Natsumi IKOMA
CGS Director
[The article below is the same as the article that appears in the nineteenth issue of the CGS Newsletter.]
I must confess I'm feeling rather dejected about this topic. As hate speech and hate crimes continue to spread throughout both Japan and the world, I feel the dogmatism and rising emphasis on outcomes even at ICU. Brandishing dogma - ignoring the fact that the establishment and principles themselves exclude minorities and women - is contrary to the spirit of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that ICU holds so dear. It is becoming increasingly difficult to voice one's protest within the establishment. In the background to all this, I glimpse the lurking shadows of misogyny, minority discrimination, and neoliberal greed.
So what can CGS do to change this? Considering the hate speech attacking gender and sexuality in the wider community, our biggest priority has been to push for improvements to help create a safer and more supportive campus for students. When students have rushed to our center for help, we have always tried our best to provide empathy, support, and even solutions where possible. Nevertheless, two issues in particular have highlighted to me the hurdles we have yet to overcome.
Firstly, various international students have pointed out the low level of awareness of gender and human rights issues at ICU. A number of students have referred to a certain university activity that prevails under the guise of tradition, despite the fact that it is discriminatory in terms of race, minorities, and gender. It is allowed to continue uncriticized and students feel compelled to participate. Even though this event clearly flies in the face of ICU's focus on internationalism and human rights, the students stated that they weren't even able to criticize or speak out against this discrimination on campus. Other students have told me that they felt their harassment complaints were not taken seriously by the university administration and were deeply hurt by their experience. Such problems have made me painfully aware that despite the efforts at CGS so far, we still need to push harder to raise the awareness of all the faculty and staff on campus. We also need to find ways to make it easier for international students to get involved in CGS's activities.
Secondly, a new dormitory with a gender-neutral floor is currently under construction at ICU, which the media have referred to as the "LGBT Dorm." I have been observing such media reports with mounting concern, as I know that the campus itself is not LGBT friendly. Most importantly, the university needs to consider the perspectives of minorities in establishing the dormitory's regulations, such as making it compulsory for all students to attend a course on gender, sexuality, and human rights before moving into the dormitory. Strengthening human rights on campus should be a far more pressing and vital concern than simply building new facilities.
It has been 12 years since the founding of CGS, but we still have a lot of work to do. ICU still does not have a childcare facility or an office to promote diversity. Even so, we cannot just give up in despair. Who would be left to push for change? We have managed to achieve some things, however small, and more and more students are becoming interested in gender and sexuality issues. Thus we remain firm in our resolve to continue our efforts at CGS, in the belief that progress, however slow, is always possible as long as we work together.