Gulag, Famine and Refugees: The Urgent Human Rights Crisis in North Korea

July 16, 2003

I am honored to be here this morning to address this conference on Gulag, Famine and Refugees: The Urgent Human Rights Crisis in North Korea.  Recent reports make clear that the people of North Korea suffer terribly at the hands of a cruel and evil dictator. 

Later today, the presentations from those individuals who have personally experienced the torture and other suffering will underscore the fact that we MUST help the North Korean people.

According to the Citizens’ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights and The Society to Help Returnees to North Korea, North Korean women who escaped to China and who dyed their hair or wore earrings, “would undergo painful punishment after they came back to North Korea. 

Their heads are pounded against the wall and their earrings are wrenched out with pliers.  The same treatment is given to women who wore eye makeup.  Even after having gone through all of this the women would still run away after release from the labor rehabilitation center…

Those I’ve seen return from China … from those labor rehabilitation centers are hard to recognize; their looks are changed from beating, starving, and forced labor.”

Other reports from the media and human rights organizations also show that North Korean refugees face terrible odds.  First they must escape from their own country, then they have to avoid arrest at the hands of the Chinese government.  Many refugees are forced back across the border where they are brutally tortured and even killed by the North Korean agents. 

To put it bluntly, how high does the body count have to be and how much suffering must the North Koreans endure before the international community will take action?

I believe the Chinese government and the UNHCR are complicit in the brutal atrocities of the North Korean government.   That may sound harsh, but let me explain.  In order to understand the audacity of the Chinese government and the cowardice of the UNHCR, there are some distinctions that must be made.

The United Nations has a number of international conventions that address a range of issues including the protection of human rights, the prohibition of torture and the protection of refugees.  China has signed onto the UN Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the UN Geneva Convention on Refugees. 

There are two designations of refugees - Convention refugees and mandate refugees.  Convention refugees are designated as such by a state that is party to the 1951 Convention on Refugees and its 1967 Protocol.  Mandate refugees are defined in the statute that created the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, the UNHCR. 

The creating statute gave UNHCR specific reasons for existing.  First, the UNHCR is charged with providing international protection for refugees.  Second, UNHCR is charged with promoting long-term solutions to the plight of refugees.  Third, UNHCR is charged with a supervisory role to oversee how member countries implement the requirements of the Convention and Protocol.

If a particular country is dealing with a refugee crisis, and the country does not believe the individuals or group in flight qualify as refugees, the UNHCR still has an independent mandate to protect those it considers to be refugees.  In addition, individuals have the right to contact the UNHCR to apply for refugee status and NO country may impede that access.

China publicly states that it employs international law, national law, and humanitarian principles in its effort to promote peace and stability on the Korean Peninsula. 

In reality, China has violated international humanitarian principles, international law, and its own domestic law.

China has violated its own obligations under the Convention on Refugees by preventing ethnic Koreans from applying for asylum.  Individuals who have attempted to apply at the Chinese Foreign Ministry have disappeared.  

In addition, China has prevented UNHCR from gaining access to North Korean refugees.

When China signed on to the Convention Against Torture, in the question and answer session with the Committee that oversees the Convention, it agreed that if there was ever a conflict between domestic Chinese law and international treaties, international law would take precedence.

The core document China submitted to the UN also states the same.  This means there is no question – if there is a conflict, international law takes precedence immediately.

If China upholds international law, as it claims, North Korean refugees would NOT be forced to return home to persecution or torture.   International conventions explicitly prohibit refoulement.  

In addition, people must be given an individual hearing, and groups of refugees are to be protected until each individual is given an hearing.  No country is granted the right to unilaterally deny anyone access to refugee protection. 

China’s international commitments demand recognition of those refugees.

China claims to uphold humanitarian principles.  This was exemplified in the way China assisted over 300,000 Vietnamese refugees. 

Yet, China’s actions show it does not believe North Koreans deserve the same protection as other refugees.   Upholding humanitarian principles does not include prohibiting the UNHCR from protecting people. 

The UNHCR also is complicit in the violations against North Korean refugees because it could challenge Chinese obstructionism, but it has not.  The bilateral agreement between the UNHCR and China states that UNHCR will have unimpeded access to refugees. 

If China violates its agreement, UNHCR has the right to invoke binding arbitration.  Yet, it has not – why?

Perhaps the UNHCR believes there is no way to enforce the mechanisms against China or maybe it buys into China’s arguments that assistance to refugees would cause a flood from North Korea.    

China’s argument that protecting refugees will invite a flood of refugees is faulty – refugee protection does not cause refugee crises.  Horrifying human rights abuses, mass starvation, prison camps, brutal torture, forced abortion, and a ruler who literally believes he is God are what cause people to flee a country.

The UNHCR has enforcement mechanisms, but it is afraid to use them. China should be condemned in the United Nations for its failure to uphold its agreements, thereby participating in the deaths of countless North Koreans. 

These games are ridiculous.  Why do the Chinese government and UNHCR persist in supporting the mass starvation and brutalization of the North Korean people?  It is time for China and the UNHCR to live up to their obligations.  And, it is time that Kim Jong Il step down from power and stop brutalizing his people.

We are here today because we want to help the brave North Korean people – we stand with you and will work with you for freedom in your country.