Mark Pritchard – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Mark Pritchard on 2014-04-03.

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, if he will instruct UK diplomats resident in Japan to raise the human rights case of Mr Iwao Hakamda with the Japanese authorities.

Mr Hugo Swire

British Ministers have made clear to their Japanese counterparts on numerous occasions the UK’s hope that Japan will move to abolish the death penalty. This is in line with UK policy towards all countries which continue to use the death penalty. Most recently, on 12 December 2013, EU Ambassadors in Tokyo wrote a joint letter to the Japanese Foreign Minister on , expressing their concern at executions which took place the same day, and deploring the eight executions authorised by the Minister of Justice since the beginning of that year.

The FCO part-funded a study by the NGO Death Penalty Project in 2013, the conclusions of which argue that aspects of Japan’s use of the death penalty – including the sentencing and detention of Mr Hakamada – amount to breaches of its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. The British Embassy in Tokyo has disseminated this report widely in Japan, including to all Members of the Diet, and we continue to raise the points in the report with the Japanese authorities. The British Embassy in Tokyo will continue to follow closely the case of Mr Hakamada, and will work with like-minded partners to raise its profile. The Embassy and the FCO put out messages on social media about the case on 28 March following his release for retrial.