February 15th marks the beginning of the public trial of the Tokyo 2- Junichi and Toru- who were detained by Japanese authorities after exposing corruption with the whaling industry. But thanks to the recent findings of a working group of the UN Human Rights Council, now the Japanese authorities are also perched on the scales of justice...and a thousand boxes of whale meat couldn't help them tip the scales in their favour.
Sign a pledge and stand with Toru and Junichi and show the Japanese government that they cannot silence those who take a stand for the whales and justice will be served to those truly on trial.
The UN Human Rights Council ruled that in an attempt to expose a scandal in the public interest, the human rights of Junichi and Toru were breached by the Japanese justice system. The laundry list of offenses by Japanese authorities is extensive....corrupt government practices, censoring public information, a failure to adhere to international law or uphold the freedom of speech and the right of individual protest, and of course an all time fav- the commercial killing of thousands of whales in a whale sanctuary.
The Working Group determined that 5 articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights were violated. They 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.”
As such, the Working Group found that the government has 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. It also took the view that Sato and Suzuki had been denied the right to challenge their detention before an independent and impartial tribunal in fair proceedings, and requested that the remainder of the trial be conducted fairly.
The working group also recognized that the Tokyo 2 acted in the greater public interest, that they willingly cooperated with the police and Public prosecutor, and that the Government did not submit essential information regarding the investigation and evidence relating to the corruption allegations, all of which should have been noted.
A copy of the official UN document can be downloaded here and a copy of of our report entitle 'Whaling on trial' can be downloaded here.