NGOs call for EU Commission of Inquiry into NK

CSW has joined Human Rights Watch, Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, Helping Hands Korea and Life Funds for North Korean Refugees in calling for the European Union to take strong measures to push human rights progress in North Korea.

In a joint letter to EU foreign ministers, the five organisations urged the EU and its member states to work to improve the situation of North Korean workers and refugees, and sponsor a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council or the UN General Assembly, establishing a UN Commission of Inquiry in light of the failure of North Korea’s leadership to address international concern about grave, systematic and widespread abuses that may constitute crimes against humanity.

CSW’s East Asia Team Leader Benedict Rogers said, “The North Korean regime has one of the worst human rights records in the world. CSW’s research has led us to believe that the violations occurring in North Korea’s notorious prison camps or ‘gulags’, amount to crimes against humanity. We believe the time has come for the UN to investigate these crimes, and we hope the EU will lead the way in proposing a commission of inquiry. We also believe that it is time to engage in meaningful dialogue with the North Korean regime about its human rights violations, and that an EU Special Envoy should be appointed to seek a way forward towards coordinated international action to bring these atrocities to an end. For these reasons we are delighted to be a signatory to this joint letter, and we urge policy makers at the very highest levels of the EU to give it their urgent and serious attention.”