UN Human Rights Review Underway Amid 'North Korean Troop Deployment' Incident
10 Organizations Issue Statement Pressuring North Korea for Improvement Measures
Ahead of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) by the United Nations to assess North Korea's human rights situation, civil society has condemned the North Korean authorities for dispatching young people to the Russian battlefield.
Ten North Korean human rights organizations, including the Korea Center for United Nations Human Rights Policy (KOCUN), criticized on the 30th in a statement that "North Korea is focusing its available resources, which should be used for the survival and welfare of its people, on nuclear development and missile launches, and is deploying young people as soldiers to Russia, concentrating on military force activities."
The statement was joined by groups such as the Freedom to Move (F2M), Institute for North Korean Human Rights (INKHR), International Democracy Hub (IDH), Justice for North Korea Solidarity (JFNK), Korea Future Women’s Institute (KFWI), Let's All Gather (KOA), Moolmangcho (MMC), North Korean Imprisonment Victims’ Families Association (NKIVFA), and the Korean War Abductees’ Families Council (KWAFU).
The organizations pointed out, "It has been 10 years since the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report on North Korean human rights was published, yet North Korean residents continue to suffer violations of various human rights, including basic survival rights and freedom of expression," adding, "Despite the international community expressing deep concern over North Korea's human rights issues, North Korea does not follow the UN's recommendations for human rights improvements." They urged, "North Korea must actively engage in human rights dialogue," and called on the country to "comply with international conventions, submit reports on their implementation, and immediately implement the UPR recommendations."
Furthermore, the groups presented three recommendations: ▲ ratification of the Convention Against Torture, the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, and the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance; ▲ ratification of the Optional Protocols to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which have been overdue for 20 years; ▲ ratification of the Optional Protocols to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The ten organizations plan to conduct on-site activities in Geneva, Switzerland, starting from the 5th, ahead of the 4th North Korean UPR scheduled for the 7th. Earlier in April this year, they submitted joint and individual reports in accordance with UPR guidelines.
The reports submitted by each organization included content on changes and additional follow-up measures since the 3rd UPR in 2019. Notably, they pointed out that during the COVID-19 pandemic, North Korean residents faced restrictions on freedom of movement, and that freedom of expression is being violated under the "three major evil laws" of the Kim Jong-un era: the Anti-Reactionary Thought and Culture Expulsion Law, the Youth Education Guarantee Law, and the Pyongyang Cultural Language Protection Law. The reports also included recommendations addressing issues such as enforced disappearances, abuse of the death penalty, and immediate repatriation demands for abductees, detainees, and prisoners of war from the South Korean military.
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