뉴스레터

Recently, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navanethem Pillay issued a statement urging the Japanese government to resolve the 'comfort women' issue as soon as possible. In addition, in late July, the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) demanded that "Japan should make a public apology to 'comfort women' victims and acknowledge and accept responsibility," in a voice more critical toward the Japanese government than ever before since the UNCHR's adoption of the 1996 resolution, which was based on the report by the Special Rapporteur (on Violence against Women) Radhika Coomaraswamy.

The UNCHR, established by the Economic and Social Council, is a commission that addresses global human rights issues comprehensively and intensively. In its 50th session on March 4, 1994, a resolution on the "question of integrating the rights of women into the human rights mechanisms of the United Nations and the elimination of violence against women" was passed, establishing the special rapporteur system to investigate, for a three-year period, the cause and consequences of violence against women, and appointing Radhika Coomaraswamy to the position of the Special Rapporteur. It is the Special Rapporteur's duty to investigate and confirm the charges, causes, relevant rules of international law, and overall case statics, with regard to all violations of the human rights of women in situations of armed conflict, including, in particular, murder, systematic rape, sexual slavery and all kinds of sexual abuse and exploitation of women.

The First U.N. Report on 'Comfort Women'

In her preliminary report, submitted in 1994, the Special Rapporteur Radhika Coomaraswamy introduced former Korean 'comfort women,' as a case of violence against women around the world, who testified, fifty years after the war, their experience as victims of Japanese military sexual slavery. This report with the separate title 'comfort women' says that between 1932 and 1945 the Japanese military enforced a systematic policy to abduct women in countries colonized or conquered by Japan and force them to serve as 'comfort women' for soldiers and that most of the victims were young women aged between eleven and twenty years and it took place in such regions as China, the Philippines, Korea, the Dutch East Indies, Malaysia, and Indonesia.
Afterwards, in 1995, the Speical Rapporteur made country visits to South Korea, North Korea, and Japan for in-depth investigation of the 'comfort women' issue, which is detailed in the final report submitted to the 52nd session of the UNCHR in 1996. Entitled "Report on the mission to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea and Japan on the issue of military sexual slavery in wartime," it includes: definition, historical background, testimonies, positions of the governments, moral responsibility, and recommendations. The recommendations made in the report are directed at the Japanese government and the international community. Specifically, at the national level, the report says, the Government of Japan should: 1) Acknowledge that the system of comfort stations (set up by the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War) was a violation of its obligations under international law and accept legal responsibility for that violation; 2) Pay compensation to individual victims of Japanese military sexual slavery according to principles outlined by the Special Rapporteur (of the Sub­Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on the right to restitution, compensation and rehabilitation for victims of grave violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms). A special administrative tribunal for this purpose should be set up (with a limited time­frame since many of the victims are of a very advanced age); 3) Make a full disclosure of documents and materials in its possession (with regard to comfort stations and other related activities of the Japanese Imperial Army during the Second World War); 4) Make a public apology in writing to individual women who have come forward and can be substantiated as women victims of Japanese military sexual slavery; 5) Raise awareness of these issues by amending educational curricula to reflect historical realities; and 6) Identify and punish, as far as possible, perpetrators involved in the recruitment and institutionalization of comfort stations during the Second World War. The Japanese government at the time tried to stop the adoption of the UNCHR report. And their such activities still continue today. In the meantime, there was also a report on "Japan's legal liability for Korean wartime sex slaves under Tokyo's military regime," written in 1998 by the Special Rapporteur (on the issue of systematic rape, sexual slavery, and slavery-like practice in armed conflict) Gay McDougall.