Ministry Statements & Speeches:
Thank you, Mr. President,
New Zealand thanks Ms. Elizabeth Salmón for her important report and supports her recommendations. We commend the courageous and ongoing efforts by North Korean victims and survivors and their families to seek accountability for human rights violations.
New Zealand remains alarmed at the dire state of human rights in the DPRK. Ten years since the publication of the Commission of Inquiry’s report, which concluded that the government had committed crimes against humanity, and that the “gravity, scale and nature of these violations reveal a state that does not have any parallel in the contemporary world.” Sadly, we have seen little progress in human rights over the last ten years.
Mr President, we urge the DPRK to allow the Special Rapporteur access to the country. Timing on this is critical before the DPRK’s Universal Periodic Review in November.
New Zealand also calls for the DPRK to allow the return of humanitarian agencies to assess the DPRK and ensure basic humanitarian needs are being met.
We continue to call on the DPRK to repatriate any persons that have been abducted, relocated during the “Paradise on Earth” campaign, and taken from other countries, who remain involuntarily in the DPRK.
Special Rapporteur, we seek your views on how New Zealand and the international community can encourage the DPRK to re-open humanitarian channels.
New Zealand would like to reiterate our sincere thanks to Ms. Elizabeth Salmón, and we urge all States to support the continuation of this important mandate.
Thank you.