Press Releases
Meeting Between Parliamentary Vice-Minister Masakazu Hamachi and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein
On March 2 (same day local time), Mr. Masakazu Hamachi, Parliamentary Vice-Minister for Foreign Affairs of Japan, held a meeting with Mr. Zeid Ra’ad Zeid Al-Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, during his visit to Geneva.The overview of the meeting is as follows.
1. At the outset, Parliamentary Vice-Minister Hamachi requested cooperation for the resolution of the abductions issue, touching upon the comments made by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid in December 2015 at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on the situation in North Korea, in which he mentioned that making reference to the abductions issue as well, the human rights violation by North Korea poses a threat to the peace and security of the international community. Parliamentary Vice-Minister Hamachi also explained that Japan and the Republic of Korea (ROK) are taking steps to faithfully implement the content of the agreement on the comfort women issue reached between the two countries at the end of December 2015, and emphasized the importance of understanding and cooperation of the international community.
2. In response, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid noted that the abductions issue by North Korea is a central topic for the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), expressed strong interest in a draft resolution on the Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea that Japan plans to submit, and commented that he intends to continue to cooperate with the Japanese side both in Geneva and in New York.