RIGHTS-JAPAN: Implement Torture Convention say Activists

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Mar 2 2000 (IPS) - Rights activists say prison conditions in Japan need to be improved in accordance with the United Nations Convention Against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CAT) which Tokyo signed last July.

“While the decision to become a signatory to the Convention has been a step forward, the Japanese government continues to deny the rights of people such as criminals, foreigners and mental patients,” says Hideki Morihara of Amnesty, Japan.

Harsh conditions in Japanese prisons and in immigration detention centres, where illegal foreigners languish without proper care, are cited as some of the examples of gross abuse.

Activists also point to cases of forced deportation of foreigners who are seeking refugee status in Japan. This, they say, goes against the Convention.

They also call attention to cases of mentally ill patients in hospitals, who are often tied to their beds and prevented from seeking independent counsel. The plight of this group of people is allegedly ignored in Japan.

“The CAT is important to us human rights projectionists because it helps focus on the lack of respect for minority groups in Japan,” explains Yuiichi Kaido, a human rights lawyer.

Torture, activists say, is widely practiced in Japanese prisons. Against stipulations in the Convention, foreigners at detention centres are routinely subject to verbal and physical abuse such as beatings while handcuffed, and confined to solitary cells at the whim of immigration officials.

They are denied access to lawyers, they claim.

Customs officers at Kansai Airport were rapped in March last year for using excessive measures in searching six Filipino women suspected of drug smuggling. They were ordered to remove their underwear but no drugs were found on them.

A month later, the Asahikawa District Court, in Hokkaido dismissed a suit by a prisoner held in solitary confinement for 13 years on the grounds that the sentence was “necessary for keeping order” in prisons.

Kaido, who appeared for the plaintiff, said: “Solitary confinement represents a human rights violation in a Japanese prison and the ruling shows again that the court is siding with the administration.”

Last month, Japan’s legal system was rocked again when an earlier guilty verdict slapped on six juveniles at a family court for the rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl was overturned by the Supreme Court.

The boys who were between 13 and 15 years when arrested said they confessed to the murder as a result of intimidation by police during interrogation and pleaded not guilty.

“Courts rely heavily on confessions taken at police cells, which is against international human rights standards,” commented lawyer Satoro Shinomiya.

The latest case has spotlighted once again the “substitute prison system” which allow investigators to detain suspects for up to 23 days without allowing them access to lawyers.

Investigators are also able to keep suspects in police custody even after charges have been filed and are therefore potentially able to influence their treatment.

Amnesty says the system goes against CAT and wants the Justice Ministry to carry out new laws that will make video- taping and other monitoring to be carried out during interrogation sessions.

The Justice Ministry has, however, rejected such proposals claiming excessive violence is not used during interrogation and that existing laws contain legal checks that protect the human rights of prisoners.

Despite the generally dismal situation, there are scattered incidents that give activists reason to hope that some reform might be forthcoming.

They cite a rare decision taken in February this year by the Chiba District Court to award damages to a man who said he had been beaten harshly with a leather handcuff and body belt in a prison cell.

“The court decision was a rare success story for us activists. It shows the emerging human rights consciousness among the public,” commented Kaido, but gave no details of the case.

Activists say they will continue their campaign to curb the Japanese police force’s “unregulated and excessive powers,” pointing that their fight is especially important because of the increasing number of foreigners who are subject to police abuse.

They are also worried about a new anti-subversion bill passed in the Diet last December extending powers to police to conduct on-the-spot investigations without warrants into organisations such as the Aum Cult, deemed dangerous to the public.

The law encouraged the first investigation in January into an office of the cult, responsible for the nerve gas attack in a Tokyo subway some years ago, when police walked into the building without warning while cult members were ordered to stay outside.

“This new law is a step backwards in Japan’s human rights progress. We are worried,” said Kaido.