Parliamentary Assembly Assemblée parlementaire

Doc. 10853
23 March 2006

Violations of Human Rights in North Korea

Motion for a resolution
presented by Mrs Mikhailova and others

1.       Being aware of the abhorrent abuses of human rights which have taken place in North Korea for over half a century;

2.       Major cities and outlying regions in Puengyang are without energy for large parts of each day which leads to human misery on a large scale;

3.       Despite the fact that the right to food is enshrined in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 11 of the 1966 International Convention on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCE) to which North Korea has been party since December 1981, famine conditions have worsened throughout the country over past years and the ending of the importation of food aid from the UN and other agencies has only aggravated the situation leading to outright famine;

4.       Noting:

- that Korean refugees attempting to escape into China have been forcefully returned to Korea by the Chinese authorities on the basis that they were economic migrants and not political asylum seekers.

- that these people have been imprisoned by the Korean authorities.

- that the continuation of the North Korean authorities to use forced labour camps and detention centres clearly makes of these individuals political prisoners in the true sense of the word;

5. Noting that the North Korean regime is reluctant to accept a reasonable position on the issue of its nuclear programme.

The Assembly should therefore call on the authorities of North Korea to

1.       respect the basic human rights of its citizens by ensuring freedom of political and religious expression, assembly, the facilitation of a free and fair press and free and fair multiparty elections;

2.       put an end to forced labour camps and Gulags and end the use of torture;

3.       abandon practices of collective punishment and decriminalise the right of citizens to leave the country either temporarily or permanently;

4.       release all citizens detained following repatriation from China

5.       allow access to the country to the appropriate humanitarian agencies in a position to access the food aid necessary and assess the real food needs of the country and assist if necessary in the implementation of appropriate short and long-term agricultural solutions;

6.       comply with the requests of the international coummunity to respect their engagements under the Nuclear Proliferation Treaty and guarantee that this programme is only for peaceful purposes. All negotiations on nuclear proliferation and energy must take into consideration the issue of human rights particularly if North Korea is to receive substantial economic aid as part of the agreement on dismantling its nuclear programme.

Signed ¹:

MIKHAILOVA, Nadezhda, Bulgaria, EPP/CD
ABBASOV Aydin, Azerbaijan, SOC
BARTUMEU CASSANY, Jaume, Andorra, SOC
GOERENS, Charles, Luxembourg, ALDE
GROSS, Andreas, Switzerland, SOC
HAJIYEVA, Gultakin, Azerbaijan, EPP/CD
HERKEL, Andres, Estonia, EPP/CD
MOONEY, Paschal, Ireland, ALDE
SASI, Kimmo, Finland, EPP/CD
Van den BRANDE, Luc, Belgium, EPP/CD
VAREIKIS, Egidijus, Lithuania, EPP/CD

¹     SOC: Socialist Group
       EPP/CD: Group of the European People’s Party
       ALDE: Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
       EDG: European Democratic Group
       UEL: Group of the Unified European Left
       NR: not registered in a group