TURNING-POINT IN FAVOR OF JUSTICE

Mr. Toru Goto

Mr. Toru Goto, who was kidnapped and held in confinement for over 12 years by professional faith-breakers, has just won a tremendous victory in the Tokyo High Court. The amount of damages awarded was 22,000,000 yen (approximately $220,000).

Congratulations to Mr. Goto and to the HRWF (Human Rights Without Frontiers) team who have been working over the last three years to achieve justice for him.

The battle is not over yet, but this victory definitely marks a turning point in favor of justice and religious freedom in Japan. Over the last 45 years, more than 4,300 people have been kidnapped for the purpose of breaking their faith in several minority religions. Over 80 percent of the victims were women. Until now, the Japanese police and judiciary had regarded this as a "family matter" and have turned a blind eye to this injustice and these unspeakable crimes.

The turning point came when Dr. Aaron Rhodes, now president of FOREF (Forum for Religious Freedom Europe), and the team of HRWF filed an independent report of over 100 pages on the Goto story and other similar cases. The HRWF report was widely published and submitted to the U.S State Department and the UN in Geneva, Switzerland.

Recently the UN Human Rights Committee and the U.S. State Department have rebuked the Japanese government for ignoring those grave violations of human rights in their own country, citing the Goto case and the HRWF report on several occasions.

Hundreds of victims of the Japanese Victims Association now have new hope that they also may receive justice in the near future, and that the perpetrators will receive their due punishment, so that they will never repeat their crimes.