Massimo Introvigne
2024年9月28日
In Geneva, a special briefing and two oral statements at the UN Human Rights Council reminded the international community that what is happening is a serious threat to freedom of religion with global implications.ジュネーブでは、国連人権理事会での特別報告と2回の口頭声明により、現在起きていることは宗教の自由に対する深刻な脅威であり、世界的な影響を及ぼすものであることを国際社会に改めて認識させた。
What is happening in Japan after the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022 is the most serious religious liberty crisis affecting a democratic country in the 21st century.
The man who assassinated Abe said he wanted to punish him for his support to the Unification Church, now called the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. The killer claimed this church is an evil “cult” and was responsible for the problems of his mother, who went bankrupt in 2002 allegedly due to her excessive donations to the group.
The anti-cultists managed to create a national media campaign blaming Abe and his party for supporting the Unification Church and the latter for soliciting important donations from its followers. Laws were passed targeting the Unification Church and other “cults,” including the Jehovah’s Witnesses (who had nothing to do with the assassination of Abe but are often taken as scapegoats in campaigns against minority religions).
Finally, the government moved for the “death penalty” against the Unification Church in Russian or Chinese style, asking the Tokyo District Court to dissolve it as a religious corporation. At the same time not only Family Federation devotees but also those active in organizations created by the same founders of the Unification Church but autonomous, with a majority of the participants in their initiatives who are not members of the Church, are heavily discriminated in Japan. They include the Universal Peace Federation and the Women’s Federation for World Peace, both United Nations ECOSOC-accredited NGOs.
The religious liberty crisis in Japan was vigorously denounced in Geneva during the the 57th session of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
On September 25, a special briefing “Serious Human Rights Concerns for Minority Faith Communities in Japan” was organized to introduce the report sent by French attorney Patricia Duval to several United Nations personalities and offices, which “Bitter Winter” is publishing in five installments, and distribute its Executive Summary.
In addition to Duval, among the speakers—introduced by Jacques Marion, Co-Chair of the Universal Peace Federation for Europe and the Middle East—were Aaron Rhodes, the President of the Forum for Religious Freedom-Europe, and two witnesses from Japan, attorney Norishige Kondo and Moriko Hori of the Women’s Federation for World Peace.
Kondo also spoke at the Human Rights Council, on behalf of the Universal Peace Federation.
“The Universal Peace Federation,” Kondo said, “would like to draw the attention of this body to the ongoing serious persecution of minority faith communities in Japan, for example the Unification Church or FFWPU. For more than 40 years, thousands of members of this faith community have been kidnapped, subjected to involuntary confinement, torture deprivation of sleep and food and much more. Japanese authorities have just simply turned a blind eye on these heinous crimes. After a full report was sent in 2013 to the Human Rights bodies about Toru Goto case and others, a court in Tokyo ruled deprogramming as illegal. “
“However,” Kondo continued, “in a recent wave of persecution against the church, the Government has used lawfare raised by deprogrammed apostates and biased courts to eliminate the Unification Church from Japan, despite repeated international recommendations to Japan by the UN-Human Rights institutions, and experts. These efforts have reached a very critical stage with a threat of dissolution of the church, violating the ICCPR, confiscation of all their assets and introduction of a new form of State sponsored ‘faith breaking’ and others.”
“We strongly call on the Government to end all discrimination and persecution in Japan,” Kondo concluded.
Carolyn Handschin, Vice President, of the Women’s Federation for World Peace, also addressed the Human Rights Council, reminding it that the Federation, “an NGO with General Consultative Status with ECOSOC has always had a policy to work in partnership with governments, with chapters in 128 nations, and supporting over 400,000 people through hundreds of humanitarian, educational and peace building projects.”
“However,” Handschin said, the “Women’s Federation of Japan, a faith-inspired NGO, who shared the same founders with Unification Church, currently faces unwarranted and intense persecution that presents an existential threat. The inhumane political decisions of Japan’s Kishida administration have put the lives of over 20,000 women and children, supported by WFWP in developing countries, at risk.”
Handschin asked the Human Rights Council to “hear but two examples from schools built and managed by us. In November 2022, q Communist Party Parliamentarian attacked the Foreign Ministry for honoring Women’s Federation with their most prestigious Award for its benefit to local communities at one of the schools in Mozambique. Succumbing to political pressure, the award was revoked, causing upheaval and damage even to former graduates.”
As for the second example, “Another vocational school, dedicated to women’s independence [in Senegal], was recognized by the UN in 2008 as a ‘Best Practice.’ The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, demanded the removal of all traces of the WFWP and eventually dissolved our vocational school, causing extreme psychological harm and damage to students and teachers.” It is a tragic story readers of “Bitter Winter” and now also of Japanese media are familiar with.
“We call for international intervention and solidarity among human rights entities,” Handschin concluded, “to stand against the rising tide of religious intolerance and discrimination in Japan, and that the true face of their domestic human rights record be revealed.”
The support expressed in Geneva to these claims by prominent human rights NGOs and experts was encouraging. But what will be the response of Japan?
