JBI, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), and eight other leading human rights groups wrote today to members of the UN Security Council, urging them to formally discuss the human rights situation in North Korea in the Council without delay. The full text of the letter appears below.
The letter expresses support for a December 5 request made by ten Security Council members for the situation in North Korea to be formally placed on the Security Council’s agenda and for the Security Council to be briefed on the situation in North Korea as early as possible in December.
The February 2014 report of the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK COI) recommends that the Security Council take up the human rights situation there, finding that North Korea’s “open defiance of the United Nations” and “long-standing and ongoing patterns of systematic and widespread violations” of human rights give the international community a “responsibility to protect the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from crimes against humanity, because the Government of the DPRK has manifestly failed to do so.”
However, the Security Council has yet to formally discuss the DPRK COI report, despite the fact that it was shared with all Security Council members at the request of Australia, France, and the United States in April 2014.
At present, the Security Council’s agenda only includes nuclear proliferation in North Korea and not the human rights situation there. The Council is expected to take up the December 5 request to amend its agenda within the next 10 days. When it does, it will adopted if it is supported by nine or more of the 15 Council members, and the decision to add the issue to the agenda will not be subject to a veto by the permanent members of the Security Council, as it is considered a procedural matter.
JBI, HRNK, and other human rights groups also recently urged States to support the resolution on human rights in North Korea currently pending before the UN General Assembly. That resolution was adopted by the General Assembly’s third committee by an overwhelming majority of 111 UN Member States in favor, 19 against, and 55 abstaining. The resolution will be taken up by the General Assembly in plenary before the end of the year.
Text of Letter to UN Security Council Members
New York, December 9, 2014
Dear Ambassador,
We are writing to you to express our support for the letter sent to the President of the UN Security Council on December 5, 2014 signed by ten Council members, urging formal Council discussion of the human rights situation in North Korea without prejudice to the item on non-proliferation.
As you know, the UN Human Rights Council-created Commission of Inquiry on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) concluded that “the long-standing and ongoing patterns of systematic and widespread violations” of human rights in the DPRK “meet the high threshold for proof of crimes against humanity” and that their nature, scale, and gravity “reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.” The crimes entail “extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.”
On the basis of these findings, the Commission of Inquiry concluded that these decades-long state policies must be addressed and that “the international community must accept its responsibility to protect the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from crimes against humanity, because the Government of the DPRK has manifestly failed to do so.”
There is, moreover, growing international recognition of the need for Security Council engagement on the human rights situation in the DPRK. The most recent resolutions of the UN Human Rights Council and the UN General Assembly Third Committee, the latter of which was adopted with 111 UN Member States voting in favor, call on the UN Security Council “to consider the relevant conclusions and recommendations of the commission and take appropriate action to ensure accountability,” including through possible referral of the North Korean situation to the International Criminal Court.
The Commission of Inquiry noted that “the peaceful efforts taken so far have proved inadequate as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea has defied the united stance of the international community as embodied in the General Assembly and its Human Rights Council.” The Commission further concluded that North Korea’s ongoing “open defiance of the United Nations makes this a case where decisive, yet carefully targeted action should be taken by the Security Council in support of the ongoing efforts of the remainder of the United Nations system.” Indeed, the North Korean government’s bellicose response to the latest vote in the UN General Assembly’s human rights committee—characterizing it as “hostile” and “naturally compelling the army and the people of the DPRK to launch the toughest counteraction”—only further supports the Commission’s conclusion that the UN Security Council’s consideration of the human rights situation is essential.
Of course, when the General Assembly considers the Third Committee resolution later this month in Plenary, we urge and indeed expect States to maintain their support for it and, in the case of those that have abstained, to vote in favor of it. The General Assembly resolution addresses a number of ongoing and serious human rights concerns in the DPRK identified by the Commission of Inquiry, the Human Rights Council, and its special procedures; and it directs recommendations to a broad range of parties, including the government of the DPRK, all UN Member States, UN intergovernmental bodies, the UN Secretariat and agencies, and other stakeholders. The General Assembly resolution confirms that all of these actors have a role to play in supporting the improvement of the human rights situation in the DPRK and provides important guidance to them in this regard. It also welcomes human rights dialogue with the DPRK, which the Commission of Inquiry recommended should be pursued alongside accountability measures.
At the same time, as outlined above, the Commission of Inquiry underscores the urgent need for the Security Council to consider the human rights situation in the DPRK as part of its agenda. To this end, we note that the Commission of Inquiry’s report was shared with Security Council Member States on April 14, 2014, although the Council has not yet formally discussed it. We therefore agree with the Commission’s conclusion—and that of the ten Council members that signed the December 5 letter — that the UN Security Council should prioritize formal discussion of the human rights situation in North Korea as early as possible, and without further delay. Such a meeting should be open to all Member States given that, as the Commission rightly noted, the responsibility for action lies with the entire international community.
Sincerely,
Amnesty International
Christian Solidarity Worldwide
Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights (NKHR)
Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK)
Freedom House
Human Rights Watch
International Coalition to Stop Crimes Against Humanity in North Korea (ICNK)
International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH)
Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights
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