By Keerthana Chavaly
The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child reported that North Korea has been committing human rights abuses against the children in North Korea, especially those children who tried to escape the country and were forcefully returned. The human rights violations involve forced detention, sexual abuse and torture.
“The government curtails all basic human rights”
Kirsten Sandberg, a panel member of the UN Committee of the Rights of the Child stated, according to Reuters, We do have reports which are credible that children are at least to a certain extent tortured or exposed to violent treatment by the authorities in various circumstances. This might be when they return to the country after having tried to stay abroad and then are being forcibly returned. It happens on the border, weve heard reports about violent treatment. This report brings to light the harsh treatment of North Korean citizens by their government, treatment Pyongyang continually denies.
In 2016, the United Nations Human Rights Watch published a report detailing the many cases of abuse of basic human rights that the government in North Korea commits. Arbitrary detention, torture, forced labour, rape and other sexual crimes, and public executions are just a few of the abuses citizens are subjected to. The report states that The government curtails all basic human rights, including freedom of expression, assembly, and association, and freedom to practice religion. It prohibits any organized political opposition, independent media, free trade unions, and independent civil society organizations. Arbitrary arrest, torture in custody, forced labour, and public executions maintain an environment of fear and control.
Systematic discrimination and forced labour
The report also states that there exists a system of discrimination in the fields of housing, schooling and employment. This bias is referred to as songbun and is based on citizens political stanceit groups people into three classes: loyal, wavering, or “hostile. Forced labour is also commonplace. An overwhelming majority of the population have been forced to partake in unpaid labour at some point in their lives. Children are not exempt from laboura schoolteacher who escaped from North Korea stated that children, as young as ten years old, were forced to work every day in order to generate revenue for the government. In fact, every North Korean family is required to send at least one person to work for two hours a day, six days a week to do labour on government projects.
Will sanctions threaten children’s survival?
This damning UN report is just one in numerous efforts to bring to light and attempt to cause a change in the socially and politically isolated country. Recently, harsh sanctions were passed against North Korea in response to the development of nuclear arms and ballistic missiles. These sanctions are expected to make the conditions of both children and adults within the country worse as the economic sanctions being imposed will affect the North Korean economy adversely and may result in hampering the survival of children.
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