About the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North
Korea (HRNK)
In October of 2001, a distinguished group of foreign
policy and human rights specialists launched the U.S. Committee for
Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) to promote human rights in North
Korea.
HRNK's Guiding Objectives are:
- Monitor Relief Efforts.
Demand that the famine relief that is being donated to North Korea is
monitored by independent assistance organizations to verify that this
relief is reaching those whom it is intended to help;
- Monitor Economic Assistance Efforts.
Demand that other economic assistance to North Korea be conditioned on
meaningful improvements in addressing the three critical problems of
human rights, refugee protection, and famine relief;
- Free North Korea's Borders.
Pressure the North Korean government in to cease criminalizing the act
of leaving the country without permission, stop punishing those who are
forcibly repatriated; and insist that China recognize the escapees as
political refugees who must not be forcibly returned;
- Inform the North Korean Citizens.
Find new ways to provide information to the people of North Korea, thus
ending their enforced isolation;
- Open Communications.
Develop multiple channels of exchange and contact with the North Korean
people;
- Allow NGOs Entry.
Insist that human rights organizations and independent media be given
access to North Korea, thereby ending the information blockade that has
prevented the true picture of conditions in North Korea to be revealed
to the outside world; and
- Development of Good Economic
Principles. Encourage companies investing in North Korea
to develop a code of conduct, similar to the Sullivan principles that
were applied in South Africa to protect workers and other citizens.
Current Activities:
The Committee's initial activities will be to conduct three studies
that will focus on political prisons and labor camps, the denial of
equal access to food and goods, and the plight of refugees fleeing to
China.
These studies will provide a foundation for other
activities, which will include the development of an international
network of human rights, humanitarian assistance, and policy
organizations committed to the opening of the North Korean system.
Groups based in South Korea, where two international conferences on
human rights in North Korea have already been held, will form a core
part of this network.
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