MANILA (UCAN): On March 10, lawyers representing Philippine women forced to work as sex slaves by the military forces of Imperial Japan during World War II urged the country’s government on March 10 to pay compensation. On March 8, the United Nations’ Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women found that Philippine survivors had faced “continuous discrimination” due to the failure of the country’s government to provide reparations, social support and recognition equal to the harm they had suffered.
Twenty-four women from the Malaya Lolas [Free Grandmothers] group filed a complaint with the UN committee in 2019, claiming the Philippines had not backed their claims against Japan for compensation.
“They asserted that the Philippines’ failure to fight for their cause had essentially resulted in ongoing discrimination against them that continues to this day,” the committee said in a statement.
The committee found the women did not receive the same benefits or services as male war veterans and urged the government to provide them with “full reparation” and an “official apology.”
During World War II, up to 200,000 women—mostly from Korea but also from other parts of Asia including the Philippines—were forced to work in Japanese military brothels, according to historians.
The number of Filipino women forced into sexual slavery during Japan’s 1942-45 occupation of the country is believed to be in the hundreds.
Japanese leaders have over the decades offered apologies and compensation money to victims, albeit deliberately sourced from the private sector rather than the government.
Ahead of the visit of the president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., to Tokyo last month, which was aimed at deepening economic and security ties, the Philippine foreign ministry said all war-related claims had been settled by a 1956 reparations agreement with Japan.
Joel Butuyan, chairperson of the Centre for International Law in Manila, which represented the women, called the UN committee’s decision “very significant,” though it is not binding.
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“We cannot actually force the Philippine government to comply, but we’re going to go to the offices concerned and present to them that this is a moral obligation at the very least,” Butuyan said.
Only 20 of the 24 complainants are still alive, according Virginia Suarez, who heads a women’s rights group.
