Ávarp í umræðum um mannréttindaástandið í Norður-Kóreu

HRC43

Thank you Madam President,

Iceland thanks the Special Rapporteur for his report. It regrettably underlines that there has been no improvement in the human rights situation in the DPRK, indeed it may continue to deteriorate as a result of reported lower crop production in 2019; tightened border control, continuing surveillance and trade bans under the current threat of COVID-19.

While we welcome the focus on women´s human rights in the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea in the report it seems almost irrelevant to do so, in light of how low the bar remains in the DPRK when it comes to human rights, as the Special Rapporteur´s report highlights quite clearly.

Any Government that controls and surveils its population to the extent authorities in the DPRK do, that uses the threat of political prison as a way to hold people down, that continues to limit basic freedom of its people, and that finds it acceptable that 10.8 million of its people are in need of humanitarian assistance, must be called out in the strongest possible terms in this Council.

Regarding the lack of cooperation shown by DPRK authorities with his mandate, I would like to ask Mr. Quintana what he thinks is the best way to hold the Government to account for its gross violations of fundamental rights and freedoms.

I thank you.