Global Call for Renegotiation of the 2015 ‘Comfort Women’ Agreement

We, the undersigned, grassroots advocacy organizations and activists from around
the world have been active participants in the movement to bring justice on behalf of
the survivors of military sexual slavery, by Imperial Japan in the 1930s until the end
of WWII. These women are euphemistically known as the “Comfort Women.”
In August 1991 Hak-soon Kim courageously broke the silence, and since then these
women – affectionately referred to as Grandmas – from Korea, China, Taiwan, the
Philippines and other countries, along with advocacy groups, have been tirelessly
raising awareness globally and challenging the government of Japan and its endless
attempts to deny, downplay and erase its crime against humanity. Together, these
forces drafted a Seven Point List of Demands based on International Standards and
Laws needed to resolve the issue:

1. There must be a full acknowledgment of the crime by the government of
Japan.
2. There must be an official apology.
3. There must be direct, legal reparations.
4. There should be a thorough investigation of the crime.
5. Prosecution of any surviving perpetrators.
6. Ongoing education in Japan’s public schools.
7. Memorials and museums should be built.

In December 2015, the Japanese and South Korean governments colluded and
struck a deeply problematic deal that they said would “finally and irrevocably” resolve
and end the issue. However, not only were the Korean survivors never consulted
during the negotiation, the survivors in all other affected countries were ignored
completely as were the Seven Demands.
The activist Grandmas immediately rebuffed the deal in its entirety. Grassroots
activists from all over the world, in unity and without exception, joined them and
denounced the deal between Abe and Park regimes as a sham, calling for a
renegotiation.
Since the 2015 Agreement, the Japanese government has mounted an international
campaign – especially in the United States – to hinder and undermine any and all
efforts to preserve this history. They have tried to undermine and stop the erecting
of memorials from Atlanta to San Francisco to Shanghai, China to Freiburg,
Germany. The Japanese government has even tried to intervene in the writing of
new textbooks and in curriculum development in the US. In fact, the 2015
agreement has been utilized by the Japanese government to deny and evade its
state responsibility for one of the largest case of institutionalized sex trafficking in the
history of mankind.

Therefore, we demand that the South Korean government and its newly elected
President Moon Jae-in immediately take necessary steps to declare the current
agreement null and void, and renegotiate with Japan, in a manner in which meets
the survivors’ Seven Demands and according to international standards. We
request that the following four points be reflected in the renegotiation:

1) Activist survivors from all affected countries must be seated at the table
and their wishes and concerns must be at the core of the negotiation terms.
2) All leading advocacy groups, such as the Korean Council for the Women
Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan and the House of Sharing, as well
as other key groups and individuals from victim countries must be actively
engaged in the negotiation.
3) All governments of the countries where the survivors originated should be
invited to participate and/or given an opportunity to opt out if they choose to.
4) All Seven Principle Demands of the “Grandmas,” formulated according to
international standards, should be negotiated.

Time is of the essence. Every month we hear of another Grandma’s passing. We
know justice delayed is justice denied, and the longer justice is denied the fewer
former comfort women will be alive to see it. At its heart, this is a human rights issue
and doing right by the survivors is a vital step towards addressing the ongoing
tragedy of modern-day sex-trafficking and war crimes against women.

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