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Summary: This report extracts mentions of children's rights issues in the reports of the UN Special Procedures. This does not include reports of child specific Special Procedures, such as the Special Rapporteur on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, which are available as separate reports
Scroll to: _______________________________________________ UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea Visit: 22-26 November 2010 Report forthcoming. The UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK), Mr. Marzuki Darusman, will carry out an official visit to the neighbouring Republic of Korea from 22-26 November 2010. Since the Special Rapporteur's request to enter the DPRK was rejected by the Government in October, he will be visiting other countries in the region to gather information. ------------------------------------------------------------ UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (E/CN.4/2006/35) Country visit: 3-10 November 2005 The Special Rapporteur visited the Republic of Korea from 3 to 10 November 2005 to assess the impact of the human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on the Republic of Korea. General concerns: On a disquieting note, in late 2005 the authorities were no longer permitting the various markets to operate, banning sales of cereals, partly through the authorities' fear that they were losing their grip on the economy, and partly as a means of reasserting their grip over the population, thereby reverting to the public distribution system. There was a doubling of average cereal rations from 250 grams per person. From information received, those at work or who were involved in food-for-work programmes were likely to receive more food than those not falling into the category, thus increasing the latter's vulnerability - particularly children, pregnant women, older persons/the elderly and those with disabilities. (Paragraph 9) Malnutrition: The disastrous food shortage of the mid-1990s took a toll on many children through malnutrition. As noted in my report in 2005 for the General Assembly, while recently the situation has improved in regard to chronic malnutrition, malnutrition rates and their impact, e.g. stunting, are still a major cause for concern. There are other chronic shortages such as electricity at school and medicines in general. (Paragraph 27) Social services: Children with the elite do well, while the wavering class and those deemed enemies of the regime are marginalised. There is also a qualitative angle in regard to the social services offered to children - as these services are part of a mass mobilization campaign to make people subservient from a young age to the political leadership, merely quantitative assessment of their coverage is inadequate and should be balanced with a more qualitative assessment. This affects particularly the content of the curriculum, which uses children as objects of indoctrination to justify the presence of the political system and its concomitant ideology rather than as subjects of human rights. Particular attention should be paid to children who are deprived of a family environment, are beyond the scope of social services, and/or are seen as part of families classified as hostile to the regime. These include abandoned children, children born out of wedlock, children who have to face the juvenile justice system, children in prisons, children of dissident families, and children who are seeking asylum with their families or are themselves unaccompanied minors. Children are also the victims of the guilt-by-association practice by which the regime punishes or discriminates against whole families for being associated with a political dissident or a person deemed hostile to the regime - the discrimination is intergenerational. There is a challenge for international and national agencies dealing with children, particularly those with access to the localities, to act more proactively and accessibly to address not only the issue of child survival and child development but also the issue of child protection and child participation in these situations. (Paragraphs 28 and 29) Right to Participation: Interestingly, there is a lesson learned from the use of children in cultural activities. As noted by an observer: Despite the numerous social activities of the child, this social participation is not by spontaneity and creativity of social participation, but is compulsory. Even in the mass games performed by 100,000 at the Arirang festival, the testimonies of defectors show how wearisome the training for the group gymnastics is. The defectors said that during the mass game practice, the trainees were prohibited from going to the restroom and taking a rest so that it was frequently witnessed that numerous students fell ill with diseases such as nephritis ... If the child is forcibly mobilized to collective events, or is forced to live in the predetermined structure, this is not the true meaning of the right to participation. (Paragraph 30) Asylum, refugee protection and assistance: This section includes a number of accounts by North Korean asylum seekers which highlight the plight of children in the country. At school, there was much indoctrination such as learning (by rote) the national history based on the supreme leader and patriotism against foreign occupation and threats. As she was in a privileged position, she did not starve and was involved in various mass activities such as sports competitions. (Paragraph 65) Another member of the group recounted that there was great shortage of food there; she had seen people starving, including abandoned children, although the military there were well catered to. (Paragraph 66)
Report published: 23 January 2006