{"id":28612,"date":"2016-02-22T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-02-22T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/csw-yeo.1wp.site\/press\/north-korean-regime-must-face-international-court-2987\/"},"modified":"2026-09-23T18:39:37","modified_gmt":"2026-09-23T17:39:37","slug":"north-korean-regime-must-face-international-court-2987","status":"publish","type":"press","link":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/press\/north-korean-regime-must-face-international-court-2987\/","title":{"rendered":"North Korean regime must face international court"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Two years after a UN Commission of Inquiry<\/a> recommended that the North Korean regime should be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) on account of the egregious human rights abuses underway in the country, Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW) is calling for the implementation of the Commission\u2019s recommendations.<\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UN Commission of Inquiry<\/a> on human rights in North Korea found that \u201cthe gravity, scale and nature\u201d of human rights violations in North Korea \u201creveal a State that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its report details crimes against humanity including \u201cextermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, the forcible transfer of populations, the enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation.\u201d Findings include that \u201cthere is an almost complete denial of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, as well as the rights to freedom of opinion, expression, information and association.\u201d The report concludes that such crimes against humanity are continuing \u201cbecause the policies, institutions and patterns of impunity that lie at their heart remain in place.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission of Inquiry recommended targeted sanctions against the perpetrators of crimes against humanity, an extension of the mandate of the UN Special Rapporteur for Human Rights in North Korea and the establishment of a UN-mandated structure and database \u201cto help to ensure accountability for human rights violations,\u201d building on \u201cthe collection of evidence and documentation work of the commission\u201d. It also called on China to respect the principle of non-refoulement and end its practice of forcibly repatriating North Korean refugees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On 22 January, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People\u2019s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Marzuki Darusman, said<\/a>: \u201cIn addition to continuing political pressure to exhort the DPRK to improve human rights, it is also now imperative to pursue criminal responsibility of the DPRK leadership. Not much has changed in the country almost two years after the report of the Commission of Inquiry,\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His comments<\/a> follow a UN General Assembly resolution on 17 December 2015 condemning \u201clong-standing and ongoing systematic, widespread and gross violations of human rights\u201d in North Korea and a UN Security Council debate on 10 December 2015, in which several countries voiced support for a debate on referring North Korea to the ICC.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A European Parliament resolution<\/a> on 21 January stressed that \u201cthe violations described in the [Commission of Inquiry] report, many of which constitute crimes against humanity, have been taking place for far too long under the observing eyes of the international community\u201d and urged \u201cthe DPRK Government to implement the recommendations of the Commission of Inquiry without delay.\u201d On the same day, in a short debate<\/a> in the House of Lords on \u201cThe security and human rights challenges on the Korean Peninsula following North Korea\u2019s recent nuclear test\u201d Lord Alton of Liverpool described the publications of the Commission\u2019s report as \u201ca defining moment\u201d, adding that North Korea \u201cis in breach of pretty well all of the 30 articles in the 1948 Universal Declaration on Human Rights.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CSW\u2019s Chief Executive Mervyn Thomas said, \u201cTwo years on from the publication of the Commission\u2019s report, action on its recommendation is long-overdue. The report makes a comprehensive, detailed and authoritative case for the North Korean regime to be brought to justice for the appalling human rights violations underway in the country. It must not be left to gather dust on a shelf but<\/i><\/b> must serve as a plan of action to end the suffering of the North Korean people and hold the perpetrators of crimes against humanity to account. The resolutions and debates in the UN, European and UK parliaments show that the world is aware of the human rights crisis in North Korea. This is not enough. We must ensure that those responsible are held to account in the ICC.\u201d<\/i><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two years after a UN Commission of Inquiry recommended that the North Korean regime should be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC)<\/p>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42753,"template":"","categories":[],"regions":[128,135],"class_list":["post-28612","press","type-press","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","regions-east-asia","regions-north-korea"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28612","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/press"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28612\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39198,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/press\/28612\/revisions\/39198"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42753"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28612"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.csw.org.uk\/zh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=28612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}