8 June 2000

Footage from a panel of a presentation by activist Yayori Matsui, explaining how she became involved with the comfort women issue. She explains that she organized a campaign against Japanese sex tours to Korea 1970s, after she and other Japanese women heard about them from Korean women. She states that she regrets that she did not do more then, and adds that the women's movement is now stronger. She asserts that addressing serious violations of human rights requires focus on three areas: investigation and truth-finding, compensation for the victims, and punishment for perpetrators. She describes the problems that victims of war crimes have had with the Japanese courts in these areas. She talks about how the Korean comfort women were denied justice by the Japanese courts and that the war crimes have been covered up by the government. She compares this to the German courts, which have prosecuted war criminals. She then explains the purpose of the tribunal they are preparing, which involves Japan and six affected countries. The tribunal will prosecute individual criminal responsibility and state responsibility for crimes committed during the war, and also post-war violations of survivors' human rights. She continues by describing how they are organizing the comfort women to fight as a united front against the Japanese government. Questions from the audience follow, with responses from various panelists. A man asks about the effect of the splintering of the human rights movement. Next a woman comments that there is an ongoing demonstration against the Japanese government. The second portion of footage is an interview with Bill Pace, Executive Director of the Coalition for the Creation of an International Criminal Court, who describes the genesis of the coalition, its goals and the impediments that it faces in promoting the ratification of the court. He discusses his involvement with the Women's Caucus, mentioning the difficulty he faced in forming a coalition due to the enormous pressure for preparing for the ICC. He also talks about the institution of war: rather than being simply between combatants, it involves and hurts a huge portion of civilians. He continues by discussing the Geneva Conventions and the historic views of courts to not include gender specifically. The creation of this ICC will end the crimes against humanity that have been plaguing civilization.