RES/28/22 Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

GE.A/HRC/25/63. 5-07284 (E)

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Human Rights Council Twenty-eighth session

Agenda item 4

Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council

28/22. Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

The Human Rights Council,

Guided by the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human

Rights, the International Covenants on Human Rights and other human rights instruments,

Recalling all previous resolutions adopted by the Commission on Human Rights, the

Human Rights Council and the General Assembly on the situation of human rights in the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including Council resolution 25/25 of 28 March

2014 and Assembly resolution 69/188 of 18 December 2014, and urging the

implementation of those resolutions,

Bearing in mind paragraph 3 of General Assembly resolution 60/251 of 15 March

2006,

Recalling its resolutions 5/1, on institution-building of the Human Rights Council,

and 5/2, on the Code of Conduct for Special Procedures Mandate Holders of the Council, of

18 June 2007, and stressing that the mandate holder shall discharge his/her duties in

accordance with those resolutions and annexes thereto,

Stressing the importance of following up on the recommendations contained in the

report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic

of Korea,1 which was welcomed by both the Human Rights Council and the General

Assembly, and transmitted to the relevant bodies of the United Nations, including the

Security Council,

Deeply concerned at the systematic, widespread and gross human rights violations in

the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea that, in many instances, constitute crimes

against humanity, as well as at the impunity of perpetrators, as described in the report of the

commission of inquiry,

Concerned that the precarious humanitarian situation in the country is exacerbated

by the failure of the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to provide

humanitarian agencies with free and unimpeded access to all populations in need and by its

national policy priorities that, among others, prioritize military spending over citizens’

access to food,

Reaffirming that it is the responsibility of the Government of the Democratic

People’s Republic of Korea to ensure the full enjoyment of all human rights and

fundamental freedoms of its entire population, including by ensuring equal access to

adequate food, as well as, among others, freedom of religion or belief, freedom of

expression and freedom of association and assembly,

Recognizing that particular risk factors affect women, children, persons with

disabilities and the elderly, and the need to ensure the full enjoyment of all their human

rights and fundamental freedoms by them against neglect, abuse, exploitation and violence,

Acknowledging the participation of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in

the second universal periodic review process, noting the acceptance by the Government of

the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea of 113 out of the 268 recommendations

contained in the outcome of the review and its stated commitment to implement them and to

look into the possibility of implementing a further 58 recommendations, and emphasizing

the importance that the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea accept and implement the

recommendations in order to address the grave human rights violations in the country,

Recognizing the important work of the treaty bodies in monitoring the

implementation of international human rights obligations, and emphasizing the need for the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to comply with its human rights obligations and to

ensure regular and timely reporting to the treaty bodies,

Noting the importance of the issue of international abductions and of the immediate

return of all abductees, taking note of the outcome of the government-level consultation

between the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and Japan in May 2014, and expecting

concrete and positive results from the investigations being conducted by the Democratic

People’s Republic of Korea on all the Japanese nationals, in particular victims of abduction,

Noting the importance of inter-Korean dialogue, which could contribute to the

improvement of the human rights and humanitarian situation in the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea,

Stressing that the resumption of the reunions of separated families across the border

is an urgent humanitarian concern of the entire Korean people that needs to be resolved

without further delay, and hoping that necessary arrangements for further reunions on a

larger scale and a regular basis will be made by the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea, the Republic of Korea and members of the Korean diaspora,

Reaffirming the importance of States engaging fully and constructively with the

Human Rights Council, including with the universal periodic review process and other

mechanisms of the Council, for the improvement of their situation of human rights,

1. Condemns in the strongest terms the long-standing and ongoing systematic,

widespread and gross human rights violations and other human rights abuses committed in

the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and expresses its grave concern at the detailed

findings made by the commission of inquiry in its report, including:

(a) The denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well

as of the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and association, which is enforced

through an absolute monopoly on information and total control over organized social life,

and arbitrary and unlawful State surveillance that permeates the private lives of all citizens;

(b) Discrimination based on the songbun system, which classifies people on the

basis of State-assigned social class and birth, and also includes consideration of political

opinions and religion, discrimination against women, including unequal access to

employment, discriminatory laws and regulations, and violence against women;

(c) Violations of all aspects of the right to freedom of movement, including

forced assignment to State-designated places of residence and employment, often based on

the songbun system, and denial of the right to leave one’s own country;

(d) Systematic, widespread and grave violations of the right to food and related

aspects of the right to life, exacerbated by widespread hunger and malnutrition;

(e) Violations of the right to life and acts of extermination, murder, enslavement,

torture, imprisonment, rape and other grave forms of sexual violence and persecution on

political, religious and gender grounds in political prison camps and ordinary prisons, and

the widespread practice of collective punishment with harsh sentences imposed on innocent

individuals;

(f) Systematic abduction, denial of repatriation and subsequent enforced

disappearance of persons, including those from other countries, on a large scale and as a

matter of State policy;

2. Urges the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to

acknowledge the human rights violations in the country and to take immediate steps to end

all such violations and abuses through, inter alia, the implementation of relevant

recommendations in the report of the commission of inquiry, including, but not limited to,

the following steps:

(a) To ensure the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as

the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and association, including by permitting the

establishment of independent newspapers and other media;

(b) To end discrimination against citizens, including State-sponsored

discrimination based on the songbun system, and to take immediate steps to ensure gender

equality and to protect women from gender-based violence;

(c) To ensure the right to freedom of movement, including the freedom to choose

one’s place of residence and employment;

(d) To promote equal access to food, including through full transparency

regarding the provision of humanitarian assistance so that such assistance is genuinely

provided to vulnerable persons;

(e) To immediately halt all human right violations relating to prison camps,

including the practice of forced labour, to dismantle all political prison camps and to release

all political prisoners, to immediately cease the practice of the arbitrary execution of

persons in custody, and to ensure that justice sector reforms provide protections for a fair

trial and due process;

(f) To resolve the issue of all persons who have been abducted or otherwise

forcibly disappeared, as well as their descendants, in a transparent manner, including by

ensuring their immediate return;

3. Reiterates its deep concern at the commission’s findings concerning the

situation of refugees and asylum seekers returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea, and other citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who have been

repatriated from abroad and made subject to sanctions, including internment, torture, cruel,

inhumane and degrading treatment, sexual violence, enforced disappearance or the death

penalty, and in this regard strongly urges all States to respect the fundamental principle of

non-refoulement, to treat humanely those who seek refuge and to ensure unhindered access

to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Office of the High

Commissioner, with a view to protecting the human rights of those who seek refuge, and

once again urges State parties to comply with their obligations under international human

rights law as well as the Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and the Protocol

thereto in relation to persons from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who are

covered by those instruments;

4. Stresses and restates its grave concern about the commission’s finding that

the body of testimony gathered and the information received provided reasonable grounds

to believe that crimes against humanity have been committed in the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea, pursuant to policies established at the highest level of the State for

decades; these crimes against humanity 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;

5. Stresses that the authorities of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

have failed to prosecute those responsible for crimes against humanity and other human

rights violations, and encourages the members of the international community to cooperate

with accountability efforts and to ensure that these crimes do not remain unpunished;

6. Welcomes General Assembly resolution 69/188, in which the Assembly

decided to submit the report of the commission of inquiry to the Security Council and

encouraged it to consider the relevant conclusions and recommendations of the commission

and to take appropriate action to ensure accountability, including through consideration of

referral of the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the International

Criminal Court and consideration of the scope for effective targeted sanctions against those

who appear to be most responsible for acts that, according to the commission, may

constitute crimes against humanity;

7. Also welcomes the decision of the Security Council to add the situation in the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the list of issues of which the Council is seized,

the holding of an open Council meeting on 22 December 2014 during which the situation of

human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was discussed, and looks

forward to the continued and active engagement of the Council on this matter;

8. Commends the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for the activities undertaken to date and his

continued efforts in the conduct of his mandate despite the lack of access to the country;

9. Welcomes the report of the Special Rapporteur submitted to the Human

Rights Council at its twenty-eighth session,A/HRC/28/71. in which the Special Rapporteur proposed,

among other things, a strategy to address the issue of international abductions, enforced

disappearances and related matters in a comprehensive way, including the holding of an

international conference thereon;

10. Also welcomes the call of the Special Rapporteur for sustained action on this

issue by the Human Rights Council, including through a panel discussion to serve as a

prominent platform to bring together relevant stakeholders;

11. Decides to convene a panel discussion on the situation of human rights in the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including the issue of international abductions,

enforced disappearances and related matters, at its thirtieth session, and requests the Office

of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to liaise with States and all

stakeholders, including relevant United Nations funds, agencies and programmes, treaty

bodies, special procedures of the Human Rights Council, national human rights institutions

and civil society with a view to ensuring their participation in the panel discussion;

12. Also decides to extend the mandate of the Special Rapporteur of the situation

of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in accordance with Human

Rights Council resolution 25/25 for a period of one year;

13. Calls again upon all parties concerned, including United Nations bodies, to

consider implementation of the recommendations made by the commission of inquiry in its

report in order to address the dire situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea;

14. Welcomes the steps taken by the Office of the High Commissioner towards

establishing a field-based structure in the Republic of Korea to strengthen the monitoring

and documentation of the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea, to ensure accountability, to provide the Special Rapporteur with increased support,

to enhance the engagement and capacity-building of the Governments of all States

concerned, civil society and other stakeholders and to maintain the visibility of the situation

of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, including through sustained

communications, advocacy and outreach initiatives, and requests the Office to present an

oral update to the Human Rights Council at its thirtieth session, and a comprehensive report

at its thirty-first session on the role and achievements of the Office, including on the field-

based structure;

15. Calls upon all States to undertake to ensure that the field-based structure of

the Office of the High Commissioner can function with independence, that it has sufficient

resources and that it is not subjected to any reprisals or threats;

16. Requests the Office of the High Commissioner to report on its follow-up

efforts in the regular annual report of the Secretary-General submitted to the General

Assembly on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,

effective as of the sixty-ninth session of the Assembly;

17. Requests the Special Rapporteur to submit regular reports to the Human

Rights Council and to the General Assembly on the implementation of his mandate,

including on the follow-up efforts made in the implementation of the recommendations of

the commission of inquiry;

18. Acknowledges that the Special Rapporteur held a dialogue with the

representatives of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in New York on 27 October

2014, and urges the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, through

continuous dialogues, to invite and to cooperate fully with the Special Rapporteur, to give

the Special Rapporteur and supporting staff unrestricted access to visit the country, and to

provide them with all information necessary to enable them to fulfil such a mandate, and

also to promote technical cooperation with the Office of the High Commissioner;

19. Encourages the United Nations system, including its specialized agencies,

States, regional intergovernmental organizations, interested institutions, independent

experts and non-governmental organizations to develop constructive dialogue and

cooperation with special procedures mandate holders, including the Special Rapporteur,

and the field-based structure of the Office of the High Commissioner;

20. Encourages all States that have relations with the Democratic People’s

Republic of Korea to use their influence to encourage it to take immediate steps to end all

human rights violations, including by closing political prison camps and undertaking

profound institutional reforms;

21. Requests the Secretary-General to provide the Special Rapporteur and the

Office of the High Commissioner with regard to the field-based structure with all the

assistance and adequate staffing necessary to carry out the mandate effectively, and to

ensure that the mandate holder receives the support of the Office of the High

Commissioner;

22. Decides to transmit all reports of the Special Rapporteur to all relevant bodies

of the United Nations and to the Secretary-General for appropriate action.

57th meeting

27 March 2015

[Adopted by a recorded vote of 27 to 6, with 14 abstentions. The voting was as follows:

In favour:

Albania, Argentina, Botswana, Brazil, Côte d’Ivoire, El Salvador, Estonia,

France, Germany, Ghana, Ireland, Japan, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Maldives,

Mexico, Montenegro, Morocco, Netherlands, Paraguay, Portugal, Republic

of Korea, Sierra Leone, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, United

Arab Emirates, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland,

United States of America

Against:

Bolivia (Plurinational State of), China, Cuba, Russian Federation, Venezuela

(Bolivarian Republic of), Viet Nam

Abstaining:

Algeria, Bangladesh, Congo, Ethiopia, Gabon, India, Indonesia, Kenya,

Namibia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Africa]