The Words of the Burton Family
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The Words of the Burton Family |
Mr. Dan Fefferman, president of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom, reported to human rights experts about an on-going abduction scandal in Japan at a leadership conference in Geneva, Switzerland on March 25-26, 2011. At several sessions held at the World Council of Churches and at the United Nations Office, Mr. Fefferman explained the history of the issue to nearly 200 participants, including legal and human rights professionals, religious leaders, grassroots activists, and UN Ambassadors representing over 30 nations. The two-day conference was convened under the banner of the UPF/Women's Federation for World Peace partnership.
Mr. Fefferman has been the executive director of the International Coalition for Religious Freedom since 1984. He came from Washington D.C. to speak about the problem of forced conversions in Japan in violation of article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
"The phenomena of forced conversion had been briefly manifested in Europe and the USA in the 1970s and 1980s but comparatively rapidly recognized as illegal and largely eliminated," Mr. Fefferman said. "In Japan, more than 4300 religious believers have been confined in connection with their forced conversion through the actions of Christian ministers. These victims are mainly Unification Church members but also include Jehovah Witnesses and others. The police often refuse to help the victims. Missing persons reports are usually denied unless they are submitted by family members, but in these cases it is the family members who are the perpetrators. There is also racial discrimination, especially between Japanese and Koreans spouses. There have been no criminal prosecutions in the 16 to 20 cases in which the victims have tried to bring charges. Tactics include confining a person to prison-like apartments, forced renunciation of faith as a condition of release, and sometimes starvation and rape. Some victims were held in mental hospitals."
Mr. Fefferman continued: "This is a violation of article 18 of the UDHR and in some cases of articles 5 and 19 concerning torture and inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment. Mr. Toru Goto was held for over 12 years. In the case of Ms. Takako Fujita, after the police refused to help her husband seek her release, she committed suicide during confinement. We are appealing to the World Council of Churches and the U.S. National Council of Churches to look into this as it is committed by Christian ministers. We are calling upon the UN and related institutions to put pressure on Japan, since it has signed the Universal Declaration of Human Rights," Mr. Fefferman said.
The conference was reported by Michel Reymond on April 12, 2011. Full report here: upf-europe.eu/profiles/blogs/conference-in-geneva-on-human