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Avoiding Scrutiny and Monitoring: North Korea's Protectors at the UN
Date and Time:
June 02, 2022 12:00 pm ~ June 02, 2022 02:00 pm
Location:DACOR Bacon House 1801 F St, NW, Washington DC 20006
Speakers:Roberta Cohen, Rana Siu Inboden, Greg Scarlatoiu
Host Organization:
Description:
Moderated by HRNK Co-Chair Emeritus Roberta Cohen
Presenters:
Dr. Rana Siu Inboden
Adjunct Assistant Professor, LBJ School of Public Affairs
Distinguished Scholar, Strauss Center for International Security and Law
North Korea and Authoritarian Collaboration in the United Nations: The Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review Process
The report Dr. Inboden will feature examines ways that North Korea benefits from protection in the UN human rights system. In particular, it examines patterns where other authoritarian countries shield North Korea from human rights criticism during the UN's Universal Periodic Review process by offering praise for the North Korean government, even in the face of severe human rights violations. It shows that jointly North Korea and other countries, such as China, blunt the effectiveness of external human rights scrutiny and monitoring. The North Korean regime and its allies frequently band together in multilateral bodies to shield each other from international human rights pressure. This is particularly evident during the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR). During all three of North Korea’s UPR sessions before the Human Rights Council (HRC), a number of its backers not only defended it but even applauded North Korea’s record. The most active countries shielding North Korea were China, Cuba, and Venezuela, but they were also joined by Syria, Belarus, Russia, Vietnam, Iran, and Burundi.
Greg Scarlatoiu
Executive Director, HRNK
North Korea and Authoritarian Collaboration in the United Nations: The ECOSOC NGO Committee
The report Executive Director Scarlatoiu will feature examines the role of the ECOSOC NGO Committee as “gatekeeper” of international civil society access, based on HRNK’s direct experience with the process. On April 17, 2018, the 54 member UN Economic and Social Council took action on a resolution to grant UN consultative status to the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK). The resolution passed with 29 votes in favor, 6 against, and 13 abstentions. Six ECOSOC member states were absent. Belarus, China, Russian Federation, South Africa, Venezuela and Vietnam voted against. This victory for the North Korean human rights cause was the result of a long and grueling struggle to overcome opposition by UN ECOSOC NGO Committee protectors of North Korea. Previously, ECOSOC NGO Committee members Burundi, China, Cuba, Iran, Nicaragua, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, South Africa, and Venezuela had voted against granting HRNK consultative status.
This report proposes a long-term, multilateral legal strategy, using existing United Nations resolutions and conventions, and U.S. statutes that are either codified or proposed in appended model legislation, to find, freeze, forfeit, and deposit the proceeds of the North Korean government's kleptocracy into international escrow. These funds would be available for limited, case-by-case disbursements to provide food and medical care for poor North Koreans, and--contingent upon Pyongyang's progress
For thirty years, U.S. North Korea policy have sacrificed human rights for the sake of addressing nuclear weapons. Both the North Korean nuclear and missile programs have thrived. Sidelining human rights to appease the North Korean regime is not the answer, but a fundamental flaw in U.S. policy. (Published by the National Institute for Public Policy)
Sep 26, 2022
North Korea’s forced labor enterprise and its state sponsorship of human trafficking certainly continued until the onset of the COVID pandemic. HRNK has endeavored to determine if North Korean entities responsible for exporting workers to China and Russia continued their activities under COVID as well.
George Hutchinson's The Suryong, the Soldier, and Information in the KPA is the second of three building blocks of a multi-year HRNK project to examine North Korea's information environment. Hutchinson's thoroughly researched and sourced report addresses the circulation of information within the Korean People's Army (KPA). Understanding how KPA soldiers receive their information is needed to prepare information campaigns while taking into account all possible contingenc
This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former prisoner interviews to shed light on human suffering in North Korea by monitoring activity at political prison facilities throughout the nation. This is the second HRNK satellite imagery report detailing activity observed during 2015 to 2021 at a prison facility commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as “Kwan-li-so No. 14 Kaech’ŏn” (39.646810, 126.117058) and
This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former prisoner interviews to shed light on human suffering in North Korea by monitoring activity at civil and political prison facilities throughout the nation. This study details activity observed during 1968–1977 and 2002–2021 at a prison facility commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as "Kyo-hwa-so No. 3, T'osŏng-ni" and endeavors to e
This report is part of a comprehensive long-term project undertaken by HRNK to use satellite imagery and former detainee interviews to shed light on human suffering in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, more commonly known as North Korea) by monitoring activity at political prison facilities throughout the nation. This report provides an abbreviated update to our previous reports on a long-term political prison commonly identified by former prisoners and researchers as Kwan-li-so
Through satellite imagery analysis and witness testimony, HRNK has identified a previously unknown potential kyo-hwa-so long-term prison-labor facility at Sŏnhwa-dong (선화동) P’ihyŏn-gun, P’yŏngan-bukto, North Korea. While this facility appears to be operational and well maintained, further imagery analysis and witness testimony collection will be necessary in order to irrefutably confirm that Sŏnhwa-dong is a kyo-hwa-so.
Jul 22, 2021
"North Korea’s Long-term Prison-Labor Facility Kyo-hwa-so No. 8, Sŭngho-ri (승호리) - Update" is the latest report under a long-term project employing satellite imagery analysis and former political prisoner testimony to shed light on human suffering in North Korea's prison camps.
Jul 01, 2021
Human Rights in the Democratic Republic of Korea: The Role of the United Nations" is HRNK's 50th report in our 20-year history. This is even more meaningful as David Hawk's "Hidden Gulag" (2003) was the first report published by HRNK. In his latest report, Hawk details efforts by many UN member states and by the UN’s committees, projects and procedures to promote and protect human rights in the DPRK. The report highlights North Korea’s shifts in its approach
South Africa’s Apartheid and North Korea’s Songbun: Parallels in Crimes against Humanity by Robert Collins underlines similarities between two systematically, deliberately, and thoroughly discriminatory repressive systems. This project began with expert testimony Collins submitted as part of a joint investigation and documentation project scrutinizing human rights violations committed at North Korea’s short-term detention facilities, conducted by the Committee for Human Rights