In a speech delivered at the UN Human Rights Council, the delegation demanded a reinvestigation of the Coomaraswamy Report.
Detailed source analysis revealed extensive factual errors and unreliable references, justifying the need for renewed hearings and document-based research.

The delegation demanded a reinvestigation of the Coomaraswamy Report at the UN Human Rights Council.
Source analysis revealed extensive factual errors and unreliable references, including non-academic materials.
A renewed Special Rapporteur mission with rigorous interviews and document review was formally requested.

2017-07-05

Although our group will present more detailed research in the future,
in this speech we strongly called for a reinvestigation of the Coomaraswamy Report.
A detailed examination of the books that formed the basis of Hicks’s work, which underpinned the report, reveals seventy-four references.
Of these, thirty-two are of low informational accuracy, and more than two hundred factual errors have been identified.
Some of the cited references are, astonishingly, comic books.
Basing an investigation on comics and publications filled with North Korean propaganda aimed at promoting the comfort women issue constitutes a serious problem.
It is true that investigations into the comfort women issue began in 1991, and that research in 1996 was insufficient.
Today, however, far more documents exist, and Japan now has numerous interviews conducted with far greater accuracy.
Therefore, we believe that the UN Human Rights Council must conduct a reinvestigation.
To improve Japan’s human rights situation, we seek further inquiry.
Specifically, we strongly request that the UN Human Rights Council once again dispatch a Special Rapporteur to Japan
to conduct more rigorous interviews and document-based research.
Given that speeches at the Council must be delivered in English within just ninety seconds, the hurdle is high.
Nevertheless, I believe we were able to state what needed to be said.
To be continued.