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Many foreigners, divorced or separated from Japanese spouses, fight for months or years to try to see or recover their child, like the American Moise Garcia. AFP PHOTO / Mira OBERMAN

A French lawyer said Monday she made a request to the UN Human Rights Council on the numerous cases of children abducted in Japan by one of their parents after a separation.

According to figures from the Japanese NGO Kizuna Child-Parent Reunion, each year 150,000 children would be affected by these kidnappings and deprived of access to their other parent sometimes until their majority.

" Through the acts and omissions of its public actors, Japan has committed serious violations of the rights of the child, " said Jessica Finelle, a partner at Zimeray & Finelle in Paris, a specialist in international law.

It calls on the United Nations to " appoint an independent and highly qualified expert to report on this situation ", and " the adoption of a resolution urging Japan to put an end to these repeated violations of the rights of the child" ".

This is an issue that is starting to make noise in Japan and the authorities at the highest level of the state are fully aware of the problem. They respond that it is in the best interest of the child to stay with the parent first. They know, however, that this is not the meaning of the interest of the child in terms of the international conventions that he has signed.

Jessica Finelle

Partner at Zimeray & Finelle in Paris, specialist in international law

13/08/2019 - by Jelena Tomic Listen

Many foreigners, divorced or separated from Japanese spouses, fight for months or years to try to see or recover their sons and daughters with whom their Japanese mother (or sometimes father) suddenly left home.

Often, Japanese justice validates the fait accompli, because in the event of divorce, parental authority is entrusted only to one of the two parents, the Japanese family code does not recognize the shared parental authority.

(with AFP)