The International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea (ICNK) said today that it has high expectations for the work of United Nations Commission of Inquiry on North Korea, which starts hearing testimony today in Seoul, and called for all persons with information relevant to the Commission’s mandate to cooperate with the Commission.
The 42 human rights groups which comprise ICNK, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH and Christian Solidarity Worldwide, said the work of the UN Commission should shed new light on the human rights violations perpetrated by the Pyongyang government against the North Korean people.
Eunkyoung Kwon at the ICNK Secretariat said today, “As the UN Commission of Inquiry begins taking testimony in Seoul, ICNK will continue its campaign to demand the North Korea government respect human rights. ICNK member groups have amassed ample evidence of abuses committed by the Pyongyang government — including mass imprisonment for political offenses, starvation of prison camp populations, abductions, disappearances, torture and executions. We expect that the Commission will uncover significant evidence of these and other violations which we believe constitute crimes against humanity.”
Welcoming the start of the Commission’s work, the ICNK further stated, “The human rights situation in North Korea remains dire. Abuses are so widespread, severe and systematic that a former UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in Democratic People’s Republic of Korea reported that the human rights situation is “sui generis”, standing in a category of its own. In North Korea, the reality is human rights are denied as a routine matter.”
ICNK anticipates that the findings of the UN Commission will provide the most definitive and authoritative account to date of human rights conditions in North Korea. As such, its conclusions and recommendations should spur renewed worldwide commitment to act to protect the human rights of the North Korean people.
ICNK is seriously disappointed by the refusal to cooperate by the North Korean government with the Commission. Leaders in Pyongyang should reconsider and extend an invitation to the Commission to visit North Korea, and offer full cooperation with the Commission. The ICNK maintains that Commission’s work should persuade the North Korean government that a complete change of policy to start respecting human rights is essential to restore its standing among the nations of the world.
ICNK expects that the investigations and hearings that the UN Commission will conduct in Seoul will provide a singular opportunity for the voices of the victims of human rights abuses to be heard more loudly and clearly than they have ever been. These victims of rights abuses, and the millions like them inside North Korea, deserve a full accounting of the crimes committed against them and for those responsible to be held to account.