A United Nations panel on human rights has joined the fray over Japan's history textbook controversy by underlining the importance of accuracy in history education.
A resolution adopted Thursday by the U.N. Human Rights Commission's subcommission on promoting and protecting human rights points no fingers at any particular country; it simply urges member states to ensure "the accuracy of the accounts of historical events in education curriculum."
But the same resolution expresses concern over "systematic rape, sexual slavery and slaverylike practices" in military conflicts, citing the "comfort women" system run by the Japanese military during the war as a case in point.
Diplomatic sources in Geneva said the South Korean delegation in the rights panel played a key role in persuading the subcommission to make the sex-slavery and history-education linkage.
The resolution came a week after the subcommission released a report critical of the continuing Japanese social practice of discriminating against the descendants of former social outcasts.
After citing past resolutions that specifically addressed Japan's sexual-slave issue, the latest resolution urges member states to provide "effective criminal penalties and compensation" for violations in ongoing conflicts.
The resolution urges member states to promote human rights education on the wartime sex slaves through accuracy in history education.
By linking wartime sexual slavery with accuracy in history education, the resolution is likely to provide ammunition to South Korea and other Asian countries that have been critical of new government-endorsed history textbooks in Japan that critics say gloss over the issue of wartime sexual slavery and other atrocities.
An earlier draft pointedly cited "accuracy of textbooks" in history education, but the passage was replaced by "education curriculum" following objections by Japanese and other delegates.