Staff writer
The Ainu face difficulties in preserving their rights because they lack a formal legal relationship with the government, a United Nations-appointed human rights expert has concluded in a landmark report.
Compiled by U.N. special rapporteur Miguel Alfonso Martinez, the report was presented in late July to the 16th U.N. Working Group on Indigenous Populations. The product of nine years of work will be officially submitted to the ongoing meeting of a subcommittee under the U.N. Commission on Human Rights.