NKHR Delegation at the 61st UNCHR Meeting in Geneva
7 April 2005
Three representatives of NKHR made oral interventions at the 61st UNCHR
Meeting in Geneva on issues facing North Korean women under agenda 12.
The contents of the interventions were as follows:
A Woman´s Voice International
Oral intervention on item 12
Speaker: Man-ho HEO (Board Member, NKHR)
Mister Chairman,
A Woman´s Voice International asks that all
member states of this Commission focus special attention to the violence
against women in Resolution 2004/13 on the situation of human rights
in the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea.
North Korean refugees have reported in written testimonies that the
violence in North Korean homes has reached a serious level. However,
the most serious type of violence against North Korean women is the
physical and mental violence that the women refugees experience when
they are sold by human traffickers. Citizens´ Alliance for north
Korean Human Rights investigated and founded that 60-70% of these women
are traded in human trafficking to experience violence. In the case
of women who are sold by forced kidnapping, the level of violence they
experience is much worse.
According to the same report, the 'forced kidnapping' type
of human trafficking occurs in 3 stages. Kidnapped women are taken to
apartments in cities near the border and are forced to await traders.
At this stage, many of the women are stripped or subjected to other
forms of violence. When a deal is made between traders, the women are
then moved to big cities or inland by car or train. The women are graded
and sold beginning at 2000 yen, the local price of a horse, to as much
as 5000 yen, that of a cow. Furthermore, due to the fact that human
trafficking in China is accomplished systematically by criminal organizations,
escape attempts usually end in recapture and extreme violence.
Mister Chairman, and dear member-state delegates, A Woman´s Voice
International is confident that neither the People´s Republic of
China nor the People´s Republic of Korea want to see this human
tragedy continue. To find an effective remedy to this situation, it
is necessary to investigate the situation in detail and its root causes
by the Special Rapporteur with close cooperation of concerned countries.
For this purpose, the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, Mr. Vitit
Muntarbhorn must be renewed in this session.
Thank you for you attention.
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Oral intervention on the 61st UN Commission on Human Rights under agenda item 12
Speaker: Joanna Hosaniak (Coordinator for Planning and Management,
NKHR)
Mr. Chairman,
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights would like to
draw your attention to the problem of violence against North Korean
women.
The high percentage of North Korean women in China and South Korea
is a direct result of the DPRK´s decision to deny part of the population´s
access to the public distribution system during times of food shortages.
The majority of refugees resettled in South Korea are women and young
girls from the Northern Provinces of the DPRK, the areas which suffer
the most from hunger. Moreover, the DPRK government does not allow unrestricted
access for international organizations to access vulnerable populations
in all areas of the country and does not allow monitoring of the distributed
food.
As a result, North Korean women are forced to look for alternative
means of finding food beyond the borders of their own country. However,
once they cross the border they become political criminals who illegally
escaped the country. Even though the DPRK government amended its Criminal
Code in 2004, the changes are merely superficial and the paragraphs
that violate international law standards, including the right to leave
one´s own country, remain unchanged. As a result, many North Korean
women deported from China are detained in various detention centers
in the country and are exposed to torture, sexual harassment and forced
abortions.
The DPRK government does not even allow those who resettled in South
Korea to live a normal life. Jin Kyoung-sook, 25, and a mother of a
3-year-old child, were both granted asylum in South Korea after a long
and dangerous journey from North Korea through China. In 2004, she traveled
with her husband to China as a South Korean citizen. She was deported
by her husband who managed to escape the agents and now fights for her
return to South Korea. The UN Working Group for Involuntary or Enforced
Disappearances published the DPRK government´s communication in
which it claims that Jin Kyoung-sook does not exist, responding in the
same fashion as it has for many years with regard to the whereabouts
of abducted Japanese citizens.
Greatly concerned about the fate of those abducted, such as Mrs. Jin
and many other North Korean women deported from China to the DPRK, we
would like to request that the Commission urge the DPRK government to
obey international treaties and amend its law accordingly, to stop inhumane
torture, forced labor and abortion practices on women in detention centers
and political prison camps, and allow for the safe return of these individuals
to families of those abducted by the North Korean authorities.
Jubilee Campaign
Oral intervention on item 12
Speaker: Justyna Pilarska (1st Prize Winner at NKHR Essay Contest)
Mr. Chairman,
Starvation and the repression of human rights in North
Korea are regarded as part of a Japanese social problem. There is the
General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, Cho Chong Ryun, a
North Korean association in Japan. Following the instruction of the
North Korean government, Cho Chong Ryun advertised that North Korea
was "a heaven on earth' and urged Korean Japanese people to
return to North Korea. As a result of this advertisement campaign, more
than 93,000 Korean Japanese people and their Japanese spouses have gone
back to North Korea since the end of 1959. People who went back to North
Korea soon realized that they were not allowed to go back to Japan.
People who have returned to North Korea suffer from a lack of food,
discrimination, and are always afraid of being persecuted.
The North Korean government repeatedly told Korean Japanese people
that life in North Korea was wonderful, the political system was splendid,
everyone could enjoy their freedom, and people could go back to Japan
once in a while.
However, the situation the North Korean government portrayed was, and
is, totally untrue.
This situation clearly amounts to the abduction of people. This is
the same crime as the abduction of Japanese people which has been carried
out since the 1970s. The North Korean government has abducted people
since 1959 when it started the project to return Korean Japanese people
to North Korea.
We invited three North Korean refugees from South Korea. Those three
ladies talked about their experiences. Our hearts ached when we heard
the testimony of a teenage girl who became an orphan when escaping from
North Korea.
We also invited Mrs. Shin Jung Ae, a mother of North Korean refugees
who had been arrested in Shanghai, China in August, 2003 and was sent
to a concentration camp in North Korea.
We also invited Mes. Kim Yong Soon, from South Korea. She testified
on her experience in Yodok concentration camp for political prisoners,
where she was detained for 8 years.
The life that women lead in North Korea is especially difficult. They
have to work, attend political meetings and prepare dinner for their
families. They are in constant search of food. Furthermore, women become
victims of forced abortion and are treated badly in prisons and political
camps.
We have to do our best to rescue North Korean refugees.
Prof. HEO Man-ho, A Leader of the NKHR Delegation in Geneva, Appeared
in the Yonhap News
8 April 2005
Yonhap News Agency, Korea´s sole news wire service, reported Professor
HEO´s opinion on the 61st UNCHR as follows:
Attention was focused on the address of Mr. Vitit Muntarbhorn, Special
Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People´s
Republic of Korea, reported on the morning on the 29th of March, and
North Korea´s reaction on the address.
As an expert on human rights in the Asian region, Mr. Muntarbhorn´s
report was detailed and offered balanced perspectives on the general
outlook of the human rights situation in North Korea. The delegation
of the DPRK did not acknowledge it on the account that it is similar
to past hostile acts against the DPRK.
Meanwhile, the Republic of Korea´s government´s stance remains
distant from the international stream. If the Korean government continues
to pursue this stance, it narrows Korea´s role in the international
community which ultimately does not contribute towards improving the
human rights situation in North Korea as well.
While we can have various perspectives on North Korea or South-North
relations, society should guarantee parliamentary democracy and institutional
pluralism.
North Korea must also be changed as well as its human rights violations.
Otherwise, we will not be able to achieve reunification on the Korean
peninsula. From this point of view, we should gather all our strength
to make a substantial contribution to improve North Korean human rights
based on the UNCHR Resolution against North Korean human rights infringements
which has been adopted for three years.
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