JAPAN URGED TO ABOLISH CAPITAL PUNISHMENT AT UN HUMAN RIGHTS REVIEW

Japan faced calls for abolishing capital punishment at the working session of the UN Human Rights Council to review the country's human rights record. During the first session on Japan's human rights record, which was open to the press and nongovernmental organizations, more than 10 UN member countries, chiefly European nations like France and the Netherlands, urged Tokyo to abolish the death penalty. Many countries expressed concern over the recent tendency in Japan to hand down more death sentences and execute more death row inmates, with a Portuguese delegate requesting Japan to reconsider its capital punishment system based on a UN resolution adopted in December that calls for a moratorium on the death penalty.