The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) formulated the national policy recommendation on North Korean human rights in the Plenary Committee on October 24, and submitted it to the government. The NHRCK has worked toward the protection of North Korean human rights and provided the policy recommendation in compliance with the universality of human rights, as stipulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 3 of the Constitution of the Republicof Korea, and Article 4 and 19 of the National Human Rights Commission Act. The policy recommendation suggested principles and policy directions to approach the issue of North Korean human rights.
The policy recommendation was drafted, based on the research result for formulating a mid-term policy roadmap for North Korean human rights. The NHRCK formed the Special Committee for North Korean Human Rights in January 2011, consisted of four human rights commissioners (KIM Tae-Hoon, YANG Hyung-Ah, YOON Nam-Geun, KIM Yang-Wan). The Special Committee finalized the policy recommendation through discussing the draft over 11 meetings and holding consultations with experts, policy makers and relevant governmental agencies and institutions.
The policy recommendation focuses largely on three strategic issues: 1) Human rights of North Koreans residing in North Korea, 2) human rights of North Korean defectors, 3) prisoners of war, abductees, separated families. Firstly, it suggested the government to collect, document and preserve a records of human rights violations committed by the North Korean authorities for transitional justice. It also recommended ensuring access to information for North Korean residents in order to raise public awareness on their rights, so they can be empowered to be important actors for bringing fundamental improvement of human rights in North Korea. Secondly, it included recommendations to identify the human rights condition of North Korean defectors residing in other countries and to strengthen the system to protect them. It also attempted to seek ways to ensure refugee status for North Korean defectors, to simplify national entry procedures, to identify human rights situation of children born between female North Korean defectors and nationals of the 3rd countries. Thirdly, it recommended that it is the government’s duty to deal with the human rights issues of prisoners of war, abductees and separated families, based on humanitarian grounds.
