The United Nations Special Rapporteur is an individual, independent expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council to investigate, monitor, advise upon, and publicize the human rights situation in specific countries.
Joseph Cannataci wrote that the bill, Would permit the application of laws for crimes which appear to be totally unrelated with the scope of organized crime and terrorism, such as ... theft of forestry products in reserved forests ... exporting without permission and destroying important cultural properties.and that, Serious concern is expressed that the proposed bill, in its current form and in combination with other legislation, may affect the exercise of the right to privacy as well as other fundamental public freedoms given its potential broad application.
In particular I am concerned by the risks of arbitrary application of this legislation given the vague definition of what would constitute the 'planning' and 'preparatory actions' and given the inclusion of an overbroad range of crimes in the Appendix which are apparently unrelated to terrorism and organized crime.At a press conference on May 22, the Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga responded aggressively to the letter, saying, "The letter was released unilaterally without the Japanese government or the Ministry of Foreign Affairs having had the opportunity to directly explain the legislation (to Cannataci).
[2] Cannataci responded in a second letter that "The 'strong protest' received from the Japanese government was just angry words but no substance ...
"[2] The reason this law was created was to implement the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.