Permanent Mission of Japan to the United Nations

New York, December 10, 1998

Statement By H. E. Mr. Yukio Satoh

[...] Mr. President,

During the last fifty years, a number of important human rights instruments have come into effect. The Commission on Human Rights has established various working groups, special rapporteurs and special procedures, which have contributed to further elaborating ideas of the Universal Declaration or to monitoring human rights situations. The Office of the high Commissioner for Human Rights has been established. Following the creation of the International Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and Rwanda, historic progress was made when the Statute for an International Criminal Court (ICC) was adopted.

Yet, despite all these encouraging developments, serious violations of human rights continue to occur. There are so many men and women and children around the world whose rights have been violated, so many people who have been deprived of their dignity. [...]