Sovereignty-Centric Perception of Human Rights
A. Increasing Human Rights Pressure on North Korea
A. Increasing Human Rights Pressure
lution on North Korean human rights, and the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), which replaced the UNCHR in March 2006, has adopted resolutions on North Korean human rights every year since 2008 calling on North Korea to improve the situation.
In April 2008 the UNHRC launched its Universal Periodic Review (UPR) process, designed to promote equal treatment towards each of the UN’s 192 member states and to increase human rights accountability. Under the UPR, each UN member state is subject to a human rights review every four years. The UNHRC reviewed North Korea’s human rights record at a UPR session in December 2009, and the Working Group prepared a report summarizing the proceedings and recommendations.17At the 13th meeting of the UNHRC held in Geneva on March 18, 2010, however, the DPRK delegation rejected 50 of the recom- mendations in the Working Group’s report and left 117 pending, including such issues as the prohibition of public executions, the abolition of concentration camps, and permission for the UN spe- cial rapporteur to visit North Korea.
On Nov. 18, 2010 the Third Committee of the UN General Assembly passed a resolution condemning North Korea’s human rights violations.18The UN General Assembly resolution on North Korean human rights pointed out that North Korea has made
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16_Vitit Muntarbhorn was appointed as the first special rapporteur and served until June 2010, when he was succeeded by Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia.
17_The UPR reports are analyzed at a “working group” consisting of 47 executive member states within the UNHRC, but other member states are also allowed to participate as “observers” and discuss issues during the review sessions. See National Human Rights Commission, ed., “Collection of Materials on Universal Periodic Review – DPRK and Reactions of South Korea, NGOs, and INGOs,”
(Seoul: NHRC, March 2010), pp. 129-157.
18_UN General Assembly, Sixty-Fifth Session, Third Committee, Draft Resolution:
Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK, UN Doc. A/C.3/65/L.47 (28 October 2010).
some positive moves regarding the inter-Korean “separated family reunion” meetings and cooperation with international organiza- tions in the areas of health and educational development. The res- olution, however, expressed deep concern over a number of important issues, including torture and inhumane detentions, the lack of an independent judiciary, capital punishment for religious reasons, the operation of political concentration camps, the lack of freedom of residence and relocation, the harsh punishment of deported defectors, the repression of freedom of speech, beliefs, and religion, human trafficking, prostitution, forced abortions, per- secution of disabled persons, and lack of labor rights. The resolu- tion stated that serious and systematic human rights abuses are being widely and persistently committed in North Korea. The UN resolution also condemned North Korea for not permitting visits by the UN special rapporteur on North Korean human rights, for not carrying out various recommendations made at the UPR ses- sion, and for showing an unclear stance on the issue of forcible abductions of foreign citizens. The UN recommendation expressed deep concern over the deteriorating humanitarian situation brought on by the North Korean authorities who failed to properly distribute grain to the victims of natural disasters and prohibited the personal cultivation of grain and normal grain transactions at markets.
The UN promotes human rights throughout the world in cooperation with UN member states and international NGOs. In fact, the UN, the EU, the US and various international human rights groups have developed a network for global human rights improvement and made joint efforts to improve the human rights situation in North Korea. In June 2001 the EU was able to open a human rights dialogue with North Korea. Since 2003, the EU has
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taken the lead in adopting human rights resolutions against the DPRK. When the UN General Assembly adopted a North Korean human rights resolution in November 2005, North Korea cut off dialogue with the EU. From early 2007, however, North Korea again began to expand its diplomatic contacts with the EU in order to solicit economic assistance.19However, after North Korea con- ducted its second nuclear test in May of 2009 the relationship between the two cooled off once again. The EU stands firm on the issues of human rights and nuclear development but remains com- mitted to engaging North Korea through humanitarian assistance in an attempt to open the closed society.
Since enacting the North Korean Human Rights Act, the United States has led various efforts to improve North Korea’s human rights. It has provided grants to private, nonprofit organi- zations to support programs that promote human rights in North Korea. In September 2008, the US Congress extended the North Korean Human Rights Act for four more years until 2012.20After the inauguration of President Barack Obama in January 2009, the US promised to help the world’s weakest states to reduce poverty.
But from the outset the Obama administration had to deal with North Korea’s provocative actions such as the test-firing of long- range missiles and the second nuclear test, which frustrated Presi- dent Obama’s efforts to initiate a new human rights policy toward North Korea. The US State Department’s special envoy on North
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19_The third EU-North Korea Economic Workshop was held in October 2007, and the 9th and 10th “political dialogues” were held in succession in June of 2008 and March of 2009 in Pyongyang. See the Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Korea, “EU-DPRK,” <www.delkor.ec.europa.eu/home/kr_relations/
dprkrelations/dprkrelations.html>.
20_US House of Representatives, H.R. 5834, North Korean Human Rights Re-Autho- rization Act of 2008 (Sept. 25, 2008).
Korean human rights, Robert King, during his visit to South Korea in January 2010, said that the human rights situation in North Korea was at its worst point yet, adding that the US and South Korea should strengthen their cooperation for the improvement of North Korean human rights. The US State Department’s annual Human Rights Country Report for 2010 pointed out that various unlawful humanitarian abuses still persist in North Korea, includ- ing executions without trial, unreported missing persons, arbitrary detentions, arrests of “political criminals,” and torture.21
International organizations and NGOs continue to monitor the human rights situation in North Korea and put pressure on North Korea to improve the situation. In its 2010 Annual Report, Amnesty International (AI) stated that over nine million North Koreans were suffering from a severe shortage of grain and the international humanitarian aid had also shrunk rapidly since North Korea’s second nuclear test. Human Rights Watch also warned of a new wave of starvation deaths sweeping across North Korea since the currency reform of November 2009. In addition to these well-known international organizations, human rights NGOs in the US and South Korea have taken the lead in shaping interna- tional opinion on the North Korean human rights situation.
Among the many active civilian groups, the North Korea Freedom Coalition is of particular importance. It has been hosting a “North Korean Freedom Week” in Washington, DC every year since 2004, calling for the democratization of North Korea and demanding the improvement of its human rights. In 2010 the seventh “North Korea Freedom Week” was held in Seoul and co-sponsored by several South Korean NGOs. The American and South Korean
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21_US Department of State, 2009 Human Rights Report: Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, <www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/eap/135995.htm>.
human rights NGOs observed “North Korea Freedom Week” from April 25~May 1, 2010 in Seoul, hosting a number of exhibitions, lectures, and public rallies in their efforts to publicize the human rights abuses occurring in North Korea and calling on the North Korean regime to embrace openness and reform.