Refugees International: Articles: Briefing & New Report Recommend Policies on Refugees, Food Security and Human Rights

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Briefing & New Report Recommend Policies on Refugees, Food Security and Human Rights

NK Report Cover
05/12/2005

CONTACT: Megan Fowler, 202-828-0110 x214

Washington, DC – Refugees International and the Center for Strategic and International Studies organized a special briefing today that called for US policies towards North Korea to address the safety and well being of the North Korean people. The briefing, which was moderated by Kurt Campbell, Senior Vice President and Director of CSIS’ International Security Program, was organized in light of concerns over North Korea’s nuclear program, humanitarian challenges and ongoing political and economic changes occurring in the country. The panel included Senator Sam Brownback, the UN’s World Food Program Country Director and the former Executive Director of Amnesty International, and featured the release of Refugees International’s new report Acts of Betrayal: The Challenge of Protecting North Koreans in China.

“The ongoing political, economic and security transformations that are occurring in North Korea present both risks and opportunities and must be managed to minimize human costs,” said Joel Charny, Vice President for Policy at Refugees International and author of Acts of Betrayal. “The US and the governments of China and South Korea have policy options available to them which would significantly enhance the protection of North Koreans without jeopardizing regional or national security.”

Acts of Betrayal describes the harrowing circumstances under which North Koreans must live when they flee to China and calls on the U.S. government to take stronger action to protect North Korean refugees in China. Some of the policy options available to the U.S. include:

Encourage China to immediately halt arrests and deportations of North Koreans in the context of its ongoing human rights dialogue with Beijing;
Quietly appoint a senior retired official of ambassadorial rank or higher who can earn the trust of the Chinese government and engage in informal discussions of this issue; and
Implement the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 by cautiously disbursing assistance to refugees without provoking a crackdown by the Chinese authorities.

Senator Brownback also expressed his concern for the people of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), and argued that the State Department was blocking full implementation of the North Korean Human Rights Act of 2004 which he sponsored last year. The act authorizes $20 million for humanitarian assistance to refugees, defectors, migrants, and orphans and calls on the Department of State to facilitate the submission of resettlement applications by North Koreans.

“This is a time for action, not bureaucratic excuses,” said Senator Brownback. “The North Korean Human Rights Act will save lives and we need leaders who have the courage to take on this complex issue. It should not be difficult to provide assistance to women who have been victims of trafficking or families who are forced to flee their homeland just to earn enough money to buy food.”

Richard Ragan, the only official American allowed to live in North Korea, also participated in the briefing via videoconference from Laredo, Texas. As the World Food Program Country Director and Acting UN Humanitarian Coordinator for North Korea, Ragan described the latest on the humanitarian situation in the country. He discussed how the government of North Korea has changed its approach to humanitarian programs in numerous ways, including greater restrictions on monitoring and movement around the country as well as a desire to move towards longer term development aid. This has impacted the operations of the UN, international organizations and NGO’s operating in North Korea.

He also talked about the food situation inside the DPRK and noted that a lack of donations by the international community could soon force them to stop feeding as many as 3 million people over the summer. In North Korea, 37 percent of North Korean children are chronically malnourished, or stunted, and one-third of mothers are malnourished and anaemic, according to the findings of a large-scale, random sample survey by UNICEF, WFP and the DPRK government released in March. To address this problem, WFP’s 2005 emergency operation seeks 500,000 tons of food, valued at US$200 million, to help feed 6.5 million North Koreans deemed most at risk out of a population of 23 million. By the end of March, some 215,000 tons, worth US$70 million, had been secured.

“The North Korean people have faced enormous hardships since the early 1990s when natural disasters, the collapse of the Soviet and Eastern block trading system and economic shifts created extreme food shortages,” Ragan said. “We have a chance to help them by working with the North Korean government, the international community and the people of North Korea themselves to ensure that food aid is delivered and that it goes where it should: to those most in need.”

The panel concluded with David Hawk, former Executive Director of Amnesty International USA, who called on the U.S. to support the United Nations Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights in its efforts to improve the human rights situation in North Korea. He also urged the envoy mandated by the North Korean Human Rights Act to cooperate with the Special Rapporteur and work within the existing multilateral framework.

“It is essential that the U.S. work within the already existing framework that was agreed upon by member states of the Human Rights Commission to improve human rights dialogue with North Korea,” Hawk said. “America is at its best in the international arena when we unite with others around shared values and this case is no different.”

The political system of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is one of the most repressive systems ever established, encompassing all-pervasive restrictions on the civil, political, social, and economic rights of its citizens. Human rights abuses include extreme punishments, prisons and detention centers that are far below international standards, persecution based on religious and political beliefs, and strict controls over the movement of people. These abuses are committed in defiance of the DPRK’s obligations as a state party to four key human rights treaties: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Elimination of All forms of Discrimination against Women.

Refugees International’s report, Acts of Betrayal: The Challenge of Protecting North Koreans in China is available here.

Refugees International generates lifesaving humanitarian assistance and protection for displaced people around the world, and works to end the conditions that create displacement.

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