In March of this year, the UN Human Rights Council established a Commission of Inquiry on the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to look into "systematic, widespread and grave violations of human rights". The Commission has begun its operations in Geneva this week, holding key meetings with a number of diplomatic missions, UN agencies, scholars, and NGOs. They have also been discussing the strategy, methodology, and investigative approach they will employ during their mandate.

 

The Commission is made up of three members: Michael Kirby, a former Australian judge and previously UN Special Representative on human rights in Cambodia, Marzuki Darusman from Indonesia, who is also the current Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea, and Sonja Biserko, the founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia.

 

The Commission will investigate a variety of alleged violations. These include alleged violations relating to the right to food, as well as those associated with prison camps, torture, arbitrary detention, discrimination, freedom of __EXPRESSION__, the right to life, and freedom of movement. It will also look into enforced disappearances, including the abduction of nationals of other states.