List of issues:

Ongoing multiple discrimination toward women with disabilities【Japan】<Questions>1.

How many cases of domestic violence perpetrated against women with disabilities are reported to public
counseling services every year? What is the annual number of disabled women accepted in public DV shelters?
What sorts of alternative communication is available for clients, other than telephoning? How many women areaccepted yearly into public DV shelters, and what is the percentage of shelters that are able to ensure accessibility
for disabled women in their facilities through efforts such as an organized personnel system, including interpretersand personal assistance? (Concluding Observations, CCPR.C.JPN.CO.6, paragraphs 32 and 52) (Reports of StateParty, paragraph 42)

2. The questionnaire form titled “Survey on the Employment Situation of Persons with Disabilities,” which follows
the Act on the Promotion of the Employment of Disabled Persons in Japan, does not ask respondents to indicate
their gender, even though this has been pointed out by organizations including the Statistic Commission of theCabinet Office. What is the timeline, and the method, for making this change? (Concluding Observations,CCPR.C.JPN.CO.6, paragraph 52) (Reports of State Party, paragraph 42)
3. How are the recommendations from the United Nations Human Rights Committee being implemented with respect
to research on forced sterilization via the former Eugenic Protection Act, and compensation to victims?
(Concluding Observations, CCPR.C.JPN.CO.6, paragraphs 50 and 52)<Background>
While government policy plans have begun mentioning that women with disabilities face compounded difficulties(Reports of State Party, paragraph 128), specific measures and policies have yet to be drawn up. As a state party to theConvention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, Japan is urged to take appropriate measures by highlighting thisissue.
1. Under the Act on the Prevention of Spousal Violence and the Protection of Victims, “equality with other persons”
must be realized.
・Although the act states, “Respect their human rights regardless of nationality or disability, etc.”, public DV counselingservices are only accessible by telephone—meaning that clients with hearing and speech impairments find it difficult toget connected. Additionally, these public shelters have failed to design facilities for wheelchair users and disabled persons
who need personal assistance.
2. The absence of a gender perspective within disability statistics is related to the government’s lack of policies in thisregard.
・Through the Act on the Promotion of the Employment of Disabled Persons—which was launched with the aim ofadvocating equality in employment among disabled persons—positive action is urged in order to avert an entrenchment of
the wage gap between male and female employees with disabilities.
3. The government of Japan is urged to recognize as human rights violations the harms that were carried out under theformer Eugenics Protection Law, and to conduct research and pay compensation accordingly.
・In 1998, the UN Human Rights Committee stated as follows: “While acknowledging the abolition of forced sterilizationof disabled women, (the committee) regrets that the law has not provided for a right of compensation to persons who weresubjected to forced sterilization, and recommends that the necessary legal steps be taken”. This recommendation,
however, has yet to be implemented still today.
・Apologies and compensation have taken place in other countries where forced sterilization motivated by eugenics- waslegitimized in the past. Concerning the Leprosy Prevention Act, which was abolished in 1996, the government of Japan
has conducted research on the forced segregation of patients and violations of their reproductive rights, and subsequently
apologized and paid compensation. The present case proves that a parallel response is again possible.
・Even today, some women with disabilities are urged by medical institutions and family members to terminate theirpregnancies and refrain from giving birth, and are refused treatment and hospitalization. They are also sometimes forced
to receive care from attendants of the opposite sex in medical facilities and institutions, which for many is an
uncomfortable experience. Furthermore, disabled persons are often discouraged from receiving appropriate sex education.
In one case, unreasonable intervention by local assemblypersons resulted in the forced suspension of sex education forchildren with intellectual disabilities.
Edited by Japan NGO Network for CEDAW (JNNC)
2015