Japan Press Weekly

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2013 May 8 - 14 [WOMEN]

Women’s group submits petitions to Diet to end discrimination against women

A UN-accredited NGO of Japanese women on May 8 submitted three petitions to the Diet through Japanese Communist Party legislators, demanding that the government promote measures to deal with women’s issues based on the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

Representatives of the New Japan Women’s Association (Shinfujin) met with JCP members of the Lower House Shiokawa Tetsuya and Miyamoto Takeshi at the Dietmembers’ Office Building and handed them 68,380 signatures in support of the three petitions.

Head of the association Kasai Kimiyo said that the Abe Cabinet initially intended to modify the Kono Statement which expresses an apology to Asian victims of Japanese military sex slavery during the war but strong international criticism stopped that attempt. She indicated that the government should turn away from such an attitude of disdain and settle the so-called wartime comfort women issue.

In the three petitions, Shinfujin seeks Japan’s ratification of the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women; amendments to the Civil Code which are disadvantageous to women; and a final settlement of the comfort women issue.

By ratifying the Optional Protocol, a state recognizes the competence of the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women to receive and consider complaints from individuals or groups within its jurisdiction. The UN General Assembly in 1999 adopted the Optional Protocol and 104 nations have ratified it.