Zenroren protests against Japanese government's refusal to pay contribution to UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women

Kurosawa Koichi
Secretary General
the National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren)
January 31, 2025

Japan's Foreign Ministry said on January 29 that it had notified the United Nations that its contribution to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) will not be allocated to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. The National Confederation of Trade Unions (Zenroren) strongly protests against the measure.

The government is said to have taken this step to express its protest against the committee's recommendation that Japan amend the Imperial House Law which limits the Imperial succession to male offspring in the male line to ensure equality of women and men. Foreign Press Secretary Toshihiro Kitamura explained at a press conference on January 29 that Japan pays 20 million to 30 million yen each year in contribution and the decision will ensure that the money, even a part of it, will not be used for the committee, showing the Japanese position even clearer. The ministry says it will shelve a program for the committee members' visit to Japan that had been planned for this fiscal year.

The government should accept in earnest the committee's recommendations and implement them without delay. The committee in its deliberations asked Japan for constructive dialogue and pointed out that the country is without domestic body on human rights or a ministry for gender equality. The task is for the Japanese government to make efforts to eliminate discrimination against women. We strongly oppose the retaliatory sanctions the government is imposing on the UN agency by restricting the use of its contribution on the grounds that the committee's recommendations are not in line with its policy.

Zenroren, as a member of the action for the realization of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, on January 30 took part in a representation to the Foreign Ministry to request that its notification to the OHCHR be revoked and demand an explanation as to what government body decided the notification or who decided it, and whether it was a Cabinet decision. The participants in the representation pointed out that the government decision will send a wrong message that it is not necessary to eliminate discrimination against women to the 189 nations parties to the convention, to the 115 countries that have ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention and to the whole world. We requested the government to withdraw the decision immediately.

Contributions to the OHCHR will also be used for various human rights-related activities, including the working group for the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, which last year released its observations from their visit to Japan. At a time when the human rights situation and labor rights are up for discussion at international agencies like OHCHR and ILO, it is too childish for the Japanese government to refuse to pay contributions to the international agencies or shelve a program for an international agency's visit to Japan because of the difference of opinion. If the government respects human rights, it should revoke the decision immediately and begin to hold constructive dialogue.