On March 15, 2000, JCLU Asia Human Rights subcommission presented the model bill of Human Rights Commission.
National Human Rights Institution is an independent national organization, which is designated to implement the rights protected in the Constitution, and international treaties, etc. for the protection of individuals from the invasion of human rights, the proposition of human rights policy, and the human rights education and training. So-called Paris Principle was adopted in the general assembly of the United Nations in 1993 and the Human Rights Committee recommended to the Japanese Government to establish one in 1998. JCLU Asia Human Rights subcommission started working on enacting the bill for the establishment of the Human Rights Commission about one year ago, overlooking on the established systems in Germany, Australia, Canada, Philippine, and India, etc.
The model bill is consisted of 30 articles, such as purpose, activities, organization, principles, protection of individuals, education and training, and recommendation and expressing opinion, etc. One of the most challenging questions is the conflict of the jurisdiction of the Human Rights Commission and the courts, which might leads to the limitation of the activities of the Human Rights Commission.
Mr. Shigeki Miyazaki, ex-representative of the JCLU board of directors reported about the present situations of the Human Rights Commission of the Ministry of Justice and the possibility of establishing one, using public materials. He stated that the governmental commission had made researches in Europe, and Nordic countries, etc., and had done hearings from Japanese human rights groups, and was preparing a midterm report planned to be made public in the last of 2000. He also added that present civil liberties commissioners system was criticized by some of the governmental commission members and there were possibilities to establish one, and in that case, the way to reflect the variety of the opinions including those from minorities must be discussed seriously.
The examples of the contents of the bill are as follows;
Article 4: the commission is established under the auspice of Prime Minister.
Article 5: the commission is an independent administrative agency and commissioners exercise their powers independently from the government.
Article 14 and 22: the objects of the investigation exclude the press for the protection of the freedom of the press.
Article 16 and 23: investigation includes the question, collection of the materials, and entry to the private area, etc. but without the compulsory powers.
Article 27: the commission may join the lawsuit at the court if the complainant brings the case to court.
Many questions and opinions ware raised, for example, the investigation (article 14), cooperation with NGOs, supervision of the Human Rights Commission, and the style of annual report, etc.
The JCLU model bill is the first bill made public in Japan, and we hope that publication of this bill accelerates the establishment of the Human Rights Commission in the future.
The board of directors approved the bill of the Human Rights Commission on April 4, 2000 and this bill was made public as the model bill of Asia Human Rights sub-commission. The bill is obtainable from JCLU website, http://www.jclu.org (in Japanese).