We visited the United Nations’ Human Rights Council once again. This year, the United Nations’ Human Rights Council in March and the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea Universal Periodic Review in May are important times for UN schedules and ongoing summits between North Korea and the United States. We hope our visit helped in order to improve the North Korea’s Human Rights situation though the United Nations!
We sent out letters to the UN HRC member states on the 8th of March. The letters we sent, included letters from Kim Tae-Hoon, President of PSCORE, and Hwang In-Cheol, a family of victim of 1969 KAL hijacking from North Korea. Our previous interns joined this activity and will continue to be with us until the end of our visit to UN. We are very pleased to meet them again and highly appreciate their help!
Children’s Rights in North Korea (10 Mar, 2019)
We had a very successful first side event at the Palais des Nations on children’s rights in North Korea. Our five speakers each discussed the various aspects of the condition of the children as well as the UPR process. Members of the audience included representatives of the EU delegation as well as various other countries. We had a lively question and answer session at the end focusing on ways in which civil society can contribute to change and ways forward for the international community.
One of the other side events presented at the United Nations on March 12, was the KAL Hijacking case of 1969 where Mr. Hwang In Cheol stressed the severity of the situation that this is his only chance to possibly see his father again.
PSCORE was there to join and support this side event providing information booklets to the public, trying to spread the issue and get the support needed to take action.
On March 13th, we visited the Palais Wilson for a meeting with Mr. Ugo Cedrangolo and Ms. Rhiannon Painter, representatives of WGEID (Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances), regarding the unresolved KAL YS-11 abduction case that was reported to them by Mr. Hwang In-Cheol in 2011. As was expected, there were no major updates from them on the case, but it was nevertheless a valuable meeting as they provided practical advice on ways forward. We also met briefly with Ms. Margarita Nechaeva, a representative of WGAD (Working Group on Arbitrary Detention), who advised Mr. Hwang to file his case and they will judge whether it meets their criteria for arbitrary detention and follow up accordingly.