United Nations Working Group on Minorities

Ninth Session, 12-16 May 2003

Agenda item 3 b: Examining possible solutions to problems involving minorities, including the promotion of mutual understanding between and among minorities and Governments

Joint statement by:

The International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), and Mr Masataka Okamoto, Coordinator of the Tokyo Symposium on the 10th Anniversary of the UN Minority Rights Declaration to

Call for a Sub-Regional Seminar for East Asia

Geneva, 13 May 2003

Thank you, Mr Chairperson.

I am Masataka Okamoto, speaking in my capacity as an academic as well as the Coordinator of the Tokyo Symposium on the Tenth Anniversary of the United Nation Minority Rights Declaration held last December. This intervention is made also on behalf of the International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR), an International Human Rights NGO based in Tokyo, which is also represented in this Working Group.

Mr Chair,

we welcome the convening of the Southeast Asian Seminar by the Working Group on Minorities in Chiang Mai last December. Unfortunately, neither myself nor any representative of IMADR was able to attend the seminar, but we have heard from participants how much they could learn from the Working Group as well as from each other.

On behalf of myself as well as of IMADR, I would like to express our support for the main purposes of holding such a sub-regional seminar, namely, to raise awareness of the United Nations work on minority issues; to promote dialogue between and amongst minorities and the majority population to better understand sub-regional approaches by sharing experiences in the protection and promotion of minority rights, and; to empower minority communities. Interestingly, those purposes largely correspond to the mandate of IMADR. I am also personally pleased with the sub-regional approaches adopted by the Working Group, as I myself expressed the strong opinion last year at this Working Group that, given the diversity of the Asia and Pacific region, it would be desirable as well as appropriate to hold a seminar at the sub-regional level.

Mr Chair,

Now that the South-east Asian Seminar was held with success, we should like to call for a sub-regional seminar for East Asiaas well as ones for South Asia and for the Pacific, hopefully during the course of next year. Such sub-regional seminars deem essential, especially in view of the current move at the Working Group towards a set of regional guidelines or codes of practice on the implementation of the Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities.

In Japan, my proposal to hold an East Asian seminar gained support from various minority groups and other concerned organisations and individuals. This led to a Tokyo Symposium on the Tenth Anniversary of the United Nations Minority Rights Declaration which was convened on 15 December last year, as an initial step for a Sub-Regional Seminar for East Asia. The Symposium heard situations as well as needs and expectations for a better future from representatives from minority groups, including a Korean resident, an Ainu, an Okinawan, a Japanese-Brazilian resident and an American-Japanese. Those presentations were followed by active discussion over the question of whether the Declaration on Minority Rights is useful from an East Asian perspective, and more specifically how the Declaration can be used more effectively for the protection and promotion of the rights of different minorities in Japan.

In the belief that 'uninformed rights will not be protected', the participants reaffirmed their commitment to raise awareness of the rights of minorities provided in the Declaration both among the individuals concerned as well as the Japanese society at large. In the same spirit, the Symposium adopted a joint call for an East Asian Regional Seminar, if possible, in 2004. The Seminar would provide an opportunity for further advocacy of the rights of minorities, and for active involvement in and contribution to, the development of standards for the protection of minorities' rights such as codes of practice in Japan and in East Asia at large. Copies of the full text of the conclusions and recommendations from the Tokyo Symposium are distributed at the desk in this conference room for interested participants.

Mr Chair, preparatory discussion for a possible East Asian Seminar is already underway in Japan among the core group of the organisations and individuals concerned. Amongst which, IMADR is committed to taking a leading role.

We hope that the Working Group can take a step this year towards the realisation of a sub-regional seminar for East Asia. In doing so, the Working Group can count on our support, and support of other minority groups and civil society groups in Japan.

Thank you, Mr Chair.

Masataka Okamoto

Associate Professor, Fukuoka Prefectural University, Faculty of Integrated Humane Studies and Social Sciences, 4395 Ita, TagawaCity, Fukuoka, 825-8585, Japan

Tel./Fax (+81 947) 42 2127, E-mail:

The International Movement Against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism (IMADR)

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