Mr
President,
The
UK welcomes the reappointment of the Special Rapporteur, and pays tribute to
his work, not only during the Commission of Inquiry, but since his appointment
in 2010.
However, we deeply regret the DPRK’s continued
refusal to engage with him.
We
renew our call for the DPRK to respond in detail to the horrifying findings of
the Commission of Inquiry report and to take immediate action to implement its
recommendations, not least by giving full and unimpeded access to the Special
Rapporteur.
The
scale and brutality of the sustained and systematic human rights violations in
the DPRK calls for action. We cannot allow the failure of a small number of
States to support the Resolution in March to give the impression that the
DPRK’s actions are acceptable.
They are not.
Authorities in the DPRK must demonstrate genuine respect
for the rights of its citizens.
We
must offer them every support in this, if they demonstrate a willingness to
engage. And we must find ways to deter them, if they do not.
In
the absence of progress in the DPRK, our focus must be on accountability
– not least by ensuring that possible crimes against humanity are
appropriately investigated, by a body such as the International Criminal
Court.
With these objectives in mind, I would like to ask the
Special Rapporteur:
Firstly, what role do you see for the new field office
in Seoul? How can members of the Council support it, and you, in monitoring and
documenting human rights violations and abuses in the DPRK?
And
secondly, what role can the Special Rapporteur play in waking the world up to
what is happening in DPRK, and in persuading countries to support
accountability, to increase pressure for change, and to respect the principle
of non-refoulement.
Mr
President,
For
too long the international community has been unable or unwilling to prevent
the terrible suffering of the North Korean people.
It
is time for this to change.
We
must make clear to the DPRK that we find its appalling human rights record as
unacceptable as its pursuit of nuclear capabilities. Working to address
proliferation and addressing our concerns on human rights should not be
mutually exclusive - in fact they should be mutually
reinforcing.
We
must, in short, raise our game.
I
can give this assurance. If the DPRK shows willingness to engage with us on
this, we in the UK stand ready to respond. Until then, we must not allow
history to judge us as the generation who looked the other
way.