ProfessorVititMuntarbhorn,theSpecialRapporteuroftheUNHumanRightsCommissionontheSituationofHumanRightsintheDPRK,paidavisittotheR
Professor Vitit Muntarbhorn, the Special Rapporteur of the UN Human Rights Commission on the Situation of Human Rights in the DPRK, paid a visit to the ROK from 3 to 10 November 2005. The purpose of the visit was to assess the impact of the DPRK's human rights situation on the ROK. He expresses his warm gratitude to the Government of the ROK for facilitating his visit and to the National Human Rights Commission of Korea for the invitation to the International Seminar on the North Korean Human Rights.
He wishes to thank sincerely the wide range of governmental, non-governmental, inter-governmental and other entities met by him during the visit. He was accompanied by an officer of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) and had full and free access to all that he sought to meet. It should be recalled that while the UN Special Rapporteur wishes strongly to visit the DPRK and has sought access to the DPRK several times, the DPRK has, to date, declined to invite him into the country.
The UN Special Rapporteur understands the delicate nature of the relationship between the ROK ("the South") and the DPRK ("the North"), given the special features of the Korean peninsula based on a politically sensitive and volatile history. There is the overarching challenge of a shared destiny and its interface with human rights, peace, democracy, human security, de-nuclearization and sustainable development. A number of positive developments have taken place in recent years, including a variety of Inter-Korean talks and cooperative activities in the economic and other fields, which help to create a greater sense of mutual self-confidence and more amicable relations conducive to reconciliation.
In reality, a number of key human rights issues deserve attention. The impact of the Korean War (1950-3)is, in a sense, still felt today in the quest to reunite the millions of families separated by the war. The South and North Korean Red Cross Societies have played a key role in reuniting families as part of an ongoing process. The UN Special Rapporteur was pleased to note that a family reunion activity of this kind was taking place at the time of his visit, and these reunions need to be maximised.
From another angle, the problem of missing persons, "the missing" has many facets. A number of civilians and prisoners of war remain missing today from the time of the war. Subsequent to the war, there have also been various alleged abductions carried out by the DPRK in relation to persons from "the South"which need effective clarification and peaceful resolution.
In regard to aid currently given by the ROK with impact on the right to food in the DPRK, the policy of the ROK in providing food aid without conditionality is welcome and is generally in line with the international practice of providing humanitarian aid. On another front, although faced with a precarious situation, the ROK has commendably helped to settle a number of those who have sought refuge from the DPRK. The Special Rapporteur was pleased to meet a number of these persons at the very well-maintained Hanawan centre to learn directly from them about their life experiences. Given the traumatic past of many of those who have sought refuge, more support in the psychological, occupational and other fields, with community-based inputs, is required to assist them once they leave the centre and enter the competitive world beyond. There is also a need to underline the protection of refugees and human rights in all countries and to tackle the root causes of their displacement in the country of origin.
The UN Special Rapporteur is conscious of the wide variety of views on what the national policy on human rights towards "the North"should be in the ROK and recognises that this variety reflects the democratic nature of the country, which invites the plurality of opinions. He wishes to emphasize the multilateral nature of his mandate under the UN; a primary purpose of this mandate is to monitor and report on the DPRK's human rights situation to the UN.
As lessons learned from his visit, the UN Special Rapporteur wishes to address a Six-Points-Human-Rights-Formulato all concerned parties - as constructive and principled recommendations for them to reflect in their policies and practices as follows:
The UN Special Rapporteur:
1. welcomes the warming of relations between the ROK and the DPRK in the spirit of Inter-Korean dialogue, reconciliation and cooperation; encourages the ROK and the DPRK to maximise family reunion opportunities; and urges the DPRK to clarify and resolve effectively the longstanding problem of missing persons;
2. supports the ROK and the international community to sustain humanitarian aid, including food aid, to the DPRK, due to the current food and other shortages in the country; urges the DPRK to facilitate access to such aid and transparency of its distribution to ensure that it reaches the target groups in the DPRK; and underlines the need to build food security through sustainable agricultural techniques, good governance, broad-based people's participation in decision-making processes, and equitable allocation of resources by the DPRK to respond to the development needs of the country;
3. encourages the ROK to continue its humanitarian policy of accepting those who have sought refuge from the DPRK and to facilitate their social recovery and reintegration, including by means of adequate health care and other services in response to their psychological, occupational and other needs, on a longer term basis;
4. calls upon the DPRK to end the various discrepancies and transgressions concerning respect for human rights in the civil, political, economic, social and cultural fields in the country, and to implement effectively the human rights treaties to which it is a party and the various recommendations addressed to the DPRK by a variety of UN human rights mechanisms, including the recommendations of the UN Special Rapporteur in his reports to the UN,
5. urges the DPRK to invite the UN Special Rapporteur and other UN human rights mechanisms to visit the country to take stock of the human rights situation and recommend reforms and related follow-up;
6. invites the DPRK progressively to engage in cooperative activities with the international community to improve the implementation of human rights in the country, such as through economic programmes with a human rights component (e.g. labour rights in the industrial zone), Rule of Law programmes (e.g. training and education to capacity-build law enforcers, to respect civil liberties, and to reform the prison system), and legal literacy programmes (e.g. dissemination of international human rights standards and the relationship between international law and national laws, policies and practices), with greater space for civil society participation.
10 November 2005,
Seoul.
