“Voices of the ‘Comfort Women’” campaign—UNESCO Memory of the World Register

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“Voices of the ‘Comfort Women’” campaign—UNESCO Memory of the World Register

Background of the “Voices of the ‘Comfort Women’” campaign in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register

It has been extremely difficult and political to get “Comfort Women” documents accepted into UNESCO Memory of the World Register.

In 2014, China submitted the “Comfort Women” documents along with the documents of Nanjing Massacre to UNESCO Memory of the World Register.     In 2015, UNESCO accepted and inscribed the documents of the Rape of Nanjing.  Japan vehemently protested against this and withheld the payment of its membership due in more than 34 million pounds.  On the other hand, UNESCO rejected the “Comfort Women” documents with the rationale that it should be submitted by more victim countries rather than China alone.

In 2016, the “Comfort Women” documents were resubmitted to UNESCO by International Committee for Joint Nominations (ICJN) consisting of a combined efforts of China, Taiwan, Korea, Holland, the Philippines, E. Timor, Indonesia, and Japan, along with the British Imperial War Museum in London.  The dossier was named “Voices of the ‘Comfort Women,’” and it consisted of 2,744 cases including victim testimony detailing the atrocities committed by Japanese Imperialists, documents on the comfort station system’s operation, sex slavery victims survey data, victims’ medical records, and victim support campaign data.   Japan threatened to withdraw its UNESCO membership if UNESCO accepts and inscribes the “CW” dossier.

In 2017, UNESCO postponed the decision on the “Comfort Women” documents to 2019, recommending that the Director-General of UNESCO facilitates a dialogue among the nominators of CW Documents with Japan.  That decision made no sense and was a harbinger of the end.  It seems Japan is succeeding to bully UNESCO.

We are now in 2019 and nothing has happened.    There is only SIX MONTHS left before UNESCO makes its decision on the “Voices of the ‘Comfort Women’” application submitted by the International Committee for Joint Nomination.    No dialogue has occurred so far.

We cannot allow this death knell to sound without doing something!  We must let UNESCO hear our voices.   Please sign the petition urging UNESCO to include the “Comfort Women” dossier.

To sign a Change.org petition to UNESCO on this issue, CLICK HERE.

To see a short video of people urging UNESCO to include the “Comfort Women” dossier, CLICK HERE.