ランチタイムブリーフィングの前に 言論・表現の自由を守る会 パレ・ウィルソン会議室にて 29 APR ２０１３
公式ミーティング 国連社会権規約委員会
Report to the Committee on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights
Japanese Association for the Right to Freedom of Speech
April 30, 2013
1. Fukushima
Japanese Government has infringed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights as well as Articles 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR).
It should be held responsible and taken the International Criminal Court for not having observed the recommendations included in the Concluding Observation of the CESCR on Japan issued on September 24, 2001 (paragraphs 22 and 26). This failure led to the level-7 severe accident of TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant that contaminated almost all Japan’s land and waters and exposed the people of Fukushima and other areas to radiation. It should be also noted that since the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of 1995, Japan entered a seismically active period.
We do believe that if the government had “disclosed to the population concerned all necessary information on issues relating the safety of nuclear power installations” as recommended by the CESCR 12 years ago, the tribunals would not have allowed the construction of nuclear plants. If the government had “stepped up its reparations of plans for the prevention of, and early reaction to, nuclear accidents” as recommended by the CESCR, over 1000 deaths related to the explosions of the nuclear plant and massive heath damage caused by radiation exposure could have been prevented and there would not have been such an extensive radiation contamination of soil and water in the disaster-stricken areas.
Nuclear power generation inevitably causes radiation exposure of plant workers and produced materials for making atomic bombs. Once an accident occurs in the plant, it may turn the vast surrounding areas inhabitable for hundreds years or more. Nuclear industry is clearly violates Articles 1, 6, 7, 10, 11, 12, 13 and 15 of the ICESCR. We call on the United Nations to outlaw the nuclear industry, to develop plans to close down all nuclear power plants and quickly embark on the process of elimination of nuclear weapons.
2. Deplorable Governmental Financial Policy
Under a deplorable economic policy that has impoverished the population, the Financial Services Agency has (FSA) destroyed local economy and established a mechanism to channel citizens’ properties to speculative market.
In April 1997: the consumption tax rate was raised from 3 to 5 percent.
In April 1998: the national health insurance coverage rate was brought down from 80 to 70% of medical fees. The number of suicides exceeded 30,000 a year. The suicide rate (number of suicides per 100,000) in Japan is twice that of the U.S. and three times that of the U.K.
In June 1998: the Financial Supervisory Agency was established under the Prime Minister’s Office (its director is a governmental official).
In 2000: The Financial Supervisory Agency was reorganized into the Financial Services Agency. Besides its director, a state minister in charge of financial services supervises the administrative matters.
From 2006: sharp increase in the number of private sector officers and workers (including lawyers, registered accountants, university professors, employees of independent administrative agencies etc.) hired by the Ministries and other governmental bodies.
This led to the bankruptcy of nearly 60 credit unions and cooperatives in two years.
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3. Imposition of Hinomaru Flag and Kimigayo Song Glorifying Imperial Rule
4. State Universities turned into “Independent Administrative Institutions” in 2004
5. Perilous Twist in the Basic Law on Education in 2006
6. Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement in 2013