ASIA/SOUTH KOREA - A new United Nations Office for Human Rights focused on North Korea, opens in Seoul

Tuesday, 23 June 2015

Seoul (Agenzia Fides) - Focusing on the human rights situation in North Korea: is the aim of the new United Nations Office for Human Rights, which opened in Seoul.
In accordance with one of the recommendations of the ground-breaking February 2014 report of the United Nations Commission of Inquiry on human rights in North Korea, and approved by the UN Human Rights Council, the document requested to establish "a field-based structure to strengthen monitoring and documentation of the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea".
As Fides learns, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein will open a new UN Human Rights office duting his visit to Seoul, that ends on June 25.
The UN Commission of Inquiry said that "unspeakable atrocities" continue to be perpetrated against the people of North Korea, and that "the severity, the number and nature of these violations reveal a State that has no comparison in contemporary world". The document confirmed "widespread and systematic violations of human rights in North Korea", by some observers described as "crimes against humanity", according to the framework of international law.
In November 2014 North Korea's human rights record drew global attention when the U.N. General Assembly adopted a landmark resolution calling for the U.N. Security Council to refer the country to the International Criminal Court (ICC).
Associations that promote human rights have welcomed the opening of the new office. For the "Christian Solidarity Worldwide" association "it is a very significant step that will serve to keep the terrible human rights situation in North Korea on the agenda of the international community, and to document the crimes against humanity in Korea North". (PA) (Agenzia Fides 23/06/2015)


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