Human Rights Council: Protect North Koreans

Human Rights Council member countries should help victims of human rights violations fleeing persecution in North Korea, Human Rights Watch said today. China in particular should either shelter such people or permit North Koreans leaving their country to pass through without fear of arrest and being returned to a country where their lives or freedom may be at risk.

On September 21, 2015, Human Rights Watch and the International Campaign to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea (ICNK) will hold a news conference and a side event at the Human Rights Council, focusing on North Korea's practice of abducting nationals of other countries such as South Korea, Japan, Thailand, and Romania.

"North Korea has systematically engaged in the abusive practice of enforced disappearances, and irreparably damaged the lives of abductees and their families, some of whom are still demanding accountability more than 50 years later," said John Fisher, Geneva advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "All Human Rights Council member countries should demand that China live up to its responsibilities."

China is not only bound by the customary international law pertaining to refugees, but is a state party to the 1951 UN Convention on Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.

The news briefing will take place at 9:30 a.m. in Press Room 2, Library of the Palais des Nations, Geneva, with Michael Kirby, chair of the former United Nations Commission of Inquiry on North Korea; Kim Dong-nam, of the group No Chain for North Korea, whose son disappeared while fleeing to South Korea; and Choi Sung Yong, chair of Families of Abducted and Detained in North Korea. Fisher will serve as the moderator.

The side event will be at 4 p.m. in room XXI, Palais des Nations, with Kirby; Marzuki Darusman, the special rapporteur on the situation of human rights in North Korea; and Fisher, along with seven persons directly affected by North Korea's abductions and rights abuses, including Choi Sung Yong; Kim Dong-nam; Banjong Panjoy, the nephew of Thai abductee Anocha Panjoy; Takuya Yokota, the brother of Japanese abductee Megumi Yokota; Eiko Kawasaki, an ethnic Korean Japanese who escaped North Korea; Hwang Incheol, whose son was abducted after North Korea hijacked Korea Air flight YS-11 and diverted it to Pyongyang; and Tomoharu Ebihara, chair of the Association for the Rescue of North Korea Abductees.

A 2014 report by the UN Commission of Inquiry found that since 1950, the North Korean government has systematically kidnapped nationals from China, Japan, South Korea, Thailand, Europe, and the Middle East. Pyongyang forced them to stay in North Korea, where the commission found that gross, pervasive, and systemic human rights abuses take place at a scale and gravity without parallel in the contemporary world - including extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions, and other sexual violence.

In the last two decades, many abductions and forced repatriations have taken place in and from China. North Korean agents have kidnapped Chinese and South Korean nationals in Chinese territory, and Chinese authorities have forcibly repatriated North Koreans who were caught after escaping the country. China categorically labels all North Koreans in China "illegal" economic migrants and routinely repatriates them, despite its obligation to offer protection to refugees under the 1951 Refugees Convention and its 1967 protocol, to which China is a state party.

Since Kim Jong-Un rose to power as the North Korean leader, he has increased control over the border between China and North Korea to prevent North Koreans from escaping. Crossing the border is more dangerous today than ever before, which has made the cost of rescues grow astronomically along with a sharp decline in the number of refugees escaping. By making it more difficult for North Koreans to seek refuge in China via heavier surveillance and a willingness to force North Koreans it catches back to their country, China enables Kim's reign of terror and crimes against humanity.

The Commission of Inquiry report found that North Koreans forced back from China and other countries face torture, arbitrary detention, and referral to political prison or forced labor camps, and in some instances rape, or execution. It also found reasonable grounds to believe that Chinese officials have shared information with North Korea and that China is allowing North Korea agents to abduct North and South Korean nationals in China.

"Given that North Koreans handed back by China face gross human rights abuses, Beijing should consider all North Koreans in China as refugees sur place," Fisher said. "Rather than sending North Koreans back into harm's way, Beijing should let the United Nations Refugees office and the international community protect these refugees and facilitate their resettlement."

The commission of inquiry found that crimes against humanity have been committed in North Korea under policies established at the highest level, with impunity for those responsible. The commission urged the UN Security Council to consider referring the situation in North Korea to the International Criminal Court. In 2014, the UN Security Council added the situation in North Korea to its formal agenda. Human Rights Watch has consistently called on UN Security Council members to hold a new debate on the human rights situation in North Korea by the end of 2015.

"It is long past due for Pyongyang to be held accountable for its crimes against humanity," Fisher said. "The Human Rights Council should continue to press the UN Security Council to open the door to justice for the regime's countless victims."