70^th anniversary of the UniversalDeclaration of Human Rights. Last year, Japan, as member of the Human RightsCouncil for the fourth time, was subject to the 3^rd UPR and receivedas many as 218 recommendations from 106 countries and regions, a 25% increasefrom the previous review.

 

Japan was elected member of Human Rights Council in 2016 for the 4thtime and declared in January 2017 that it would ratify the individualcomplaints mechanism as recommended by many countries at the second UPR.  However, the Abe Cabinet continues to refusethe ratification of relevant optional protocols.  The ratification all these protocols onindividual complaints mechanism only takes the decision of the Cabinet, liftingJapan¡Çs reservation regarding the article 22 of Convention againstTorture.  

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has failed to respond to the letteraddressed to him by the HRC Special Rapporteur Joseph Cannataci concerning theright to privacy, totally ignored the International Covenant on Civic andPolitical Rights (CCPR) and voted the controversial ¡Èconspiracy bill¡É withoutsufficient deliberations of the Diet.

 

In 2013, Abe also ignored the concernsexpressed by the HRC Special Rapporteurs (Frank La Rue on the freedom of speechand expression and Anand Grover) and the UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay and railroadedthe state secret bill and the bill on Japanese version of national securitycouncil.  In 2015, it passed through theDiet the perilous ¡Èwar laws¡É in violation of Article 20-1 of the CCPR.

In 1979, when the Diet ratified the CCPR andInternational Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), all thepolitical parties agreed unanimously at the foreign affairs commissions of twoHouses that Japan would early ratify the first optional protocol of the CCPR.  However, this agreement has not been realizeduntil now.

 

The Japanese has failedto inform and/or educate the public personnel about the international humanrights instruments and the HRC recommendations. Human rights instruments arenot taught in law faculties as mandatory subject. In the national barexamination, no question refers to international human rights.  Legal apprentices do study about human rightsinstruments only 2 hours.  No Japanesecourt of justice has ever handed down a decision requiring the amendments ofexisting laws or any legislation to make them conform to the human rightsinstruments.

 

Planned amendment of the Constitution in violation of the CCPR Article20-1

 Abe declared in May 2017 that he would ¡Èamendthe Constitution to explicitly recognize the existence of self-defense forcesby 2020¡É.  The self-defense forces aregenuine armed forces whose main mission is to wage war.

 

Japan once was an aggressor in the secondworld war and it is against the article 9-2 of its Constitution to maintainarmed forces.

 

Japan was not admitted to join the UnitedNations until 11 years after its founding. Now it dares to declare that it willamend the Constitution to give its self-defense forces the status of genuinearmed troops. This is a violation of Articles 9 and 99 of the Constitutionand a violation also of the article 20-1 of the CCPR. 

 

The booklet published bythe Japanese Foreign Ministry on the occasion of the 50^thanniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Right entitled ¡ÈUniversalDeclaration of Human Rights and International Human Rights Covenants¡É, incommenting the article 20-1, states that ¡ÈJapan does not need to punish by lawsomething abstract as ¡Æwar propaganda¡Ç because it renounces war by itsConstitution¡É.

In 1999, the law onnational flag and national anthem passed the Diet. In 2000 a study commissionon the Constitution was set up in the both Houses.  In 2007, the first Abe Cabinet partially revisedthe Law on the Diet to establish a commission in each House to accelerate theprocess for amending the article 9. By revising existing national laws andunfair merit-based appointments of state personnel, Abe is preparing the groundfor the revision of article 9.

 

Japanese Diet has neverexamined bills in the light of international human rights instruments. 

 

The declaration of theGovernment to amend the Constitution, the article 9 in particular, withoutinstituting a national law that is an application of the article 20-1 of the CCPR,constitutes a violation of the CCPR. It is also contrary to the articles 1-3,55 and 56 of the United Nations¡Ç Charter that call for internationalcooperation for promoting the respect of human rights and basic freedoms, andthe commitment of all member countries to collective and individual actions forthe universal observance of human rights and fundamental freedoms.

The Human Rights Councilshould deprive the Japanese Government of its seat in the Council as it failsto ratify the optional protocols concerning individual complaints mechanism andcontinues to arrest or persecute innocent citizens who distribute flyerscritical to the Government.

 

Right of Privacy Crisis and Lack of citizen¡Çs political right (CCPRarticles 17, 19 and 25)

 

In 2012, the Supreme Court failed to give a relief order for Mr, Akio Horikoshi who was indictedfor violation of State Personnel Law.  Inaddition, it neglected the paragraph 26 of the concluding observation ofCCPR/JPN/CO/5and dropped the crimes committed by police officers who hadconducted illegal investigation against Mr. Horikoshi.  Although Mr. Horikoshi was sentenced notguilty, his violated human rights have not been entirely restored.

 

The 7 other people who distributed the flyerscritical to the government in letter boxes of individuals and were sentencedguilty of intruding others¡Ç houses or violating the State Personnel Law remainguilty.  This has a strong chillingeffect on ordinary citizens.  TheMinistry of Internal Affairs continues to overlook the paragraph 26 of therecommendation and has fails to amend neither of the State Personnel Law andPublic Office Election Law.

 

Inpost-war Japan, these two laws have contributed in seriously restricting thefreedom of speech and expression in election campaigns.  

 

Inaddition, under the second Abe Cabinet, human rights NGOs, leaders and membersof citizens groups who oppose the construction of military bases and high-risecondos or the restart of nuclear power plants are frequently arrested anddetained without warrant. 

 

The Government of Japan has imposed a socialsecurity and tax number system nicknamed ¡ÈMy Number System¡É in violation of theCCRP article 17 and railroaded the Conspiracy law.

Mainstreaming U.N. Human Security and DisasterMitigation and Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

 

Since the start of the second Abe Cabinet in 2012, the human rightsconsultation meetings that had been held twice a year, bringing togetherForeign ministry officers, government representatives to UN human rights bodies,NGOs and citizens to share information and exchange views about UN initiativesregarding human rights, have not been held.  Japanese citizens and NGOs have thus lost animportant opportunity to obtain information regarding UNHRC and CCRP Committee.

 

Japanese Government has not honored thecommitment it made to implement the HRC recommendations (CCPR/C/JPN/CO/6 para6, 7, 22, 23 and 24).   In fact, after havingforced the passage through the Diet of the law on national flag and anthem in1999, the Government has imposed the hoisting of Hinomaru flag and singing ofKimigayo on teachers and children in school. Teachers and children who do not stand before the flag or who refuse tosing Kimigayo song in ceremonies are subject to punishments, includingreduction of salary and other disciplinary measures. Those teachers who havebeen punished are denied re-hiring after the retirement age (60), deprivingthem of the source of income until they reach 65, the age that entitled them topension.

The imposition de these national emblems has completed the effort to consolidatea ¡Èwar-making country¡É where the past war and imperial system are glorifiedwhile children in Fukushima and elsewhere suffer from poverty and exposed to violence,being denied of any help from public authorities.

 

For instance, the Tokyo Board of Education in 2003 punished over 400teachers who did not comply with the its order regarding Hinomaru flag andKimigayo song.

 

In Osaka prefecture, thelocal assembly voted a ¡Èdecree concerning Hinomaru and Kimigayo¡É in 2011 aimedat excluding from prefecture personnel those teachers opposed to the use of theflag and the song as national emblems.

 

In addition, since thegreat earthquake that hit the eastern regions of Japan in 2011, the Governmenthas been trying to mislead the public opinion in favor of self-defense forceson the pretext of disaster relief.  Theeducation ministry, le defense ministry and local governments of 47 prefecturesare collaborating to build a ¡Èwar and security state regime¡É using the jointU.S. and Japan military exercises and the military tension on the KoreanPeninsula created by the new US Government.

Using the Democratic People's Republic of Korea launch of missiles, subways in large cities are stoppedand municipalities have begun evacuation exercise to prepare for a hypotheticalmissile attack by Democratic People's Republic ofKorea. Hiding the real natureof self-defense forces that are genuine armed forces, the Government is tryingto build up a war-waging system using as pretext the need for disasterprevention.  This is contrary to thearticle 20-1 of the CCPR.