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A Primer on the
Women's International War Crimes Tribunal
Tokyo, Japan
December 8-12, 2000
THE WOMEN'S INTERNATIONAL WAR-CRIMES TRIBUNAL ON JAPAN'S MILITARY SEXUAL
SLAVERY (or the Tokyo Tribunal) is a people's tribunal organized by Asian
women and human rights organizations and supported by the international
NGOs, to hear the cases of sexual slavery and other crimes involving
sexual violence committed against the women by Japan. Historically,
hundreds of thousands of young women in the Asia Pacific region were raped
or either deceived or abducted to become comfort women for the Japanese
Imperial Army during the Second World War. The women were held prisoners
for periods ranging from one week to more than four years.
After the Second World War, sexual violence committed by
the Japanese Imperial Army was hardly prosecuted by the International
Military Tribunal for the Far East (The Far East Tribunal) as set-up by
the Allied Forces. An exception was the Batavia (Indonesia) Trial where
the case of 35 Dutch women who had been victimized in Indonesia, brought
their case against 12 Japanese Army officers at the Batavia court. Charges
were made on the grounds of having committed war crimes and in defiance of
the laws and customs of war, in the Dutch East Indies in 1944. One of the
accused was condemned to death and others were sentenced to imprisonment
ranging from two to 15 years. That was the only trial in history that gave
justice to the comfort women. Today most of the comfort women are still
denied of such justice.
At present, the Japanese government continues to deny any
legal responsibility for the war crimes and crimes against humanity
committed against the women during the Second World War. Currently there
are 8 court cases filed by comfort women of various countries such as
South Korea, China, North Korea, Taiwan and the Philippines at the Tokyo
and other District Courts, including the High Court, yet a number of this
cases have been denied by the District Court, especially the case of the
Filipino and Dutch comfort women.
The Women's International War Crimes Tribunal will take
place in Tokyo, Japan on December 8-12, 2000.
The participating victimized countries:
There were many countries victimized by the war of aggression and
colonization waged by Japan in the Asia Pacific region during the 1930s to
the 1940s. They crossed the continent from the Pacific to East and
Southeast Asia. Today the victimized countries participating in the Tokyo
Tribunal includes South & North Korea, China, Taiwan, Philippines,
Indonesia, Malaysia, Guam, Burma, among others. Historical records showed
that Japanese Imperial Army systematically set up comfort stations and
facilities for sexual slavery, in all the occupied and colonized
countries, coerced and abducted women to become sex slaves for the purpose
of providing sexual gratification to the officers and soldiers of the
Imperial Army.
It was in 1991 when Kim Hak Soon, the first Korean comfort
woman came out to tell her story publicly. Soon after, former comfort
women from other countries -North Korea, Philippines, Indonesia, Taiwan,
China, Malaysia, and the Dutch women who were held captive in Indonesia
-broke their fifty years of silence to tell their stories. Today around
600 former comfort women from the victimized countries had come out to
tell their stories.
And a new page of history has been written.
Women's organizations, non-government organizations and
civil society took on the advocacy to demand justice for the former
comfort women and seek legal recognition of rape and sexual slavery as war
crime, crimes against humanity and genocide. The government of Taiwan,
South Korea, North Korea, the Philippines and China had on separate
occasions demanded from the Japan government to answer for their wartime
responsibility. Because of the comfort women's actions, having brought
their cases to court, they had challenged state accountability to the war
crimes perpetrated against them. And they have inspired numerous other
women victims of current war crimes in different parts of the world.
No other movement has ever brought to the attention of the
international community the magnitude of gross human rights violations
perpetrated against the women fifty years ago, such as that of the comfort
women of Asia.
No other human rights movement have demanded for an end to
the cycle of impunity of wartime sexual violence against women, such as
that of the comfort women.
No other human rights movement have brought together
peoples from different ideological, political, and social movements to
unite on common grounds -such as the impact of these movements to unite
and reconcile South and North Korea.
No other movement has demanded accountability from a
perpetrator country for the grave breaches of human rights violations done
to women that happened fifty years ago such as that of the comfort women.
No other movement has decided to look at the war crimes
and crimes against humanity violations under international law and
humanitarian law on the issue of sexual slavery, sexual violence such as
that of the comfort women.
The objectives of the Tokyo Tribunal
1. To receive from each country evidence highlighting the
grave nature of the crimes committed against the comfort women and to
clarify the consequent responsibility of the Japanese Government and its
military;
2. To have a clear analysis of the gendered nature of the
crimes and to established a gender-sensitive approach to the issues of war
crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide;
3. To involve the international community in shedding
light about the nature of the crimes committed against the comfort women
of Asia and to identify steps to be taken by the Japanese Government;
4. To create an international movement supporting women's
issues on violence against women under war and armed conflict situations;
and
5. To end impunity of wartime sexual violence against
women and to prevent such crimes from happening in the future.
Background and Preparation for the Tokyo Tribunal
As the millennium comes to an end, it is but proper to
give the women survivors who are all in their advance age a sense of what
constitutes justice. Discussion of organizing the International Women's
War Crimes Tribunal started in April 1998, when members of the VAWW-NET
International (Violence against Women in War Network) met in Geneva to
attend the session of the UN Commission on Human Rights. Since then
several meetings were done to flesh out the idea of holding the Tokyo
Tribunal among the victimized. The VAWW-NET Japan, the Korean Council and
ASCENT-Philippines were identified as convenors of the Tribunal, with all
the others participating countries to form the International Organizing
Committee (IOC). An International Advisory Committee (IAC) was likewise
created composed of internationally known women's human rights activists,
lawyers, and feminists to provide support and advise to the IOC.
In these meetings, it was agreed that the main theme of the Tribunal is to
define the individual criminal responsibility and accountability of the
Japanese government under international law and humanitarian law for its
war crimes and crimes against humanity. Succeeding meetings have been held
whenever there is a possibility for the members of the Organizing
Committee to be together in other international conferences or gatherings
to discuss about the charter, the rules and procedures of evidences, the
country research and prosecution teams, the judges, chief prosecutors and
experts to be invited.
The first prosecutors meeting was held in Manila last July 29-31, 2000
attended by 40 participants from the victimized countries and Japan
including observers. The IOC members met together with the country
prosecutors and chief prosecutors for the first time to discuss the legal
framework for the indictment and to approve the Charter. Long discussions
on the elements of war crimes, framework of the indictments, rules of
procedures and evidence and structure of the country indictments were
thoroughly discussed.
Another meeting was held in September 15-18, 2000 in
Taipei. The participating countries presented their indictments and
finalized all the necessary requirements for the holding of the Tribunal.
Meanwhile, teams of prosecutors from the victimized countries and Japan
composed of respected lawyers and academicians are working on the
indictment, doing research, gathering evidences, studying the charter, and
meeting the former comfort women.
Is redress possible in the Tokyo Tribunal?
The organizers are convinced that redress, for women
victimized in time of wars and conflict situations, in the past to the
present, is possible in the light of the principles of international law,
humanitarian law, human conscience, humanity and gender justice.
The Tribunal has no real power to enforce its judgement,
but as a people's and women's initiative, it nonetheless carries the moral
authority to demand their wide acceptance and enforcement of the judgement
by the international community and civil society and pave the way for law
reforms in national governments.
The people involved in the Tokyo Tribunal
Other than the convenors and members of the International
Organizing Committee, there is a global campaign among women and men to
support and endorse the Tokyo Tribunal. Local, national, regional and
international campaigns are being initiated not only by the victimized
countries but by human rights and peace institutions, networks working for
humanitarian assistance and women's organizations.
The Public Hearing on Current War Crimes
A one-day public hearing is being organized to hear the
testimonies of the victims from on-going war and conflict around the
world, to demonstrate that the crimes against the former 'comfort women'is
still happening to women today. The public hearing will comprise of
testimonies of victims and survivors of wars and conflicts in different
regions of the globe such as Guatemala, Colombia, Chiapas, Liberia, Sierra
Leone, Congo, Nigeria, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Kosovo, Bangladesh,
Kashmir, Cambodia, Vietnam, Burma, East Timor, Afghanistan, Algeria and
Puerto Rico.
The hearing will not only present testimonies of women who had been
victimized by war but also provide a forum simultaneously to talk about
the initiatives of women and men in other countries to rise and demand
justice and peace in their communities. The public hearing will usher the
continuing work of women and men for justice, peace and end to impunity.
The series of consultative meetings among the women's and human rights
groups, peace networks and law reform advocates. The four themes that were
eventually identified at this meetings represent the source or the root
cause of wars/conflicts and human rights violations.
The themes identified are:
· Conflicts/violations resulting from extremism. Many
countries are in situations of war, conflict and unrest as a result of
rise of the power and stronghold of states, groups and organizations that
profess extreme ideologies based on nationalism, ethnicity, religion,
race, marginalization, majoritarianism, which take violent forms and
terrorizes the communities.
· Conflicts/violations resulting from militarism:
Aggression, invasion, state repression, military or other kinds of
occupation and foreign policy of powerful countries are the source of
conflicts in many countries around the world today. In the process,
fundamental rights of peoples, particularly women are violated.
· Resource-based conflicts/violations: Access and dispute
over resources have been the root cause of wars and conflicts. Disputes
over land, natural resources, borders, territories, water, natural
resources have intensified in many countries and their communities.
· Violations during post-conflict and the lasting impacts
in the event of non-resolution of conflicts on peace and reconstruction:
Women are often ignored or marginalized during the peace process and in
the subsequent efforts of reconstruction and rehabilitation. Many forms of
violence against women take place as accountability often are not ensured
during this phase.
The public hearing will be held on December 11, after the third day of the
Tokyo Tribunal proceedings and followed the next day by the Tokyo Tribunal
judgement. The Women's Caucus for Gender Justice for the ICC in New York
is the Secretariat for the public hearing.
Women's Caucus for Gender Justice, PO Box 3541 Grand
Central Post Office, New York,
NY 10163,USA Tel.1-212-697-7741 & Fax. 1-212-949-7996 Email <iccwomen@igc.org>
The people supporting the Tribunal
Various organizations and individuals have already
endorsed and expressed their support for the Tribunal. UN Special
Rapporteurs will be invited to attend the proceedings. In particular, UN
SR Rhadhika Coomarswamy will specifically attend the Public Hearing on
Current war Crimes to hear the cases of women for her next report at the
UN Commission on Human Rights in March 2001. Following are the initial
list of these organizations:
NGO Coalition to the International Criminal Court (CICC); Amnesty
International (AI); CIDA-SEAGEP; Shaler Adams Foundation; Akina-Mama-Wa
Africa; Asian and Pacific Development Center (APDC); International Women's
Human Rights Law Clinic (CUNY- NY); ISIS-WICCE; ISIS-Manila; International
Center for Human Rights and Democratic Development (ICHRDD); Women Living
Under Muslim Laws (WLUML); Women's International League for Peace and
Freedom (WILPF); Equality Now; International Alert; Human Rights Watch;
Urgent Action Fund; MADRE; Autonomous Women's Center Against Sexual
Violence; Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW); Asia Pacific
Forum on Women Law and Development (APWLD); Global Alliance Against
Trafficking in Women (GAATW); Australian National Committee of Refugee
Women; INFORM, Sri Lanka; AGHS Legal Aid Cell, Pakistan; Asian and Pacific
Development Center (APDC); Revolutionary Association of the Women of
Afghanistan; Women's Caucus for Gender Justice \ ICC and more.
The Convenors of the Tribunal
-
Yayori Matsui
VAWW-NET Japan
2-10-10 Shiomi, Koto-ku, 135-8685, Japan
Tel/Fax: (813) 5337-4088
Email: vawwjs@jca.apc.org
URL: http://www.jca.apc.org/vaww-net-japan
-
Yun Chung Ok
The Korean Council for the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery
by Japan
3F, CISUD Bldg., #35 Chungieongro 2 Ga Seodaemun Gu, Seoul, Korea
Tel: (822) 365-4016 & Fax: (822) 365-4017
-
Indai Sajor
Asian Centre for Womenfs Human Rights (ASCENT)
Suite 306 MJB Bldg., 220 Tomas Morato Ave., Quezon City, Philippines
Tel: (632) 926-4386 or 410-1512 Fax: (632) 928-4973
Email: ascent@csi.com.ph URL:http://www.vawwnet.org
Prepared by
Asian Centre for Womenfs Human Rights (ASCENT) Tel: 632-9284973;
4101512; ascent@csi.com.ph
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