RES/34/24 Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

GE.17-05284(E)



Human Rights Council Thirty-fourth session

27 February–24 March 2017

Agenda item 4

Resolution adopted by the Human Rights Council on 24 March 2017

34/24. 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 31/18 of 23 March

2016 and Assembly resolution 71/202 of 19 December 2016, 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 or 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, and at the impunity of perpetrators, as described in the report of the

commission of inquiry,

1 A/HRC/25/63.

Recalling the responsibility of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to protect

its population from crimes against humanity, and noting General Assembly resolution

71/202, in which the Assembly recalled that the commission of inquiry had urged the

leadership of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to prevent and suppress crimes

against humanity and to ensure that perpetrators are prosecuted and brought to justice,

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,

Acknowledging General Assembly resolution 71/202, in which the Assembly

expressed grave concern about the impact of diverting resources to advance nuclear

weapons and ballistic missiles programmes on the humanitarian and human rights situation

in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and emphasizing the necessity that the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea respect and ensure the welfare and inherent dignity

of people in the country, as referred to by the Security Council in its resolution 2321 (2016)

of 30 November 2016,

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,

Noting with appreciation the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons

with Disabilities by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in December 2016, and

urging it to implement its treaty obligations,

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 of the implementation of 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, expressing grave concern at the lack of positive action by the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea since the investigations on all Japanese nationals

commenced on the basis of the government-level consultations held between the

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

resolution of all issues related to the Japanese nationals, in particular the return of all

abductees, to be achieved at the earliest possible date,

Noting also the importance of dialogue for the improvement of the human rights and

humanitarian situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,

Noting further the importance of the issue of separated families and the requests of

the Republic of Korea for confirmation of the fate of family members, and of allowing the

exchange of letters, visits to their hometowns and the holding of further reunions on a

larger scale and a regular basis,

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, and of

the rights to freedom of opinion, expression and association, both online and offline, 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 its crimes and human rights violations in and outside of the country, and to

take immediate steps to end all such crimes and violations 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, and the

rights to freedom of opinion, expression and association, both online and offline, 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, and their descendants, in a transparent manner, including by ensuring

their immediate return;

(g) To ensure the reunion of separated families across the border;

(h) To abolish immediately the practice of guilt-by-association punishment;

3. Recalls General Assembly resolution 71/202, in which the Assembly

expressed its very serious concern at the violations of workers’ rights, including the right to

freedom of association and effective recognition of the right to collective bargaining, the

right to strike and the prohibition of the economic exploitation of children and of any

harmful or hazardous work of children, as well as the exploitation of workers sent abroad

from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to work under conditions that reportedly

amount to forced labour;

4. 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 Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the Office of the

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights 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 and 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;

5. 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 and by institutions under the effective control of its leadership; 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;

6. 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;

7. Welcomes General Assembly resolution 71/202, in which the Assembly

encouraged the Security Council to continue its consideration of the relevant conclusions

and recommendations of the commission of inquiry 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 further development of sanctions in order to target effectively those

who appear to be most responsible for human rights violations that the commission has said

may constitute crimes against humanity;

8. Also welcomes the decision of the Security Council to hold a third Council

meeting on 9 December 2016, following the ones held in December 2014 and December

2015, during which the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea was discussed in the light of the serious concerns expressed in the present resolution,

and looks forward to the continued and more active engagement of the Council on this

matter;

9. 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;

10. Welcomes the reports of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human

rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the group of independent experts

on accountability for human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of

Korea,2 submitted to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-fourth session, which

emphasized the importance of ensuring accountability for human rights violations in the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea;

11. Recalls the conclusions and recommendations made by the Special

Rapporteur and the group of independent experts on accountability, and acknowledges the

practical steps identified by the group of independent experts that can be taken immediately

to contribute to a comprehensive approach towards accountability in the Democratic

People’s Republic of Korea;

12. Decides to strengthen, for a period of two years, the capacity of the Office of

the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, including its field-based

structure in Seoul, to allow the implementation of relevant recommendations made by the

group of independent experts on accountability in its report aimed at strengthening current

monitoring and documentation efforts, establishing a central information and evidence

repository, and having experts in legal accountability assess all information and testimonies

with a view to developing possible strategies to be used in any future accountability

process;

13. Requests the High Commissioner to provide an oral update on the progress

made in this regard to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-seventh session with a view to

submitting a full report on the implementation of the said recommendations to the Council

at its fortieth session;

14. 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 31/18, for a period of one year;

15. 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;

2 A/HRC/34/66 and Add.1.

16. Encourages the continuing endeavours of the field-based structure of the

Office of the High Commissioner in Seoul, and welcomes its regular reports to the Human

Rights Council;

17. Recalls the report of the High Commissioner on the role and achievements of

the Office with regard to the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic

of Korea submitted to the Human Rights Council at its thirty-first session,3 and invites the

High Commissioner to provide the Council with regular updates on the issue;

18. 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 to fulfil its mandate, that it enjoys full cooperation with relevant Member States

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

19. 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;

20. 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;

21. Urges the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,

through continuous dialogues, to invite and to cooperate fully with all special procedure

mandate holders, especially the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the

Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, 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;

22. 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 procedure mandate holders, including the Special Rapporteur on

the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and the field-

based structure of the Office of the High Commissioner;

23. Encourages all States, the United Nations Secretariat, including relevant

specialized agencies, regional intergovernmental organizations and forums, civil society

organizations, foundations and engaged business enterprises and other stakeholders towards

which the commission of inquiry has directed recommendations to take forward those

recommendations;

24. Encourages the United Nations system as a whole to continue to address the

grave situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic in a coordinated and

unified manner;

25. 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;

26. 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

3 A/HRC/31/38.

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;

27. 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

24 March 2017

[Adopted without a vote.]