HRC58: Oral statement during adoption of UPR outcomes on the DPRK

Item 6: UPR Adoption, DPRK

Speaker:Claire Denman

Thank you Mr President,

CSW acknowledges the DPRK’s participation in the UPR process, and we note that it accepted a recommendation from Gambia to ‘guarantee the right to freedom of religion, in accordance with article 68 of its Constitution.’¹

However, this article does not afford sufficient protection for the right to freedom of religion or belief as articulated in Articles 18 of the UDHR and ICCPR.

The article of the constitution in question claims that religion ‘must not be used as a pretext for drawing in foreign forces or for harming the State or social order,’ which thereby renders the right to freedom of religion or belief conditional, and therefore open to restriction, violation and abuse.

It is telling that the DPRK did not accept other recommendations relating to freedom of religion or belief, including three recommendations to end state-sanctioned discrimination underpinned by the songbun system.²

This system places religious communities in the so-called ‘hostile’ class, meaning they are subjected to intense persecution and discrimination and are prejudged as being disloyal to the state and the socialist revolution.

Not only does this system contradict international standards on fundamental human rights, but it also clearly violates Article 65 of the DPRK Constitution, which states that ‘citizens enjoy equal rights in all spheres of State and public activities.’

We urge the DPRK to reconsider its rejection of the recommendations to end discrimination based on the songbun system, and ultimately to abolish the system altogether.

CSW is also disappointed if not surprised that the DPRK did not accept a recommendation from Italy to ‘take measures to put an end to the systemic repression of human rights, including violations of the freedoms of conscience and religion, and release missionaries subjected to unjust or arbitrary detention.’³

Among these missionaries are Kim Jung-Wook, Kim Kook-kie and Choi Chun-gil, all of whom have now been detained in undisclosed locations in the DPRK for over a decade.

CSW is deeply concerned for the missionaries’ health and safety in detention. We demand that the DPRK immediately clarify their fate and whereabouts, provide access to their families and legal counsel, and ultimately release them so that they can return home to the Republic of Korea.

Thank you.

[1] Recommendation 130.80.

[2] Recommendations 131.18 (Paraguay), 131.19 (Chile) and 131.20 (Croatia).

[3] Recommendation 131.62.