Japan Discriminates Against Migrant Workers

By Hyo-Jin Paik
Impunity Watch Reporter, Asia

TOKYO, Japan – An investigation conducted by the United Nations (UN) found that foreign migrant workers in Japan face racism and discrimination.

Japan has increasingly relied on migrant laborers from countries like China and the Philippines as a result of their declining population.  However, the UN report found that some conditions the migrant workers face in Japan “may well amount to slavery.”

UN Special Rapporteur Jorge Bustamante, a specialist in international migration, said, “They [migrants] face racism . . . , exploitation, a tendency by the judiciary and police to ignore their rights and the overall lack of a comprehensive immigration policy that incorporates human rights protection.”

The UN report also highlighted that racism and discrimination based on nationality in schools, workplace, housing and health care  are also very common in Japan. 

Bustamante especially drew attention to the high rates of domestic violence against migrant women and children.  He said, “Appropriate policies to protect and assist single mothers and their children who find themselves in this extremely vulnerable situation are lacking . . . .”

For example, large number of migrant children in Japan does not attend school.  The UN is urging the Japanese government to increase efforts in helping these children study and learn Japanese.

There have also been cases where parents of children born in Japan who have lived in the country for more than ten years have recently been deported or detained, which resulted in children being separated from their parents.

The Special Rapporteur expressed concern that “[i]n accordance with the principle of the best interest of the child, families should not be separated.”

Furthermore, the UN investigation found that Japan has a policy of detaining irregular immigrants, e.g., asylum-seekers, parents and children, for extended period of time.  In certain cases, some were detained as long as three years, which, according to the UN, is a “de factor indefinite detention.”

Japans’ Foreign Ministry has declined to comment, and Bustamante will represent his full report to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in October.
For more information, please see:

AFP – Racism and discrimination common in Japan: UN envoy – 31 March 2010

Financial Times – Japan’s treatment of migrant workers criticized – 31 March 2010

UN News Centre – Independent UN rights expert urges end to migrant discrimination in Japan – 1 April 2010

Un-contacted Indigenous Tribe at Risk

By Sovereign Hager
Impunity Watch Reporter, South America

Sattelite photos showing the area where uncontacted indigenous tribes live that will be destroyed by Yaguarete Companys bull dozing. Photo Courtesy of Survival International
Satellite photos showing the area where un-contacted indigenous tribes live that will be destroyed by Yaguarete Company's bull dozing. Photo Courtesy of Survival International

CHACO REGION, Paraguay-Brazilian cattle-ranchers working for Yaguarete Prora S.A. reportedly have plans to “bulldoze” land where un-contacted indigenous people live. The company is a member of the UN “Global Compact” which must operate under ten universally accepted principles dealing with human rights, labor, the environment, and anti-corruption.

Protesters of the controversial plan say that Yaguarete should be expelled from the UN “Global Compact” because they will destroy land belonging to the Ayoreo-Totogeigosode tribe “in flagrant violation of both Paraguayan and international law.” An independent media outlet reports that Yaguarete ownes 78,549 hectares of the tribe’s ancestral land and intends to leave only 16,784 hectares of it as “continuous forest.”

Two specific principles of the global compact are reportedly being violated: 1) that “businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights and 2) ensure that the company is not complicit in human rights abuses.  A legal claim based on destroyed forest was submitted by the Totobeigosode in 1993.

UN President Ban Ki-Moon is head of the UN Global Compact and rights groups have solicited him directly to expel Yaguarete from the group. The Director of Survival International said that “Yaguarete cannot be said to be committed to aligning their operations with human rights. We urge the Compact to blackball Yaguarete from the initiative now – if it doesn’t, it runs the risk of losing all integrity.”

For more information, please see:

Ekklesia-UN Urged to Ditch Cattle-Rachers From Human Rights Board-31 March 2010

Scoop World-Brazilian Ranchers on the UN Global Compact-30 March 2010

Survival-Ban Ki-moon Urged to Remove Brazilian Ranchers From U.N. Global Compact-29 March 2010

Sudanese Opposition Parties Threaten Election Boycott

By Jennifer M. Haralambides
Impunity Watch Reporter, Africa

KHARTOUM, Sudan – On the verge of Sudan’s first multi-party election in over twenty years, the opposition Umma party announced that it will boycott the elections if President Omar al-Bashir cannot ensure that they will be “free and fair.”

The Umma party, in conjunction with other opposition parties, gave authorities four days to implement reforms.  If the reforms are implemented, the opposition parties have said they will participate in the elections.  If the reforms fail, the election will be boycotted.

The major impetus for the opposition’s possible boycott stem from allegations of fraud against President al-Bashir.  The opposition is demanding, among other things, the end of “repressive security measures” and a four-week delay in the election, so that a new supervisory body over the election commission may be set up.   Additional demands include “equitable access to state media, public funds for political parties and a commitment to Darfuri representation in the presidency.”

President al-Bashir, who came to power in a coup in 1986 and currently is wanted for alleged war crimes in Darfur, has resolutely refused to extend the date of the elections.

For their part, Sudanese citizens appear to support having the elections, as opposed to the alternative.  One citizen, and English teacher, told AFP reporters that “[w]e don’t know if this boycott is final or not, but we don’t like the idea . . . It’s better to have the elections. With elections comes change, and we need change. Better to have elections than nothing at all.”

The war-torn country has not seen a democratic election since the coup that brought al-Bashir to power some twenty-four years ago.  Since that time 1.5 million Sudanese have died in the religious conflict between the mainly Muslim North and the South, which is populated mainly by those who follow traditional beliefs or are Christian.

For more information, please see:

AFP – Sudan Opposition Party Suggests Election Compromise – 2 April 2010

BBC News – Sudan:-Umma Opposition Party Gives Bashir Ultimatum – 2 April 2010

Independent Online  – Sudanese Not Bothered by Election Boycott – 2 April 2010

Reuters – End Violent South African Protests: Deputy President – 2 April 2010

Serbia Seeks Arrest of Nazi War Criminal

By Kenneth F. Hunt
Impunity Watch Reporter, Europe

BELGRADE, Serbia – A court in Belgrade, Serbia issued an international arrest warrant for a former Nazi accused of committing war crimes during World War II against Jews.

Peter Egner, 88, is suspected of committing mass murder during the Nazi occupation of Serbia. The Nazis occupied large parts of Serbia, including Belgrade, from April 1941 to October 1944.

He is accused of taking part of executing 17,000 civilians between 1941 and 1943, including “Jews, Romas, and political dissidents”. The indictment also suggests that Mr. Egner directly ordered some of those executions.

Some of the victims were executed in Belgrade in a van specially designed for gassing. Others executed later after being sent to concentration camps.

The alleged crimes occurred when Mr. Egner was part of a Nazi-run Serbian police unit known as Einsatzgruppe. Mr. Egner has consistently claimed not only that he was not a part of Einsatzgruppe, but knows nothing about its existence.

Mr. Egner, born in the former Yugoslavia, is an ethnic German, who has been an American citizen since he moved to the United States in the 1960’s. Mr. Egner also currently lives in the United States.

The United States Department of Justice has cooperated with Serbia in investigating war crimes committed by Einsatzgruppe, and plans to continue to do so.

As a result of the investigation, the Department of Justice has filed a motion with a federal court to revoke Mr. Egner’s citizenship.

For more information, please see:

B92 – Arrest warrant out for WW2 Nazi – 2 April 2010

BBC – Serbia issues warrant for ‘Nazi murderer’ Peter Egner – 2 April 2010

NEW YORK TIMES – Serbia Seeks Extradition Of Suspected Nazi From U.S. – 2 April 2010

UPI – Serbia issues warrant for WW II suspect – 2 April 2010

Iraqi Panel Moves to Disqualify Candidates

By Bobby Rajabi

Impunity Watch Reporter, Middle East

BAGHDAD, Iraq – The committee in charge of vetting candidates in Iraq has found that six of the winning candidates in the March 7 general election should be disqualified for their alleged ties to the former Baath government. If the move by the panel is upheld, it would alter the election result, which resulted in former Prime Minister Ayad Allawi’s Iraqiyya coalition winning by two seats. Iraqiyya, however, lacks to the seats to form a government.

Iraq’s Accountability and Justice Commission found that six of election winners were members of the Baath political party. This was the party of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and is banned under Iraqi law. The Committee, sometimes referred to as the De-Baathification Committee, was formed to prevent people associated with Hussein’s party from standing for elected office. Officials from the Committee, who chose to remain anonymous, told the Associated Press that of the six winners, four of them belonged to former Prime Minsters Allawi’s coalition.

Officials from the Justice and Accountability Committee told the AP that they had originally submitted fifty two names to barred from the standing in the election. However, according to the officials, Iraq’s Independent High Election Commission did not act on the recommendations of the committee. Six of the fifty two candidates subsequently went on the win their elections.

Allawi’s Iraqiyya bloc has rejected to moves of the Justice and Accountability Committee. Hamid al-Mutlaq, a winning candidate that is a member of Iraqiyya, insisted that “those six winning candidates have the approval of the election commission and this decision is a political one, not a legal one.” The Independent High Election Commission, despite ignoring the fifty two names referred to them by the Justice and Accountability Committee, ultimately barred close to fiver hundred candidates from standing for election.

The State of Law coalition leader, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, is currently mounting a legal challenge to the election. Despite this challenge, both United Nations and United States envoys to Iraq have said the the March 7 election was credible.

For more information, please see:

BBC – Call to Bar Iraq Election Winners ‘Connected to Saddam’ – 31 March 2010

New York Times – Panel in Iraq Moves to Disqualify 52 Candidates – 29 March 2010

Associated Press – Iraq Panel Wants to Bar 4 Elected on Winning List – 29 March 2010