We, the Japan Federation of Bar Associations (JFBA) at this opportunity of the attendance of its delegation to the IBA Fiftieth Anniversary Conference and its visit to the secretary office of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, welcoming the accomplishment of the Forty-First Session of the Commission on the Status of Women including that of its Working Group on the Elaboration of a draft Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, strongly hope the introduction of the Optional Protocol as early a stage as possible.

In the JFBA Report on the Japan's National Report for the Fourth World Conference on Women (the Beijing Conference) in 1995, the JFBA:noting that, with particular reference to discrimination against women,there are numerous cases of insufficient remedies being provided by national laws although the countries concerned have ratified the Convention and also that numerous cases exist in which gender equality is achieved de jure, but de facto discrimination persists;reminding that, at the World Conference on Human Rights held in Vienna in June 1993, it was recognized that there is a need for the establishment of a new procedure to ensure the implementation of provisions to guarantee human rights of women;concluded that it is imperative to adopt an Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women which provides for the right of petition and to guarantee the implementation of the Convention on an international level.

In the Platform for Action adopted at the Fourth World Conference on Women, participating governments are required to "Support the process initiated by the Commission on the Status of Women with a view to elaborating a draft optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women that could enter into force as soon as possible on a right of petition procedure, taking into consideration the Secretary-General's report on the optional protocol, including those views related to its feasibility." The JFBA,based upon the accomplishments of the Fourth World Conference on Women,has been further convinced of the importance of the introduction of the Optional Protocol through its activities for women's rights thereafter.

Thus, the JFBA highly appreciates that a large majority of participating governments at the Forty-First Session of the Commission on the Status of Women was in favour of the optional protocol and for the procedures to be followed and the Working Group hoped that it could finish its work next year, the very symbolic year for human rights as the fiftieth anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The JFBA requests the government of Japan, as a member state of Commission, that it take a leadership for the early introduction of the optional protocol, and that it that it let people in Japan know widely the importance of the optional protocol. We, the JFBA, shall work as hard as possible for the early introduction of the optional protocol to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women.

June 13, 1997

JAPAN FEDERATION OF BAR ASSOCIATIONS
President Akio Kioi