Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea A/RES/74/166 human rights violations in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, 14 established pursuant to Human Rights Council resolution 31/18 of 23 March 2016, 15 and by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and the continuing impunity for such violations; 2. Expresses its very serious concern about: (a) The persistence of continuing reports of violations of human rights, including the detailed findings made by the commission of inquiry in its report, 2 such as: (i) Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading tr eatment or punishment, including inhuman conditions of detention; rape; public executions; extrajudicial and arbitrary detention; the absence of due process and the rule of law, including fair trial guarantees and an independent judiciary; extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions; the imposition of the death penalty for political and religious reasons; collective punishments extending up to three generations; and the extensive use of forced labour; (ii) The existence of an extensive system of political prison camps, where a vast number of persons are deprived of their liberty and subjected to deplorable conditions, including forced labour, and where alarming violations of human rights are perpetrated; (iii) Enforced and involuntary disappearances of persons by arrest, detention or abduction against their will; refusal to disclose the fate and whereabouts of the persons concerned; and refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of their liberty, which places such persons subjected thereto outside the prote ction of the law and which has had the effect of inflicting severe suffering on them and their families; (iv) The forcible transfer of populations and the limitations imposed on every person who wishes to move freely within the country and travel abroad, including the punishment of those who leave or try to leave the country without permission, or their families, as well as punishment of persons who are returned; (v) The situation of refugees and asylum seekers expelled or returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and retaliations against citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who have been repatriated from abroad, leading to punishments of internment, torture, other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment, sexual violence or the death penalty, and in this regard strongly urges all States to respect the fundamental principle of non-refoulement, to treat those who seek refuge humanely and to ensure unhindered access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and his Office, with a view to protecting the human rights of those who seek refuge, and once again urges States parties to comply with their obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees 16 and the 1967 Protocol thereto 17 in relation to refugees from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who are covered by those instruments; (vi) All-pervasive and severe restrictions, both online and offline, on the freedoms of thought, conscience, religion or belief, opinion and expression, __________________ 14 15 16 17 19-22298 (A/68/53), chap. IV, sect. A. See A/HRC/34/66/Add.1. See Official Records of the General Assembly, Seventy-first Session, Supplement No. 53 (A/71/53), chap. IV, sect. A. United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, No. 2545. Ibid., vol. 606, No. 8791. 5/11