Summary:
The U.N. Human Rights Council voted to demand justice for Nazi-style atrocities in North Korea.
U.N. human rights investigators said last month security chiefs and possibly Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un himself should be tried for ordering systematic torture, starvation and killings, saying the crimes were "strikingly similar" to those committed during World War Two. There was an overwhelming amount of evidence that North Korea was violating these human rights hence the Council could not remain silent and had to confront North Korea. The U.N. Security Council and the General Assembly need to bring North Korea's leaders to justice for their human rights crimes, however Western and Asian powers concede that for now their chances of holding North Korea liable for crimes against humanity are slim because North Korea can only be referred to the International Criminal Court by the U.N. Security Council, whose veto-wielding members China and Russia both voted against the motion to bring them to justice.
The U.N. Human Rights Council also extended the mandate of its investigator on North Korea by one year and agreed to set up a field office to help him collect more evidence about allegations including that up to 120,000 people are held in political prison camps even though North Korea denies existence of the camps. This is in hopes of getting enough evidence to take action against North Korea.
Reader Response:
I agree that human rights activists have the right to widen the scruntiny of North Korea beyond its disputed nuclear program to a large extent. When the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany became apparent after world war 2, the world came to a consensus that a distinct universal declaration that specified the rights of individuals was necessary to give effect to the UN charter of human rights, and it was finally adopted on 10 December 1948 by the UN General Assembly. Some of the underlying priciples of the declaration include indivisibility, transparency and accountability. Therefore, one would have assumed that such basic human rights would be provided for in our increasingly globalised 21st century economy, with a highly educated younger generation. Yet, North Korea's governance easily infringes and violates most, if not all of the given rights. From a UN investigation in September, defectors have compared life in the Democratic Republic of Korea (DPRK) to that of German concentration camps in WW2. Public execution and the forced murder of one's own kin are some of the examples of the atrocities commited. This may only be one of many overwhleming human rights violation examples in North Korea. North Korea's stance is that countires should "mind their own business" , and refers to the United States as an aggressive nation who has consistenly infringed on territorial and sovereign rights of other countries as well, which can be compared to that of a gangster. Although this may be true to a certain extent as seen from the US involvement in the war on terror in Iran, North Korea should be held accoutable and responsible for its own violations on rights before it is qualified to criticise the shortcomings of other nations. North Korea's argument centers about the principles sovereignty, which was widely emphasized during the world conference on human rights, 1993, Bangkok Declaration as well. However, its argument is flawed and unapplicable as it goes against the absolute, basic rights of human beings, which mainly include the principles of liberty and right to life. North Korea's isolation and censorship aims to contain its atrocities within its nation and prevent the interference of other nations on the basis of sovereignty, but the atrocities inflicted onto humans goes against the very basis of humanity. If human rights activists do not scrutinise the human rights violations in DPRK and implement measures to deal with the root of the problem, it is akin to idly sitting by watching the lives of others get trampled upon and ruined. Therefore, human rights activists have the right to scrutinise North Korea's actions beyond the nuclear program, as this is the first step to bringing justice and freedom to its oppressed citizens and putting an end to the atrocities of the DPRK regime which violate the fundamental humanity of its people.
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