Japan yesterday protested against a letter to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe from a UN independent expert raising concerns that planned legislation targeting conspiracies to commit terrorism and other crimes could allow police to trample civil liberties.
The lower house of Japan’s parliament is expected to approve the bill as early as today, setting the stage for enactment.
The government said the legal changes are needed to ratify a UN treaty aimed at battling international organized crime and fighting terrorism, as Tokyo prepares to host the 2020 Summer Olympic Games.
Photo: AFP
Opponents see the proposals as part of Abe’s agenda to tighten the government’s grip at the expense of individual rights.
The content of the letter sent on Thursday from UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Privacy Joseph Cannataci was “clearly inappropriate and we strongly protested,” Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga told a regular news conference.
“It is not at all the case that the legislation would be implemented arbitrarily so as to inappropriately restrict the right to privacy and freedom of speech,” he added, reiterating that Japan needed the legislation to ratify the UN treaty.
In the letter released on the Web site of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Cannataci referred to concerns that the bill’s broad scope might “lead to undue restrictions to the rights to privacy and to freedom of expression.”
He asked Abe for information on the accuracy of such concerns and the compatibility of the draft law with international human rights norms and standards.
Critics, including the Japan Federation of Bar Associations, have also said the changes, combined with a recent widening of legal wiretapping and courts’ reluctance to rein in police surveillance powers, could deter grassroots opposition to government policies.
The lawyers’ group has expressed concern that ordinary citizens would be targeted, despite government assurances to the contrary, and that the crimes governed by the law include acts unrelated to organized crime or terrorism.
Japanese governments have tried to pass similar legislation three times since 2000, when the UN adopted a Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.
However, Abe’s ruling coalition, with a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament, looks likely to enact the bill this time, despite loud opposition protests.
A Kyodo news agency survey published on Sunday showed voters are split over the controversial bill, with support at 39.9 percent and opposition at 41.4 percent.
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was