U.N.
body advises Japan to reform prison
system
The
Japan Times: Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Compiled from Kyodo, AP
The U.N.
Committee against Torture has unveiled a report that
advises Japan to reform its "substitute prison" system,
part of its concluding observations on human rights reports
from Japan and six other countries.
The committee report also accuses Japan of trying to
whitewash its past practice of forcing women to become sex
slaves for Japanese Imperial army soldiers, and urged Tokyo
to help surviving victims.
The committee, which examined Japan's first report on the
issue, made the observations earlier this month in line
with the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel,
Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.
"The Committee was deeply concerned with the prevalent and
systematic use of the 'daiyo kangoku' substitute prison
system for the prolonged detention of arrested persons even
after they had appeared before a court," it said in a press
release Monday.
Coupled with insufficient procedural guarantees, use of
such prisons "increased the possibilities of abuse of
detainees' rights," it said.
The committee advised Japan to amend its laws "to ensure
complete separation between the functions of investigation
and detention," and to "limit the maximum time detainees
could be held in police custody in line with international
minimum standards."
It noted that the system of notifying death-row inmates of
their execution hours before it takes place "could amount
to torture or ill-treatment." It also criticized the
practice of "keeping death-row prisoners in solitary
confinement after the final sentence was handed down, in
some cases exceeding 30 years."
On other matters, the committee highlighted the inadequacy
of Japan's compensation for women forced into sexual
servitude for its soldiers during World War II —
euphemistically called "comfort women" — and called
on Japan to take measures to eliminate sexual violence.
The
Japan Times: Wednesday, May 23, 2007