Memory and Rights: A Historic Perspective on Human Rights Discourse in East Asia

在亚太战争(1931-1945)期间，日本犯下了严重侵犯人权的罪行，例如对战俘的酷刑和强迫劳动、南京的大规模强奸、性奴役和人体实验(Tanaka，1996)。战后，远东国际军事法庭(远东军事法庭)判定数千人犯有战争罪，但随着东亚部分地区努力走出这一时期，战争罪遗留问题成为区域合作的障碍(Selden，2008)。表彰战犯、修正主义历史书籍和有争议的纪念馆的日本部长，都在煽动紧张局势(瓦茨，2005；法新社2017)。即使在日本国内，也没有一致承认过去发生的侵犯人权行为，这在提交给日本普遍定期审议周期(为定期监测各国的人权义务而设立的联合国机制)的材料中明确可见。在这份文件中，对被委婉地称为“慰安妇”(被迫为军队卖淫的女性)伸张正义的要求，与否认发生任何违法行为的材料并列。(联合国大会，2017年)。Dudai(2017)解释说，冲突后国家的一个根本问题是否认过去的侵犯人权行为。在他的论文中，他提出过渡司法机制可以作为一种社会控制形式，重塑社会对过去的理解，并与否认相矛盾。他将斯坦利·科恩(Stanley Cohen，1985；2001)的社会控制理论--将行为归类为越轨和与和谐社会背道而驰--以及对冲突后国家的否认。Dudai认为，通过用“良好的”社会控制来对抗否定主义的集体记忆，可以加强对人权规范的遵守(Dudai，2017，p.3)。这篇博士论文建议研究日本战争罪行的遗产，以及这如何影响现有的人权叙述和法律机制，使用社会控制和否认的框架来审查过渡司法，以及这些因素如何促进对国际人权规范的接受。这项研究将通过杜代的理论和科恩的框架来考察事态的发展，并评估这是否对理解人权规范产生影响，从而提供对东亚过渡司法的新理解。它将检验以下假设，即否认以前的侵犯行为对人权话语产生负面影响，以及过渡司法机制反过来可以在东亚背景下抵消这一影响。这一点特别重要，因为亚洲是目前唯一没有区域人权机制的大陆，这可能表明对国际规范的抵制(Saul等人，2010年)。

During the Asia-Pacific War (1931-1945), Japan committed gross human rights violations, such as the torture and forced labour of prisoners of war, mass rape at Nanjing, sexual slavery, and human experimentation (Tanaka, 1996). After the war, the International Military Tribunal for the Far East (IMTFE) convicted thousands with war crimes, but as parts of East Asia struggle to transition out of this period, the legacy of war crimes acts as a roadblock to regional cooperation (Selden, 2008). Japanese Ministers honouring war criminals, revisionist history books, and controversial memorials, all act to inflame tensions (Watts, 2005; France-Presse 2017). Even within Japan there is no coherent acknowledgement of the occurrence of past violations, explicitly seen in submissions to Japan's Universal Periodic Review cycle (a United Nations mechanism set up to periodically monitor the human rights obligations of states). In the document, demands for justice for the euphemistically called 'Comfort Women' (women who were forced into prostitution for the military) lie alongside submissions that deny the occurrence of any violation. (United Nations General Assembly, 2017). Dudai (2017) explains that a fundamental problem for post-conflict states is the denial of past human rights violations. In his paper, he proposes that transitional justice mechanisms can act as a form of social control to reshape a society's understanding of the past and contradict denial. He applies Stanley Cohen's (1985; 2001) theories of social control - categorising acts as deviant and contrary to convivial society - and denial to post-conflict states. Dudai argues that by countering denialist collective memory with "good" social control, compliance with human rights norms can be enhanced (Dudai, 2017, p.3). This PhD thesis proposes to examine the legacy of Japanese war crimes and how this influences existing human rights narratives and legal mechanisms, using frameworks of social control and denial to examine transitional justice, and how these elements may promote acceptance of international human rights norms. This research will provide a new understanding of transitional justice in East Asia by examining developments through the lens of Dudai's theory and Cohen's frameworks, and assessing if there is an effect on the understanding of human rights norms. It will test the hypotheses that denial of previous violations negatively impacts on human rights discourse, and that transitional justice mechanisms can in turn counteract this, in the context of East Asia. This is particularly relevant as Asia is currently the only continent without a regional human rights mechanism, possibly indicating resistance to international norms (Saul et al., 2010).