UN Security Council to Tackle N.Korean Human Rights

The UN Security Council is to put North Korea's human rights violations on its agenda later this month, U.S. human rights envoy Robert King told a forum in Washington on Friday.

"We'll see that the North Korea human rights issue is put on the agenda of the Security Council," King said. "There may be a discussion at the Security Council later this month."

Among the 15 member nations of the Security Council, South Korea, Australia, Chile, France, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Rwanda, the U.K. and the U.S. signed a letter to the council's president seeking to place the issue on its agenda. But Argentina, Chad, China, Nigeria and Russia did not sign.

The council consists of five permanent members and 10 nations rotating as non-permanent members every two years. An issue is placed on the council's agenda if more than nine out of its 15 member nations support it.

The council has held several meetings on North Korea's nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles, but this is the first time that its human rights abuses will be discussed.

A government official here said, "If an issue is placed on the agenda, it is customarily discussed for three years."

Last April, the council was briefed on North Korea's human rights abuses by Michael Kirby, a former Australian High Court judge who led the UN Commission of Inquiry on Human Rights in North Korea. But the meeting was held behind closed doors.

The council's official meetings, by contrast, are open to the media and will lead to increased international attention on the North's horrific human rights abuses.

The council has the right to refer high-ranking North Korean officials to the International Criminal Court or impose additional sanctions on the North, but China and Russia, which have friendly ties with the North and veto power, oppose the move.

View the original article here

UN Committee Urges Security Council to Refer N.Korea to ICC

A key UN human rights committee has passed a resolution urging the UN Security Council to consider referring North Korea to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity.

The nonbinding resolution, drafted by Japan and the European Union, passed overwhelmingly Tuesday.?

It is based on a February UN Commission of Inquiry that detailed decades of systematic executions, torture, rape and mass starvation in the North. That report also called for the Security Council to refer Pyongyang to the ICC.

North Korea has repeatedly denied committing human rights atrocities, and it accuses the United States and its allies of seeking to discredit and overthrow the leadership in Pyongyang.

Debate on the resolution is expected next month in the General Assembly, where it is also expected to pass. But it is not clear whether it can clear the 15-member Security Council, where China has traditionally protected North Korea, its ally.

Motohide Yoshikawa, Japan's UN ambassador, speaks during a meeting of the UN General Assembly's human rights committee on a proposal to refer North Korea to the International Criminal Court for alleged crimes against humanity on Nov. 18, 2014. /AP

Speaking before Tuesday's vote, the executive director of the nongovernmental Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, Greg Scarlatoiu, said the push to hold Pyongyang accountable will have been worthwhile, even if China vetoes the initiative.

"Let China place itself in the position where it is repeatedly attempting to block initiatives to refer the North Korean case to the International Criminal Court," he said. "Let China place itself in a position where it is clearly and obviously aiding and abetting a regime that is committing crimes against humanity. The political price of doing that is only going to get higher."

Facing the looming UN votes, the Pyongyang government has in recent weeks sought to ease mounting international criticism of its rights record. It has released three detained Americans and expressed a willingness to allow top UN rights officials to the visit the country.

Despite those gestures, Human Rights Watch called for UN members to pass what it described as the? "landmark resolution." Amnesty International and the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights also urged committee members to resist pressure to delete references to accountability for "decades of terrible abuse."

View the original article here