In Japan: red card on executions
23 September 2019
Japan is not a perfect host
The 9th Rugby World Cup begins on Friday 20 September in Japan. However, ECPM would like to point out that its status as a host does not make it an irreproachable country in terms of human rights. Indeed, in 2018, 15 executions were recorded there.
ECPM regrets that such international events are organised in countries regularly denounced for their failure to respect human rights. It should be recalled that this was the case for the basketball world cup, held in China at the beginning of September).
"Executions in Japan are secret. Prisoners are usually notified only a few hours beforehand, but not always. Their families, lawyers and the public are only informed afterward. According to Amnesty International's report "Death sentences and executions in 2018".
More than 100 death row prisoners are awaiting execution in Japanese prisons, about half of them for more than ten years. However, the law specifies that death row inmates must be executed six months after confirmation of their sentence. In fact, they spend years in the antechamber of death.
Reminder: At the beginning of September, we published a sadly similar article about the basketball world cup, hosted by China, world champion of executions.
Aminata Niakate, lawyer and member of the ECPM Board of Directors, in Tokyo
On 19 September, a workshop was held on the role of lawyers in the universal abolition of the death penalty at the Japan International Campus organized in Tokyo by the Paris Bar Association. Aminata Niakate and her colleague Toshiyuku Otake (lawyer at the Tokyo Daini Bar) moderated this rich debate, in the presence of :
- Yuji Ogawara: Secretary General of the Commission on the Abolition of the Death Penalty within the Federation of Japanese Bar Associations
- Basile Ader: Vice President of the Paris Bar
- Rusen Aytac: Lawyer and member of the Board of the Paris Bar Association
This special session provided an opportunity to review the issues surrounding the death penalty in Japan. It was entitled "The role of lawyers in the fight against the death penalty, from moratorium to abolition".
