Marzuki Darusman, the Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in North Korea, recently submitted a report to the General Assembly on the human rights situation in North Korea. In the report, he used 'the opportunity to stress that for several decades egregious human rights abuses in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have been extensively documented by various actors, including organizations of the United Nations system, and called on States and the international community to undertake a comprehensive review of the relevant documents to assess the underlying patterns and trends and consider setting up a more detailed mechanism of inquiry'.
The Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in North Korea has again found himself unable to get access to North Korea to be able to evaluate human rights in the country as well as provide support to the regime to uphold human rights. The Special Rapporteur has, like his predecessors, used neighboring countries to ascertain knowledge of the current human rights situation in North Korea. He recently visited Thailand where he met several officials from NGOs, academics, and diplomats to discuss the ongoing issues.
His trip to Thailand in June this year resulted in him being briefed about a wide range of issues: the problems defectors faced in relation to trafficking, etc.; severe scarcity of food; malnutrition among children; deteriorating health conditions; deteriorating infrastructure and poor economic conditions. Finally, the Special Rapporteur was also briefed on the operations of the United Nations aimed at alleviating several of these severe living conditions in North Korea.
The report provided by the Special Rapporteur after his trip to Thailand indicated that human rights in North Korea have not improved at all after the regime change. In fact, it looked like human rights were being even more heavily suppressed as some officials were detained after appearing to somewhat oppose the ‘appointment’ of Kim Jong Un as leader.
The report outlined several events this year that saw key movements by the international community to demand North Korea implements and upholds human rights. March this year saw the adoption of the Human Rights Council resolution on human rights in North Korea without a vote. In April in a keynote speech, the Special Rapporteur stated that it was important that clearer information needed to be obtained in relation to the political prison camps. He went on to say that it was imperative that countries around the world analyzed the information available on the camps more in-depth and started moving towards creating a more detailed level of inquiry on the situation.
The Special Rapporteur’s reporting period coincided with some of the worst periods of hunger and famine recently experienced within the North. He drew attention to the 16 million people that chronically suffer from a lack of food. This was backed up by his discussion with UN agencies that had worked in North Korea following the droughts and flooding experienced in the North this year.
The report offered by the Special Rapporteur has drawn particular attention to several key issues. A major concern in the report is the lack of respect shown to international law by the criminal code of the country: several laws are directly in violation of international law. Freedom of opinion and similar freedoms are still being widely monitored by the regime, but access to information from outside sources is (illegally) available. A further concern in the report is the case of Dr. Oh Kil Nam.
On the 1st of March, the Working Group for Arbitrary Detention sent a communiqué to the regime asking for information on Dr. Oh Kil Nam’s family. The regime responded that Dr. Oh’s wife had died and that his daughters did not wish to talk with him. Dr. Oh requested that further information be provided by the North on his wife’s death: none was forthcoming. On the 2nd of May, the Working Group declared that the detention of three was considered as arbitrary and in violation of international law. The Working Group requested that the regime works toward a solution immediately. The Special Rapporteur notes that cases involving deprivation of liberty on such grounds may constitute crimes against humanity.
The economy in the North is also playing a key role in the deprivation of human rights. Weak economic performance due to ineffective or non-existent economic policies are causing no end of problems in relation to human rights. The Special Rapporteur states that this must be rectified.
The final element of the report is the issue of refugees. The Special Rapporteur reminded 'States that while taking measures to prevent exploitation by traffickers or people smugglers, they should also ensure that asylum seekers have access to assessment procedures and protection, including access to organizations working on refugee issues'.
The Special Rapporteur concludes his report with several strong recommendations for the regime: the regime should strive to protect and uphold basic human rights, to rethink its military first policy to allow for distribution of food, to remove laws that are in violation of international law, to release all arbitrarily detained people, to share information on those people who are forcibly returned to the country, and for the regime to work together with the UN. Importantly, he also stresses the need for the international community to provide humanitarian aid while also stepping up efforts to protect human rights in the country.
