Comfort women and sexual slavery in international lawseeking justice and reparations

Resumen

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army forced over 200,000 women into sexual slavery in comfort stations across Asia. It is estimated that 80% of the `comfort women¿ were from Korea, and the rest were from countries such as China, Japan, the Philippines, Taiwan, the Dutch East Indies and East Timor. The research carried out until now on the `comfort women¿ has revealed the extent to which these women were deprived of personal freedom and control over their sexual autonomy and body and subjected to regulations on a chattel-like basis of their reproductive health. Despite this, the International Military Tribunal For the far East, established after the World War II, merely delivered the `victor¿s justice¿, and it failed to sufficiently prosecute crimes related to the `comfort women¿. About 50 years later, in 1990s, the concern over the issue of the sexual violence in international law emerged from the prosecutions of sexual offenders tried in the ad hoc International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. In this context, the injustice for the `comfort women¿ and its consideration as crimes of sexual slavery became an object of debate and was actively discussed within the international organisations. From 1991 to 2001, the `comfort women¿ filed 10 lawsuits against the Japanese government before the domestic tribunals, but all the cases were eventually dismissed. In 1996, the Japanese government established an Asian Women¿s Fund to provide compensation, medical welfare and letters of apology to the `comfort women¿. However, the Asian Women¿s Fund has been criticised by the United Nations, because the reparations were implemented without the admission of the state responsibility. The debate over the `comfort women¿, lasting more than 80 years since the end of World War II, has shown the complexity of the legal and political problems, causing continuing suffering and violation of human rights of the `comfort women¿. Therefore, this contribution will analyse to what extent the development of international law in relation to the crime of sexual slavery can contribute to promote the right to justice and the right to reparation of the `comfort women¿. To this end, I will investigate the Japan¿s international responsibility for the `comfort women¿ as sexual slavery and examine the evolving principles of the international law in relation to the right to an effective remedy and the right to reparation. I argue that Japan has been in complete disregard for jus cogens norm of prohibition of slavery and should acknowledge that it bears the state responsibility for the systematic sexual slavery of the `comfort women¿. I also argue that not only material reparation, but also symbolic and transformative reparation together with structural changes should be provided for the `comfort women¿, adopting victims-oriented and gendered approach which has lacked to date.