The Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commisson of Korea Welcomes Adoption of Human Rights Resolution on North Korea at the 55th Session of the UN Human Rights Council
- For the 22nd consecutive year, the UN Human Rights Council has adopted a resolution on North Korea, reflecting the international community's concern about the human rights situation in North Korea-
The UN Human Rights Council has adopted the resolution every year since 2003, and has adopted the resolution without a vote since 2016 through a procedure that allows the Council to adopt a resolution without a vote if there is no explicit opposition to the resolution on a grave human rights issue. The Korean government co-sponsored the resolution, which was introduced by Belgium on behalf of the European Union, along with 54 other countries, including the United States, Germany and France.
The resolution calls on the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to "comprehensively update" the 2014 report of the UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on human rights in North Korea and submit it to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council, which is scheduled to take place in September 2025.
In addition to last year's resolution, which called for a review of the Reactionary Ideology and Culture Exclusion Law, which labels all media content produced outside of North Korea as reactionary, this year's resolution called for the repeal or revision of the Youth Culture Guarantee Law, which was enacted to promote socialist ideas among young people, and the Pyongyang Language Protection Law, which bans the use of words from outside the country.
It also called on UN member states to take action against North Korea's cross-border repression of North Korean defectors and to refrain from sharing information about defectors with the North Korean government.
It also called for addressing the plight of victims of abductions and enforced disappearances by North Korea, as well as POWs and their families, demanding that North Korea immediately repatriate all abductees from Japan and the Republic of Korea, and encouraging North Korea to engage with international human rights mechanisms, including by participating in the fourth Universal Periodic Review and ratifying the Convention against Torture and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
The resolution's request to the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare and submit a follow-up report to the 2014 report of the UN Commission of Inquiry on North Korea (COI) is an appropriate recommendation, given that the human rights situation in North Korea has remained largely unchanged in the decade since the report's publication and the criticism of the lack of follow-up on the implementation of the COI report. It is hoped that this will lead to significant changes in the promotion of human rights in North Korea.
We also hope that the North Korean authorities will actively engage in constructive dialogue and cooperation with the international community during the country's Universal Periodic Review (UPR), which is scheduled to take place in November this year.
In this regard, the NHRCK will continue to advocate for the improvement of human rights in North Korea, including by organizing an international symposium on human rights in North Korea in early July, so that appropriate recommendations can be made at the fourth UPR.
