英字新聞

--The Asahi Shimbun, April 27
EDITORIAL: Thorough talks needed to block abuse of planned hate speech law
（社説）ヘイト法案　反差別の姿勢を明確に

A bill to outlaw hate speech, sponsored by the ruling coalition of the Liberal Democratic Party and Komeito, is currently under deliberation in the Upper House Legal Affairs Committee.
　乱暴な言葉で特定の人種や民族への差別をあおるヘイトスピーチを、どうなくしていくか。
　自民、公明の両与党が国会に出した対策法案の審議が、参院法務委員会で続いている。

With the opposition camp having already presented a similar bill to the Diet last year, all Japanese political parties are at least in agreement that legislative measures must be taken to eliminate hate speech, which fans vile discrimination against certain ethnic groups.
　野党側はすでに昨年、独自案を出しており、少なくとも与野党は、法整備の必要性では一致したことになる。

But legal scholars are strongly concerned that such legislation could threaten freedom of expression depending on how it is enforced. Indeed, determining the conditions of enforcement will be a difficult and complex matter.
　運用次第では「表現の自由」を脅かしかねないとして、法学者らの間には慎重論も根強い。確かに、何を対象にどう規制するか難しい問題をはらむ。

However, hate speech has shown no signs of abating in recent years. In a lawsuit against a citizens group that attacked the Tokushima prefectural union of teachers for donating money to a Korean school, the Takamatsu High Court on April 25 ruled that the group’s activities “represented an attitude of racial discrimination,” and it ordered the group to pay damages to the teachers’ union.
　だが近年、ヘイトスピーチは収まる気配がない。高松高裁は一昨日、朝鮮学校に寄付をした徳島県教組を攻撃した団体の活動を「人種差別的思想の現れ」と認め、賠償を命じた。

Hate-filled invectives against minorities, such as “get out of Japan,” are uttered nationwide. These human rights violations cannot be allowed to continue. We definitely believe the time has come to take some sort of legislative action.
　少数派を標的に「日本から出て行け」といった差別をあおる言説は各地でみられる。人権侵害をもはや放置するわけにはいかない。何らかの立法措置も必要な段階に至ったと考える。

Neither the ruling coalition-sponsored bill nor its opposition counterpart contains punitive provisions against offenders. While we would like both bills to clearly spell out that discrimination can never be condoned as a matter of basic human decency, we also believe that utmost care must be taken to ensure the legislation will not infringe upon freedom of expression.
　与野党両案ともに罰則規定はなく、理念法にとどまる。社会の最低限のルールとして差別は許されないことを明記すべきだが、一方で「表現の自由」を侵さないよう最大限の配慮をする姿勢は崩してはなるまい。

The United Nations considers it a problem that Japan, which ratified the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination 21 years ago, still has no laws against racial discrimination. It has now become Japan’s obligation to the international community to declare a firm stance against discrimination of any sort against any race or nationality.
　国連は、人種差別撤廃条約を２１年前に批准した日本で国内法が整っていないことを問題視している。人種や国籍を問わず、差別に反対する姿勢を明示するのは国際的な要請でもある。

We hope the ruling and opposition parties will set aside their petty political interests and forge a consensus after thoroughly debating the issue and with complete transparency, from the standpoint of defending universal human rights.
　与野党は、狭い政治的利害を超え、普遍的な人権を守る見地から透明性のある議論を重ね、合意を築いてほしい。

Diet deliberations in the days ahead are expected to focus on the LDP-Komeito bill. But there are some problems with the legislation.
　今後の審議は与党案が軸になるだろうが、問題点がある。

For instance, the bill defines victims of discrimination as “non-Japanese-born people and their descendants.” But the indigenous Ainu people of Japan have been subjected to discrimination. To make this right, we believe the ruling coalition should adopt the opposition-sponsored bill’s broader definition of victims as “non-Japanese races and ethnic groups.”
　与党案は差別的言動を受けている対象者を「本邦外出身者とその子孫」としている。だが、これまでアイヌ民族なども標的となってきた。ここは「人種や民族」と対象を広げた野党案を採り入れるべきだ。

Another problem we see with the LDP-Komeito bill is that it will apply only to “legal aliens residing in Japan.” We find this hard to comprehend.
　また、与党案が「適法に居住する（本邦外）出身者」と対象を限定しているのも理解に苦しむ。

Discrimination in itself has nothing to do with the victim’s residency status. If this is left uncorrected, this bill could hurt those who are in the process of applying for refugee status.
在留資格の有無は本来、差別と無関係であり、難民申請者らに被害がおよびかねない。

In the past, the LDP manifested its intent to manipulate the hate speech issue to its own convenience. LDP legislators made statements hinting at applying hate speech legislation against anti-U.S. base activists and protesters opposed to nuclear power generation.
　自民党ではこれまで、ヘイトスピーチを本来の趣旨とは異なる形で利用しようとする言動があった。脱原発デモや米軍基地への反対運動への法の適用を示唆するような発言があった。

Such abuse of the law by politicians is exactly what we fear.
　懸念されるのは、まさにそうした政治や行政による乱用である。

For the law to fully serve its intended purpose of eliminating all racial and ethnic discrimination, its non-arbitrary and appropriate enforcement must be guaranteed. And thorough discussion is also needed on how to monitor the enforcement of this law.
人種や民族に対する差別行為をなくす本来の目的のために、恣意（しい）的でない的確な運用をいかに担保するか。その監視のあり方も十分論議すべきだ。