A/HRC/17/33/Add.3 economic crisis, Japan still faces serious challenges in ensuring that the human rights of migrants are respected and protected. These challenges include racism and discrimination against migrants, exploitation of migrant workers, a lack of effective interventions by the judiciary and police to protect migrants’ rights and the overall lack of a comprehensive immigration policy that aims to integrate them as part of the society and guarantee the protection of their human rights. In order to abide by its international human rights obligations, Japan needs to thoroughly address these challenges. 77. In this context, the Special Rapporteur makes the following recommendations to the Government. 78. In terms of the legislative, institutional and policy framework: (a) Japan should ratify: (i) International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families; (ii) United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its two Protocols: the Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air and the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children; (iii) Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; (iv) Optional Protocols to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities; (b) Japan should adopt a comprehensive immigration policy at the national level, guided by international human rights law and standards. Such a policy would need to: (i) Spell out a commitment to recognizing migrants as a part of the Japanese society, and provide a vision on how to integrate migrants into the society and how to guarantee the effective protection of their rights; (ii) Establish long-term measures designed to create necessary conditions for this integration to become a reality; (iii) Promote public mass-media campaigns and educational programmes which focus on positive values that migrants bring to the host society in economic, social and cultural terms. In this context, the Government should give a voice to migrants to express their views and their experience; (iv) Revise the existing categories of residence permits, based on a realistic assessment of demand for semi- or unskilled labour. Japan should provide for more flexible categories of residence permits in order to accommodate the needs for such labour and to allow migrant workers who currently fulfil these needs to regularize their status. (c) A strong central governmental agency should coordinate, monitor and evaluate the migration policy and its different ministries. It should be given sufficient powers and ministries involved so as to effectively guide and coordinate their 18 be established to implementation by resources over the work and to ensure

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