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	Critical UN report on Japanese justice system by Karon Snowdon Radio Australia Japan   25 May, 2007   Japan"s legal fraternity has backed calls by the United Nations for Japan"s justice system to be overhauled. The UN"s Committee Against Torture released a damning report earlier this week which condemned many practices of the police and courts along with Japan"s treatment of international refugees. The Committee set a one year deadline for change.   Karon Snowdon : The United Nations has a habit of expecting governments which sign its conventions to actually meet the convention"s obligations.   There are 144 nations which have signed the 1984 Convention Against Torture and other cruel, and inhuman or degrading treatment.   In 1999, Japan was the last industrial country to sign up. It then took six years instead of the mandated one to submit its report on how its ensures human rights abuses don"t occur in Japan. And what it had to say didn"t please the UN Committee of Review.   Yuichi Kido: Those issue is a very urgent Japanese Government must rise to international human rights standard.   Karon Snowdon : Yuichi Kaido is the Deputy Secretary General of the Prison Committee of Japan"s Bar Association. The Association has submitted its own report to the UN Committee listing its many criticisms of the justice system.   It has a lot of concerns in common with the findings of the UN Committee itself. Foremost among them are the prolonged detention in police custody, the high criminal conviction rate using confessions, the continued use of the death penalty and the abuse of solitary confinement - often for more than ten years, with one case of 42 years noted.   There"s even a particular name for the long periods police can hold and interrogate suspects, known as Daiyo Kangoku or the substitute prison system.   Yuichi Kido: The police can interrogate suspects for 23 days and day and night, a very, very long time, and also there is no video taping, so let go the transparency. That system gives a investigating authority such as the prosecutor and the police very big power.   Karon Snowdon : Yuichi Kido says there are four known cases where the death penalty was applied wrongly. He adds the Bar Association has been lobbying for thirty years to have the substitute prison system abolished.   Yuichi Kido: The Japanese Federation Bar Association demand abolition of the dis-service to the prison system. For 30 years, we have not succeeded, but we get very strong support from the UN body.   Karon Snowdon : The UN report went further. It particularly criticised what it saw as a lack of judicial independence and Japan"s treatment of international refugees and the government"s dismissal of the claims of World War Two comfort women.   As to the legal system lawyer Yuichi Kaido is pessimistic that the UN recommendations will be met. He says an absence of public debate in Japan is contributing to the lack of change in a system based on one hundred year old laws.   Yuichi Kido: In Japan, the one movie about miscarriages of justice make a very big hit. This movie time "I Just Didn"t Do It". Ordinary Japanese people didn"t know the problem with this system, but they realise and fears are very serious concern about the Japanese criminal system. So that we have a chance to change this system. But there is no such big public debate.
	Rwanda: UN rights chief lauds progress, warns of pitfalls by Louise Arbour UN High Commissioner for Human Rights   25 May 2007   Praising Rwanda’s initiatives to heal the deep wounds of its 1994 genocide, the top United Nations human rights official today cautioned that the local trials of hundreds of thousands of defendants in the mass murders must conform to international standards.   “In coming to terms with that horrendous crime, the Rwandan people has shown courage and imagination,” High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour said in a statement issued upon completion of her 12-day mission to Africa''s Great Lakes Region, which previously took her to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Burundi.   As evidence of Rwanda’s innovative recovery measures, Ms. Arbour pointed to the Gacaca process, an adaptation of traditional local courts established to cope with the enormous number of people – estimated at 750,000 – who took part in the crimes.   The violence took the lives of some 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, many of whom were felled by machetes or clubs.   “The Gacaca process aims to deliver a measure of justice to victims and promote reconciliation,” she said.   However, the haste in which the defendants are to be tried and the possibility that many of them could receive long sentences of up to 30 years from judges with little legal training was worrisome, she said.   “The trials must therefore strive to conform to all guarantees of due process, in accordance with national and international standards,” Ms. Arbour said, welcoming the willingness of the Government to work with all partners, including civil society, to respond to the challenges.   During her two-day visit to the tiny East African country, Ms. Arbour met with President Paul Kagame, the Ministers of Justice and Foreign Affairs and the Director of the National Service of Gacaca courts as well as members of the National Human Rights Commission and non-governmental organizations (NGOs).   In addition to her comments on the judicial process, she said she was pleased with Rwanda’s initiatives to abolish the death penalty and to ratify the Convention against torture, as well as pursuing legislation to expand freedom of expression in the media.   She reiterated her Office’s commitment to assist in all these areas, as part of “the remarkable effort underway in Rwanda towards the reconstruction of a just, inclusive and peaceful society.”
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