City assembly refuses to allow member with no voice to use proxy speaker

NAKATSUGAWA, Gifu -- The municipal assembly here has voted down a request by a 67-year-old member, who lost his vocal cords in a cancer operation and has trouble speaking, to use a proxy speaker during plenary sessions.

When the Nakatsugawa Municipal Assembly meeting began on Friday, a group of four assembly members representing the Japanese Communist Party put forward a resolution to allow 67-year-old assembly member Kimio Koike to have someone read out his questions. The resolution proposal was in line with recommendations from the Gifu Prefectural Bar Association and Human Rights Committee.

However, excluding Koike, 27 members voted against the resolution and only five voted for it, resulting in the proposal being rejected. Koike says he is considering filing legal action before general questioning at the municipal assembly begins on Dec. 11.

"(Restricting statements) is a violation of the Constitution, and it also violates the basic law on disabilities," he said. "The United Nations General Assembly has adopted a convention on rights for the disabled and in Japan there is also now pressure to enact laws preventing discrimination against the disabled, so why has this happened? Bullying of the disabled is being carried out in municipal assembly meetings."

Koike had his vocal cords removed in 2002 in an operation to treat his throat cancer. He had requested that he be allowed to use a representative speaker, but he was only permitted to use a computer to convert his speech.

The municipal assembly member subsequently filed a request with the Human Rights Protection Committee, and in November last year the committee and the Prefectural Bar Association recommended that the municipal assembly allow Koike to use a proxy speaker, saying that not doing so could violate Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality under the law.

While the municipal assembly allowed Koike to use a representative speaker during committee meetings, it refused to budge when it came to plenary sessions of the assembly, saying Koike had to use a computer to convert his speech. Koike continued to protest that the person speaking should be free to choose how they spoke, and the two sides failed to reach an agreement. (Mainichi)

December 2, 2006