The U.N. Committee against Torture issued a statement pointing out that Japan’s criminal justice system should do away with its traditionally strong reliance on confessions by suspects, and demanded it implement safeguards such as electronic recordings of the entire interrogation process to prevent wrongful convictions. That’s a welcome statement from the UN’s Committee against Torture (CAT), I wonder if Japan will take it to heart. According to reports on Twitter and in Wednesday’s Tokyo Shimbun, Japan’s representative at the CAT meeting, Hideaki Ueda, made another statement which raised eyebrows at the forum. When the other international representatives present chuckled in response to a gaffe made by Ueda, he's said to have quickly shot back with a not so diplomatic “SHUT UP” uttered in perfectly clear English and chided the group for laughing. When state officials from anywhere behave like that with the eyes of the world on them, I shudder to think what goes in their corner of the globe when no one is looking. When state officials from anywhere behave so badly with the eyes of the world on them, I shudder to think what goes in their corner of the globe when no one is looking.
(http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/06/04/national/rights-groups-tell-japan-to-fully-tape-interrogations-of-criminal-suspects/#.UbUiKflM95Y)
I was surprised to see the comment I left on the Japan Times site reproduced here! FYI - Today's Japan Times has the Youtube video of Ueda speaking at the UN and an expanded version of my comment in the letters to the editor section.
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