Sophia Magazine vol.3 / SUMMER 2016

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Recalling her high school days as a senior, Ishikawa says, “Frequent news reports on the developments of the civil war in Rwanda made me start thinking about what I could do for these people. The fact that neighbors, who had lived in harmony, started killing each other was really a shock to me. I was particularly devastated by reports that so many people had been forced to leave Rwanda, but these refugees were often losing their lives after arriving at their destinations due to lack of support. I thought hard about what I could do to alleviate the terrible hardships they were facing.”After considering what would be required to support refu-gees, Ishikawa decided to study international law as a means to guaranteeing human rights in international relations. This was the reason she entered the Department of Inter-national Legal Studies within the Faculty of Law at Sophia University. “I studied constitutions to learn how to protect human rights, as well as how treaties should operate as agreements between countries and, at the same time, I learned English and basic French.” While a senior in high school, and studying international law at Sophia, Ishikawa worked as a volunteer for an NGO that promoted peace as well as at Amnesty International, the largest human rights NGO. The Japanese office of Amnesty International received many phone calls every day, some of them from refugees who wanted to make an appointment with office staff and others who gave detailed explanations in English about the situation they were in. Ishikawa, who was thinking of visiting Rwanda and other countries to support people in need, knew that there were also opportunities to support refugees in Japan. Later, during her senior year at university, she was moved to establish the Japan Association for Refugees. This is because she keenly felt the necessity for a better response to the plight of the refugees in light of the limited legal support possible within the scope of Amnesty’s activities, and the need for consultation on aspects of daily life from the many people who expected to be given official refugee status. Ishikawa explains the three pillars of activity of the Japan Association for Refugees as follows: “The first core pillar is to provide protection and assistance for each refugee. Every day, about 10 refugees come to the office for consultation, and we give them close counseling as well as provide what-ever food, shelter or other physical support they may require, therefore serving as a safety net. The second pillar is to make policy recommendations. To ensure the livelihood of refu-gees coming to Japan, many systemic improvements are re-quired since some refugees may have become homeless due Studying International Law as a Means to Guaranteeing Human RightsThree Pillars in the Activities of the Japan Association for Refugeesto work restrictions placed on them, while others are still waiting to receive official refugee status after making their applications. Accordingly, we propose improvements by re-searching the actual operations of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act and the situations overseas. Finally, the third pillar is to raise awareness. We would like many people to know that there are many refugees in Japan, and to consider these refugees as their own issue.”At present, refugees are flowing out of Syria on the larg-est scale since World War II. News of their plight is fre-quently reported, but the idea of Japan accepting refugees is not often talked about. However, when awareness of the problems affecting refugees is raised in Japan, people must start questioning the current situation surrounding asylum. Thus, holding discussions about raising awareness can even-tually lead to the creation of a social system geared towards accepting foreigners facing hardship.“The greatest concern with the outflow of refugees is the situation where refugees end up with nowhere to go. Secure countries are starting to refuse refugees by forcing such people to remain in neighboring countries. However, refu-gees should be accepted so that they can be returned to their homeland when peace returns. For that purpose, I think it is also necessary for Japan to have a serious discussion about actively supporting global efforts to solve the problem by reaching out to and willingly accepting refugees.”“The ideal is, of course, to have real and lasting peace, so that no refugees are produced. However, under the current circumstances, this is not an option and so proper action is required on the issue of refugees.” To this end, Ms. Ishikawa entrusts us to continue to discussing how we can best create a society that embraces people of different backgrounds.Above left: At the Global Citizenship Award ceremony Above: Being fea-tured on NHK broadcast news Left: Consulting with a refugee at the Japan Association for Refugees23Sophia People

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