The United Nations has sent investigators on behalf of the
Human Right’s council to investigate possible human right violations in North
Korea. The UN estimates that at least two hundred thousand people are being
held in prison camps to keep them from going against the current government or
as punishment for doing so. The United Nations investigators listened to former
prisoners’ testimony as to what has been occurring in these camps. Testimony
included claims of torture, starvation, and murder. Some of these former
prisoners were not even guilty of crimes but were forced into the camps due to
familial association with dissenters of the government. The North Korean
government claims that all of the testimony and findings are slander and
refused to take part in the investigation. The investigators claim that
international forces will be needed and should step in to stop these violations
from occurring. But, there is also the problem of finding a way to prosecute
the abusers (as North Korea is not an official member of the International
Criminal Court).
This article brings forth many issues. First and foremost,
the according to the UN’s Declaration of Human Rights “No one shall be
subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment”.
According to the testimony heard, prisoners were tortured, starved to death,
and there was one instance of a woman being forced to drown her own child.
These violate that distinctly stated human right completely. The very fact that
the North Korean government is denying that these victims’ abuses occurred creates
a whole other issue, as how is the international community to stop these
violations from occurring if the North Koreans not only deny but call the
claims “slander”, without further angering them or making things worse for
current prisoners. The actuality that
these political prisoner camps exist for the purpose of detaining the citizens
of the country for disagreeing with those in power goes against the whole ideal
of freedom of expression or as it is put in the Declaration of Human Rights “the
right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold
opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and
ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” By imprisoning and
torturing dissenters, the government is using a form of terror tactics to
control its citizens.
Although a difficult task, the world community should step
in and find a way to stop these abuses. If these abuses continue how can any
leaders say they uphold human rights? The very definition of a Human Right is
that it stands for all people the world over and world leaders cannot pick and
choose to whom they are willing to protect from abuses.
Nicole Egna
9/20/13
2:00 PM
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