In his report to the UN Human Rights Council on 14 March, Marzuki Darusman, the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), said that repression in the country continues ‘unabated’ and that efforts to hold the ruling regime to account must continue.
‘The totalitarian governing structure in North Korea absolutely denies rights to its people and its unchecked power appears as strongly entrenched as ever throughout the whole country’, he said.
‘In this extremely centralised and hierarchical ruling structure, where tight control is extended to the smallest unit of the society, the principle of command and superior responsibility should offer a plausible theory to hold the “Supreme Leader” Mr Kim Jong Un and most of the past and present senior leaders individually culpable’, he added. The Special Rapporteur stressed that the international community must ensure that accountability for crimes against humanity must be part of any peace plan for the Korean peninsula.
The UN Commission of Inquiry on human rights in North Korea found that ‘the gravity, scale and nature’ of human rights violations in North Korea ‘reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world’.
Targeted sanctions
Recommendations included 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 ‘to help to ensure accountability for human rights violations’, building on ‘the collection of evidence and documentation work of the commission’.
