Human Rights Watch thanks Special Rapporteur Marzuki Darusman for his many years of work on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. We welcome his comments and in particular his recommendation to create a special panel of experts to explore methods for bringing to justice the North Korean officials responsible for crimes against humanity and other systematic human rights violations in North Korea.
The 2014 United Nations Commission of Inquiry report sent a clear message: North Korea’s violations are unparalleled in the contemporary world. North Korea is a totalitarian state—a place where basic human freedoms are almost non-existent. But it’s not just freedom that is under assault in North Korea. The people of North Korea themselves are under assault. North Korea is a place of horrific forced labor camps, torture, public executions, and a history of mass malnutrition and even mass starvation. Generations of North Koreans have suffered at the hands of the Kim family and its elite.
It is long past time to address the threat that this government’s abuses pose not just to its people but to the international framework for the protection of human rights and respect for the rule of law. The gravity of the abuses in question, and the absence of hope for accountability at the domestic level, heighten the urgency for seeking criminal liability: individual criminal liability for North Korea’s leaders, including Kim Jong-Un and those who run his government’s security apparatus. Justice is needed not only to address past atrocities but to demonstrate to North Korean officials now that further abuses will subject them to future prosecution.
The Human Rights Council is to be commended for sending the Commission of Inquiry’s report to the General Assembly and other relevant UN bodies, We welcome also the setting up of the special office in Seoul to continue gathering information on abuses in North Korea, and suggest that the High Commissioner regularly brief the Council on its findings. The next step is to create the panel of experts tasked with exploring the specific methods that may be used to seek justice and establish criminal liability, whether at the international, regional, or domestic level of UN member states. There are complex matters of international law, international criminal law, and matters of UN charter law that need to be considered as UN bodies, including this one, decide what steps to take. What is needed is an independent, international expert panel with the expertise, status and resources to deliver a report with the impact and gravity that this human rights catastrophe demands.
There can be no justice in a totalitarian state. The Human Rights Council can play a historic role to ensure there is justice for the crimes and abuses that have taken place in North Korea. Human Rights Watch strongly urges you to adopt the special rapporteur’s recommendation to create a panel of experts.
