Japan Violated Human Rights of "Tokyo Two" Greenpeace Activists

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Scuba Diving News
Monday, 15 February 2010 21:15
The United Nations has ruled that the Japanese Government breached the human rights of Toru Suzuki and Junichi Sato, two Greenpeace activists by detaining them.


Toru Suzuki


Junichi Sato

The two activists uncovered major corruption in the Japanese whaling programme when they intercepted a box of whale meat which was labelled "cardboard". This evidence was only part of a much larger whale meat scandal whereby whalers were skimming choice cuts of whale meat to sell on the black market; The entire scheme funded by a Japanese Government approved and tax-payer funded programme.

Fearing exposure, the Japanese Government made every attempt to cover it up, first by dropping the investigation and then arresting the "Tokyo Two" under criminal charges of theft.

"Junichi and Toru were jailed for 23 days before being charged. They were subject to ongoing interrogation for eight hours daily bound to chairs, without their lawyers present, and without the interrogation recorded," Greenpeace CEO Dr Linda Selvey said.

The two were scheduled to stand trial today, but just last week the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) Working Group on Arbitrary Detention (WGAD) informed the Japanese Government that the Japanese justice system has violated the rights of the two men.

The UN Human Rights Council found that the actions of Sato and Suzuki:

"?were in the greater public interest as they sought to expose criminal embezzlement within the taxpayer-funded whaling industry."

The UN Working Group concluded that:

"The right of these two environmental activists not to be arbitrarily deprived of their liberty; their rights to freedom of opinion and expression and to exercise legitimate activities, as well as their right to engage in peaceful activities without intimidation or harassment has not been respected by the Justice system."

The UN Working Group found that the Japanese Government contravened articles 18,19 and 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and articles 18 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Find out more at the Greenpeace Blog.
 
 

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