< top < Report A Report on a Refugee's Court Case: "Let's Have Court Cases that Meet International Standards!" Given by Teruo Naka, lawyer for Mr R., an Afghan refugee who went to court to overturn the rejection of his application for refugee status. Mr. Teruo Naka (Lawyer) A Slide from Mr. Naka's Speech The Main Points from Mr. Naka's Speech: The Japanese government is aware of the situation in Afghanistan, and the Foreign Ministry has a Level 4 Evacuation Recommendation in place for the country. Despite this, they insist that it is unnecessary to determine whether people who flee Afghanistan in search of protection should be judged by the standards of the UN Handbook on Refugee Acceptance, and refuse to adopt it as a guiding principle. According to the prevailing view in the international legal community, anyone who ignores guiding principles such as the Handbook (in this case Japan's Ministry of Justice) must justify ignoring the principle. (e.g. they may be asked to provide evidence to support their decision to ignore the guidebook). (Walter Kalin, 2003). Article 98 Section 2 of Japan's constitution demands that documents such as the Handbook are adopted and used as key guiding principles. (i.e. the duty of loyalty to treaties). Court cases brought by refugees are the same as civilian court cases, and so the burden of proof falls on the litigating party. As such, it is determined that the applicant needs to prove that they are a refugee (precedent established by the Nagoya district court). However, civilian court cases are intended to resolve conflict between individuals. As such, their fundamental purpose is different to court cases brought by refugees. They cannot be considered the same thing. Some refugees are not persecuted specifically by the authorities of their country of origin, but by other actors. Even if there are laws in place to protect them from persecution, these laws cannot always be considered sufficient to remove the "threat of persecution", and such persecution must therefore be considered persecution. The Japanese government operates with an impossibly narrow interpretation of the content of the refugee convention and the UN handbook. At other times they simply ignore the necessary interpretation in order to refuse granting asylum to refugees. If we were to apply the Handbook to refugee court cases, then asylum seekers do not necessarily need to provide proof that they are a refugee. Furthermore, we have to accept that they may be refugees even if they are not persecuted by the authorities of their country of origin. (Report by C, RAFIQ member) pagetop Organisers: World Refugee Day 2016: West Japan Assembly Organising Committee Affiliated Organisations: BRC-J (Burmese Relief Centre Japan); PASTEL (Ritsumeikan University's Refugee Research Group); J-FUN Youth Kansai (K.G.); The Social Guild; RAWA; Nanmin Now!; Neo Namin Cafe Netowrk; RAFIQ, Thanks & Dream (An organisation for evacuees from the Tohoku Earthquake in western Japan); and others) Supporters: UNHCR Japan; Amnesty International Japan; JLNR; JAR; FRJ; the Kansai NPO Alliance Cooperators:Nanmin Now!; the Yoyogi Animation School, Osaka Office:RAFIQ Japan (The Network aiming at the Coexistence with the Refugees in Japan) mailto: rafiqtomodati@yahoo.co.jp 6-24 Oote-cho Takatsuki City, Oosaka 569-0078 FAX: 072-684-0231 Copyright (C) World Refugee Day 2016: West Japan Assembly Organising Committee, All Rights Reserved.