Demand for Abolition and Reform of Laws Infringing on Freedom of Thought and Expression
Call for Implementation of International Human Rights Covenants
Korea Again a Co-Sponsor... Adoption Expected Next Month
A resolution aimed at comprehensively reassessing the deteriorating human rights situation in North Korea over the past decade without progress since the publication of the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report on North Korean human rights is set to be adopted at the UN Human Rights Council next month.
According to the UN Human Rights Council on the 22nd (local time), Belgium submitted a draft North Korea human rights resolution on the 20th (local time) as the representative of the European Union (EU). South Korea participated as a co-sponsor of this resolution again this year, following last year.
The draft requests "the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to submit a comprehensive updated report on the human rights situation in North Korea since the COI report was published in 2014 to the Human Rights Council."
It also states, "to review the implementation status of the COI recommendations and to continue enhanced mutual dialogue at the 60th session of the Human Rights Council."
The COI, established in March 2013 as the first official UN body to investigate North Korean human rights issues, published a report on February 17 of the following year that systematically outlined the main issues and recommendations regarding North Korean human rights.
In other words, it calls for the publication of a follow-up report that comprehensively covers human rights violations that have occurred in North Korea since the report was issued 10 years ago.
The draft additionally specifies North Korean laws that restrict rights to freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief, and freedom of opinion, expression, and association, in addition to the Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Exclusion Law (enacted in 2020) cited in last year’s resolution.
It adds the Youth Education Guarantee Law (2021), which punishes youth for behavior contrary to the socialist lifestyle and mandates home education, and the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Law (2023), which imposes imprisonment of six years or more for using South Korean language and the death penalty for teaching South Korean dialects.
On the 19th (local time), Choi Jin-young, the son of abducted missionary Choi Chun-gil, attended the side event commemorating the 10th anniversary of the publication of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry (COI) report on North Korean human rights, held at the United Nations Office in Geneva, Switzerland. [Photo by Yonhap News]
The draft urged not merely to review these laws that infringe on residents’ freedoms but to abolish or reform them.
Regarding defectors, it called on UN member states to take measures against transnational repression by the North Korean regime, refrain from sharing defector-related information with the North Korean government, and protect defectors.
It also includes demands for North Korea to ratify key international human rights treaties such as the Convention Against Torture and the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, provide information on the implementation of UN recommendations, and fulfill obligations under international human rights covenants it has already joined, such as the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.
The draft appeals for the return and permanent residence of foreign diplomats and UN agency officials who have been unable to enter North Korea due to border closures without discrimination, and to resume meaningful dialogue with the international community.
Additionally, it includes content pointing out human rights violations in all correctional facilities within North Korea, such as management centers, reeducation centers, labor training camps, and detention centers, and calls for improvements.
The UN has adopted North Korea human rights resolutions annually at the Human Rights Council in the first half of the year and at the General Assembly in the second half. Typically, the content of the next resolution is created by supplementing and adding to the previous version.
South Korea returned as a co-sponsor after four years by signing onto the North Korea human rights resolution submitted to the UN General Assembly in New York in 2022. Last year, it also participated as a co-sponsor for the first time in five years in the North Korea human rights resolution adopted at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Switzerland.
This draft North Korea human rights resolution is expected to be adopted at the 55th session of the UN Human Rights Council next month after discussions.
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