U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea
Encyclopedia
The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (formerly the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea) also known as HRNK was founded in October 2001. The group's aim is to "raise awareness about conditions in North Korea
and to publish research focusing world attention on human rights abuses in that country. At the same time, the Committee is trying to find creative solutions for improving human rights
in North Korea."
Published reports include: The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps Prisoners' Testimonies and Satellite Photographs (2003); Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Famine in North Korea (2005); Failure to Protect: A Call to the UN Security Council to Act in North Korea (2006); The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response (2006); Legal Strategies for Protecting Human Rights in North Korea (2007).
, USA, David Hawk (2003). HRNK summarizes the report as follows: "A report documenting that the government of North Korea (DPRK) operates a vast and inhumane prison system for political prisoner
s. Satellite photography and testimony from escaped former prisoners reveal that North Korea has between 150,000 and 200,000 political prisoners working as slave laborers in prison colonies known as kwan-li-so."
Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Famine in North Korea is written by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland (2005). The report links "an absence of human rights to the severity of the famine and to chronic food-shortage problems afflicting the country."
Failure to Protect: A Call to the UN Security Council to Act in North Korea (2006), authored by Václav Havel
(former President of the Czech Republic), Kjell Magne Bondevik
(former Prime Minister of Norway), and Elie Wiesel
(Nobel Peace Prize Laureate), is highly critical of human rights conditions in North Korea and argues that the UN Security Council should "adopt a non-punitive resolution on the situation in North Korea in accordance with its authority under Chapter VI of the UN Charter and past Security Council precedents" in which conditions aimed at addressing human rights violations are met.
The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response (2006), by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, examines the "plight of those determined escapees and the extraordinary problems they face once they have cleared what becomes only the preliminary hurdle of crossing the border."
The report,Legal Strategies for Protecting Human Rights in North Korea (2007), describes itself as serving "as a handbook for groups seeking to use the international legal system to advance human rights in North Korea."
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
and to publish research focusing world attention on human rights abuses in that country. At the same time, the Committee is trying to find creative solutions for improving human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...
in North Korea."
Published reports include: The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps Prisoners' Testimonies and Satellite Photographs (2003); Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Famine in North Korea (2005); Failure to Protect: A Call to the UN Security Council to Act in North Korea (2006); The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response (2006); Legal Strategies for Protecting Human Rights in North Korea (2007).
Publications
The Hidden Gulag: Exposing North Korea's Prison Camps Prisoners' Testimonies and Satellite Photographs is authored by former Executive Director of Amnesty InternationalAmnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
, USA, David Hawk (2003). HRNK summarizes the report as follows: "A report documenting that the government of North Korea (DPRK) operates a vast and inhumane prison system for political prisoner
Political prisoner
According to the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, a political prisoner is ‘someone who is in prison because they have opposed or criticized the government of their own country’....
s. Satellite photography and testimony from escaped former prisoners reveal that North Korea has between 150,000 and 200,000 political prisoners working as slave laborers in prison colonies known as kwan-li-so."
Hunger and Human Rights: The Politics of Famine in North Korea is written by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland (2005). The report links "an absence of human rights to the severity of the famine and to chronic food-shortage problems afflicting the country."
Failure to Protect: A Call to the UN Security Council to Act in North Korea (2006), authored by Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
(former President of the Czech Republic), Kjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik
Kjell Magne Bondevik is a Norwegian Lutheran minister and politician . He served as Prime Minister of Norway from 1997 to 2000, and from 2001 to 2005, making him Norway's longest serving non-Labour Party Prime Minister since World War II...
(former Prime Minister of Norway), and Elie Wiesel
Elie Wiesel
Sir Eliezer "Elie" Wiesel KBE; born September 30, 1928) is a Hungarian-born Jewish-American writer, professor, political activist, Nobel Laureate, and Holocaust survivor. He is the author of 57 books, including Night, a work based on his experiences as a prisoner in the Auschwitz, Buna, and...
(Nobel Peace Prize Laureate), is highly critical of human rights conditions in North Korea and argues that the UN Security Council should "adopt a non-punitive resolution on the situation in North Korea in accordance with its authority under Chapter VI of the UN Charter and past Security Council precedents" in which conditions aimed at addressing human rights violations are met.
The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response (2006), by Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland, examines the "plight of those determined escapees and the extraordinary problems they face once they have cleared what becomes only the preliminary hurdle of crossing the border."
The report,Legal Strategies for Protecting Human Rights in North Korea (2007), describes itself as serving "as a handbook for groups seeking to use the international legal system to advance human rights in North Korea."