Passage of UN Human Rights Resolution for North Korea Seems a Certainty

The UN resolution on North Korean human rights will be voted on at the 60th UN Human Rights Committee, scheduled to meet in Geneva, Switzerland on April 15 (local time).

Experts expect that the resolution will be adopted without any revision.

The resolution has been jointly proposed by 37 countries, including 13 member countries such as the U.S., Japan, Australia, and E.U. Fifty-three member countries will cast their votes on the proposed resolution.

Last year, the committee passed the resolution for North Korea with 28 countries in support of the measure, 10 countries against it, and 14 blank ballots. North Korea failed to attend the committee.

In consideration of public complaint, North Korea has decided to participate in the committee, but will cast a blank vote.

The resolution reads, “We are very concerned about talk that systemically organized a wide-ranging practice of human rights violations such as torture, public execution, infanticide in concentration camps, restriction of informational access, and compelled child abortion have been continued in North Korea. We regret that North Korea has not established any conditions for the international society to determine whether or not there are reasonable grounds to prove these allegations.”

In addition, the committee has urged North Korea to allow the UN free access as necessary, as well as ratifying the torture restriction and racial discrimination abolition treaty immediately, abiding by the internationally authorized standard of labor, and guaranteeing the international society to monitor whether or not relief supplies are fairly distributed among the people in accordance with humanitarian principles.

Seung-Jin Kim sarafina@donga.com