Buraku Liberation News, November 1998 issue (No.106)
We will enrich Research Projects of the BLHRRI in 1999.
by Kenzo Tomonaga
Director, BLHRRI
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a free market economy has swept the whole world. A huge amount of speculative capital moving around the world has caused the instability of the global economy, such as the economic crisis in Asian countries as well as in Russia.
In the wake of a widening gap between the rich and the poor, both domestically and internationally, unemployment rates have soared in many countries. Ethnic conflicts that brought even genocide have increased in number. India and Pakistan forcibly carried out nuclear tests, and the US and Britain used military force on Iraq. These facts constitute a menace to world peace.
Facing serious human rights violations, the UN opened the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda. In July 1998, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court was adopted, aiming to ensure effective prosecution against the most serious crimes of concern to the international community.
In addition, the UN encouraged each country to establish national human rights institution in order to take actions or provide remedies. Since 1995 the UN Decade for Human Rights Education has been promoted to create a universal culture of human rights.
The UN designated this year as the International Year of Older Persons towards a society for all ages. Governments were encouraged to incorporate its principles of independence, participation, self-fulfillment and dignity into their national programs.
In Japan, as the deep recession continues, the unemployment rates hit the worst level in the post-war period. Homeless people are increasing in number. The measures to stimulate the economy taken by the government do not effectively work. As a result, people are obsessed with anxiety for the future.
Under such circumstances, many discriminatory incidents are occurring in Japan. Major detective agencies investigating the background of job-seekers checked whether they live in Buraku communities. That was disclosed in June 1998. In addition, discriminatory propaganda on the internet is increasing recently.
It is necessary for us to push the government to take legislative measures against grave discriminatory incidents and human rights violations in addition to provide effective remedies with victims of human rights violations. It is also necessary for us to actively promote the UN Decade for Human Rights Education.
As a part of this, it is important to disseminate and implement the Osaka Declaration, adopted during the International Conference on Human Rights Education in the Asia-Pacific Region held in November 1998 (see the next article).
Several socio-economic measures should be taken, such as providing employment opportunities for unemployed people, decentralizing the powers of the national government and ensuring the financial background for local governments, and creating communities where human rights are guaranteed.
The year 1999 has significance from the view point of human rights and the Buraku issue. Based on the Law of Promotion of Measures for Human Rights Protection, the Council for Human Rights Protection is requested to submit a report on awareness-raising that will be the basis of legislation on human rights education.
Twenty years will have passed in 1999 since the International Covenants took effect in Japan. We have to keep in mind that the recommendations to the Japanese Government in the Concluding Observations adopted by the UN Human Rights Committee in 1998 should be implemented. The UN Committee on Elimination of Racial Discrimination will consider the Japanese Government's report that will be submitted this year based on the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
In such a situation, the Buraku liberation movement must play an important role to promote human rights in Japan.
In 1999 the Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Research Institute sees its 31st year. Since we changed our name to the present one at the General Assembly in June 1998, we have to strengthen the research projects regarding the subjects mentioned above.
We also have to enrich the content of our Buraku Liberation and Human Rights Lecture Course, one of our major projects, on the occasion of its 25th anniversary this year. We will publish the Encyclopedia on Buraku and Human Rights Issues, and the Data Book on Modern History on Buraku issue in Osaka (two volumes, written in Japanese) in addition to continue publishing several books on human rights.