OUR WORK

Policy Recommendations Policy Recommendations

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea

  • Cease immediately all violations of the United Nations Convention Against Torture and the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.
  • Respect all rights guaranteed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  • Close down immediately labor and concentration camp systems; enforce restrictions on rape, torture and severe interrogation of defendants and accused criminals, as well as forced abortions and infanticide.
  • End public executions immediately.
  • Permit international aid workers access to aid distribution and transparency.
  • Provide aid to citizens in need regardless of political loyalty, religion or parentage.
  • Decriminalize border crossing.
  • Protect universally mandated freedoms of speech, religion, and the right to assembly.
  • Permit free flow of information to citizenry, and respect freedoms of the press.
  • Permit governmental, cultural, academic and athletic exchanges abroad.

The International Community

  • Press the DPRK on human rights, transparency in aid distribution, shutting down concentration camps, and respecting the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
  • Support NGO efforts as well as the distribution of transparent, closely–monitored aid, medicine and other necessities into the DPRK, via the WFP and UNICEF.
  • Accept North Korean refugees or alter policy to do so; support NK refugee resettlement.
  • Support flow of free information into the DPRK, via short wave radio broadcasts and other means.
  • Investigate North Korean forced labor factories and camps in Russia, the Czech Republic, Mongolia, Poland and other nations.

6–Party Talks

  • Place human rights as a condition in any and all negotiations with the DPRK, as in the Helsinki Framework.

The United States of America

  • Engage in bilateral negotiations with the DPRK, with human rights as a prioritized condition.
  • Engage in a peace treaty ending the Korean War and normalization of relations with the DPRK, including opening of official US offices in Pyongyang, and vice versa.
  • Increase and expedite acceptance of North Korean refugees to the United States.

The People’s Republic of China

  • Allow UNHCR unimpeded access to North Korean refugees in compliance with international conventions and agreements.
  • Cease repatriation immediately of North Korean refugees to the DPRK.
  • Legalize status of mixed–race North Korean–Chinese children in the PRC; permit schooling, work permits and medical care.
  • Uphold minimum standards of transparency in humanitarian aid to the DPRK.
  • Permit faster exit visas for North Korean refugees protected by third countries in the PRC.

The Republic of Korea (South Korea)

  • Uphold minimum standards of transparency in all humanitarian aid to the DPRK.
  • Verify economic trade and investment does not subsidize slave labor in inter–Korean economic projects, or human rights abuses in the concentration camp system.
  • Permit the National Human Rights Commission to speak freely on the issue of North Korean human rights.
  • Continue refugee resettlement program after NK refugees graduate from state Hanawon program.
  • Protect North Korean refugees in China, recognized as ROK citizens under South Korea’s Constitution.
  • Appoint a Cabinet-level Minister for North Korean human rights, to investigate human rights abuses in the DPRK, publicize findings, and negotiate with the DPRK to end them.