Human rights hearings begin in Korea
Thursday 22 August 2013 @ 8.53 a.m. | Legal Research
Former High Court judge Michael Kirby left Australia on Saturday to begin his work heading the United Nations-mandated commission into human rights violations in North Korea.
The Pyongyang government has so far ignored UN requests to be allowed entry to North Korea. The Commission has therefore chosen to help raise international awareness by holding public hearings.
The hearings in Seoul will run from August 20 to 24, and will involve approximately 30 witnesses. Further hearings will be held in Tokyo later in the month, and meetings with senior government officials, NGOs and research institutions will be conducted throughout the inquiry, with regular updates schedule to appear on the Commission's website.
The three-member Commission includes Kirby, Darusman and Serbian human rights campaigner Sonja Biserko. It will examine numerous allegations of human rights abuses, with a focus on the issue of accountability.
"We will seek to determine … who bears responsibility among different state institutions and officials," said Kirby. "But it is not possible at this moment to envisage the level of detail that the Commission will be able to achieve in establishing lines of responsibility, if any.”
However, without permission to enter North Korea, the inquiry faces a challenging task, though Kirby says that he remains hopeful that Pyongyang will cooperate.
“If they do not, then we will discharge our mandate without going there," he said. "We will listen to people’s stories. We will examine satellite photographs. We will study official records and reports. We will listen to experts, high personages and ordinary people with relevant experience to share with us."
The Commission will provide the UN Human Rights Council with an oral update in September in Geneva, and a further update to the UN General Assembly in New York in October. In March 2014, a final written report will be submitted to the Human Rights Council.
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