[USFK Forums] UN Should Act on N. Korea, Rights Conference Told [Chosun Ilbo]

[C. Y. Lee]

[Uploaded by C. Y. Lee on Saturday, December 10, 2005]

UN Should Act on N.Korea, Rights Conference Told

The Chosun Ilbo, Friday, December 9, 2005

The UN should consider sanctions against North Korea over its abuses of human rights, an international conference in Seoul heard Friday.

Elizabeth Batha, a human rights lawyer with the U.K.’s Christian Solidarity Worldwide, told participants at Seoul Summit: Promoting Human Rights in North Korea that there were many legal avenues available to help the North Korean people, including UN sanctions.

Batha added that the UN Commission on Human Rights, by sending its special rapporteur, plans to continue sending the message to Pyongyang that it must stop trampling on human rights.
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In a keynote address, the U.S. special envoy for North Korean human rights, Jay Lefkowitz, called on China to provide for North Korean refugees at least to the extent that the 1951 Geneva Refugee Convention requires.

He said China needs to ensure that all North Korean defectors who seek asylum there have access to an interview with the UNHCR. China signed the convention.

Yoo Se-hee, co-organizer of the conference and leader of Citizens United for a Better Society, joined commentators in saying South Korea’s approach toward the North “has been an obstacle on the path to the improvement of North Korean human rights.”

He said Seoul began during the Kim Dae-jung administration and continued today to create an atmosphere where “taking issue with North Korean human rights feels like a taboo.”
Participants representing some 50 organizations from 10 countries adopted an eight-point declaration calling on North Korea to stop torturing dissidents and to dismantle its concentration camps.

They also vowed to meet every year around International Human Rights Day on Dec. 20 to push on with a global campaign to improve the human rights situation in North Korea.

Participants called on the South Korean government to become more actively involved in the issue and also urged those who lead civic movements in South Korea to stop standing by.

The statement also urged North Korea to confirm the fate of abductees and repatriate them, to bring an end to systematic human rights abuse such as public executions and detention without trial, and to prioritize children in the distribution of food and medicines supplied by international aid groups.



url: http://english.chosun.com/w21data/ht...512090029.html

[mike]

It is good to see people take some action against North Korea, BUT as long as people (South Korean Government for example) continue to look the other way in the name of peace, North Korea will not care.

As long as people still send food aid, cash aid, and other forms of aid, North Korea will care less what some International Organization says. The UN is notorious for sitting around and acting only when thousands die or it is too late. Let's take Sudan, Rwanda, and Iraq for example. In the first two examples, the UN and the world did absolutely nothing but make visits. In Iraq they sat around making resolution after resolution and nothing happened until the US took action (weather you agree with the invasion of Iraq or not, that is irrelevant). Another good example is Iran. The UN may finally react when Iran build nukes and drops one on Israel. as of now, they have done nothing while Iran mills away on nuclear development.

Mike