A recent U.N. committee report on the issue of “comfort women” lacks an understanding of the facts and diplomatic efforts by the Japanese and South Korean governments.

The United Nations Committee Against Torture recommended that Seoul review the deal it reached with Tokyo on the comfort women issue in December 2015.

The recommendation labeled comfort women as “victims of sexual slavery during World War II.” It criticized the deal, saying that it fails to provide redress, compensation and assurances of nonrepetitions.

The recommendation has no binding power. But there is no denying that there is a danger that South Korean President Moon Jae In, who shows reluctance to carry out the deal reached by the administration of former President Park Geun-hye, will use the recommendation as an excuse for demanding that Japan re-enter negotiations on the issue.

The Japanese government will shortly submit to the U.N. committee a document of rebuttal, arguing among other things that the recommendation’s definition of comfort women as “sexual slaves” is wrong. This is a natural course of action.

Tokyo and Seoul confirmed that the bilateral deal called for “resolving the comfort women issue finally and irreversibly.” At the time the deal was reached, the agreement was highly praised by the international community, including then-U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon of South Korea and the U.S. government.

Based on the bilateral accord, Japan provided 1 billion yen last August for a new foundation established by South Korea to support former comfort women. Seventy percent of surviving former South Korean comfort women have agreed to accept the cash provided.

Correct misunderstandings

In the first place, the issue of property and claims between Japan and South Korea was resolved in terms of international law when the two countries concluded the agreement on normalization of diplomatic relations in 1965. As humanitarian assistance, the Japanese government has established the Asian Women’s Fund and distributed “atonement money” to former comfort women.

It is suspected that the committee relied too much on the assertions of groups and individuals with biased thinking without accurately grasping such developments or the facts about comfort women during World War II.

The committee was inaugurated in 1988 based on the Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly. The committee has conducted inspections periodically to monitor whether state signatories to the convention commit torture or violent punishment in violation of the convention.

The government gave comprehensive explanations on the comfort women issue for the first time at the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in February 2016. The government pointed out there was no evidence discovered to back up the claim that comfort women had been forcibly recruited, so the expression “sex slaves” is contrary to the facts.

But the inescapable impression is that the government’s action came too late. The CEDAW compiled a report the following month, dismissing the Japanese-South Korean deal on comfort women as it “did not fully adopt a victim-centred approach.”

Radhika Coomaraswamy’s report, which quoted the false testimony of Seiji Yoshida that comfort women were recruited forcibly, was submitted to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights in 1996. The report has been cited on a variety of occasions, thus discrediting Japan.

To definitely correct a string of misunderstandings and perversion of the facts, the government needs to continue disseminating relevant information actively and globally.