Situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea A/RES/79/181 (i) Torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, including inhuman conditions of detention; all forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including rape, in particular against women and girls; extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions; the imposition of the death penalty for political and religious reasons; public executions; extrajudicial and arbitrary detention; the absence of fair trial guarantees and the rule of law, including an independent judiciary; collective punishments extending up to three generations; and the extensive use of forced labour, including of children; (ii) The existence of an extensive penal system including political prison camps, re-education camps, labour training camps, labour training centres, detention centres, holding centres and waiting rooms, 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 protection 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 persons wishing to move freely within the country and travel abroad, including harming or punishing 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, including where the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea exerts pressure on returning States to effectuate such returns, 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 or punishment, sexual and gender-based violence, including forced abortions and infanticide against repatriated mothers and their children, or the death penalty, and in this regard strongly urges all Member States to respect the fundamental principle of non-refoulement, especially in the light of a resumption of cross-border travel, including where the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea exerts pressure on returning States to effectuate such returns, to take action to counter acts of transnational repression by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, to treat those who seek refuge humanely and to ensure unhindered access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and his Office, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, with a view to prote cting the human rights of those who seek refuge, and to refrain from sharing information about the contacts and conduct of refugees, asylum-seekers and other citizens of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea with the Government of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, and once again urges States parties to comply with their obligations under the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees 19 and the 1967 Protocol thereto 20 in relation to refugees from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea who are covered by those instruments, as well as __________________ 19 20 6/14 United Nations, Treaty Series, vol. 189, No. 2545. Ibid., vol. 606, No. 8791. 24-24223