CAT/C/JPN/CO/2
coordinating and monitoring body and the impact of measures to address trafficking,
especially on children (arts. 2, 12, 13, 14 and 16).
The Committee calls on the State party to fully implement the recommendations made
by the Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons (A/HRC/14/32/Add.4), following
her visit to Japan in 2009. In particular, the State party should ensure that:
(a)
Victims of trafficking are provided with adequate assistance for their
physical and psychological recovery;
(b)
Clear identification procedures are set out, so that victims of trafficking
are not incorrectly identified and treated as undocumented migrants and deported
without redress or remedy;
(c)
Perpetrators are prosecuted and punished with appropriate penalties;
(d)
Specialized training is provided to relevant public officials in this regard.
In addition, the State party should consider ratifying the Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children
(Palermo Protocol).
Psychiatric health care
22.
Notwithstanding the Act on Mental Health and Welfare for the Mentally Disabled,
which established operating parameters for mental health institutions and the additional
information provided by the State party’s delegation, the Committee remains concerned at
the high numbers of persons with mental disabilities, both psychosocial and intellectual
who are held in mental health-care institutions on involuntary basis and frequently for a
lengthy period of time. The Committee is further concerned at the frequent use of solitary
confinement, restraints and forced medication, actions which may amount to inhumane and
degrading treatment. Taking into account the information received during the dialogue on
plans regarding mental health care, the Committee remains concerned at the lack of focus
on alternatives to hospitalization of persons with mental disabilities. Finally, the Committee
is concerned about the frequent lack of effective and impartial investigation of the
excessive use of restrictive measures as well as at the lack of relevant statistical data (arts.
2, 11, 13 and 16).
The Committee urges the State party to ensure that:
(a)
Effective judicial control over involuntary treatment and placement, as
well as effective appeals mechanisms are established;
(b)
Outpatient and community services are developed and the number of
institutionalized patients is brought down;
(c)
Effective legal safeguards are respected in all places of deprivation of
liberty, including psychiatric and social care institutions;
(d)
Access to effective complaint mechanisms is strengthened;
(e)
Use of restraints and solitary confinement is avoided or applied as a
measure of last resort when all other alternatives for control have failed, for the
shortest possible time, under strict medical supervision, and any such act is duly
recorded;
(f)
Effective and impartial investigations are undertaken in incidents where
excessive use of such restrictive measures result in injuries of the patient;
(g)
10
Remedies and redress are provided to the victims;