UN Human Rights Committee Requests Japan To Redress "Comfort Women" Issue

The United Nations Human Rights Committee raised its concerns on Thursday over the issue of "comfort women" and requested Japan to make immediate and effective efforts to redress this issue.
The UN committee raised its concerns in its concluding observations on the sixth periodic report of Japan on its implementation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR).
The Human Rights Committee, the body composed of independent experts that monitors implementation of this core human rights instrument, noted that during its sixth review of Japan's report, the "comfort women" was one of the highlighted issues that required immediate attention from the Japanese government, according to Cees Flinterman, vice chairperson of the committee.
The monitoring panel placed emphasis on Japan's contradictory position on this issue: Japan said that the "recruitment, transportation and management" of these women in comfort stations was done in many cases generally against their wills through coercion and intimidation by the military during wartime, but the "comfort women" were not "forcibly deported".
"We thought it is important to highlight this particular contradictory position, because it seemed to imply that there was no true human rights problems," Flinterman told reporters, adding that with such a stance Japan could put the legal responsibility that it should shoulder into question.
The committee believed that any such acts carried out against the wills of the victims are sufficient to consider them as human rights violations involving the direct legal responsibility of Japan.
The committee requested Japan to take immediate and effective legislative and administrative measures to redress the issue of "comfort women". (Cihan/Xinhua)