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Submitted By:
Counsel to ICNK: Jared Genser and Chris Fletcher
<Perseus Strategies,LLC (www.perseus-strategies.com)>
Kristen Leanderson Abrams, Julie Ben-Zev, Katie Jahnke Dale, and Jeffrey Kahntroff
<New Perimeter (www.newperimeter.com)>
The abolition of the concentration camps is our top priority
- Statement of NO FENCE on the occasion of the death of Kim Jung Il
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United Nations
General Assembly
17 February 2010
Human Rights Council
Human rights situations that require the Council’s attention
……………………………………………………………………………………
This is the final report of the Rapporteur for the Human Rights Council.
"The present report reflects on the work of the Special Rapporteur, Vitit
Muntarbhorn, for the past six years. Concurrently, it provides an update of
the human rights
situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea from the middle of
2009 until the
beginning of 2010. It also identifies preferred steps towards the future."
（excerpted from Summary of his report）
First mission of ICNK (International Coalition to Stop Crimes against Humanity in North Korea) to deliver “Letter to Kim Jong Il” to the DPRK embassies in capital cities of the world on Oct 6
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ICNK launched a major global campaign collaboratively to improve the human rights in North Korea.
The world‘s three largest international human rights organizations, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, FIDH along with 40 other organizations from around world and individuals organized ICNK on Sep 8, 2011.[Press release handout]
In that evening on that day, the members of ICNK protested against the head office of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan located Iidabashi in Tokyo and demanded for the improvements of the human rights in North Korea, the release of the abductees to North Korea and the abolishment of the political prison camps in North Korea. [Letter to Kim Jong Il general secretary]
ICNK decided to deliver the letter to Kim Jong Il to DPRK embassies or the representatives of the North Korean government in the capital cities such as New York, London and Brussels on Oct 6 and make an appeal to the improvements of the human rights in North Korea.
NO FENCE (association for the abolishment of concentration camps in North Korea) mailed the “Letter to Kim Jong Il” to the current chairman, So Man-sul of General Association of Korean Residents in Japan on Oct 4. On that day, NO FENCE also mailed to the 48 local head offices of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan and the staff of 64 Pro-North Korean Chosen schools reflecting the global commitment to hold the North Korean government’s widespread and systematic violations and strong desire to help incarcerated people out there.
Followings are the main points of the demands to Kim Jong Il in the letter;
1, Providing the access to the DPRK, especially to the concentration camps for the UN Special Rapporteur, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and international human rights organizations
2, Abolishing the concentration camps
3, Banning the use of forced labor in penal institutions
4, Immediate release of the abductees
5, Establishing the freedom of conscience, religion, expression, association, assembly and travel and protecting those rights
The voices of 30 groups inside and outside Japan delivered to U.S. President Obama on June 1, 2009.
- “Pay attentions to the national crimes against humanity in the political prison camps in North Korean and practice strong human rights diplomacy.”
On June 1, 2009, NO FENCE delivered a PDF file (English letter) addressed to President Obama in the form of electronic mail to the Deputy Minister-Counselor for Political Affairs, Mr. Mark E. Napper, of the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo, and requested that the letter be forwarded to President Obama. We hereby report that this is deemed the acceptance of the letter by the U.S. Embassy.
This letter has been submitted as the collection of the voices of NGOs from Japan, South Korea, North America, Europe, and other regions, expressing the demand for the efforts made to address the issue of human rights at the prison camps in North Korea.
The formal version of the English letter that has been submitted and the Japanese and Korean versions are the same in essence but slightly differ in the expressions used.
Human Rights Watch has endorsed the English version.
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President Barack Obama plans to visit Egypt on June 4th, Germany on June 5th, and France on June 6th. He will deliver an address in Egypt on the relationships between the U.S. and the Islamic world, and in Germany, he is going to visit the remains of the Nazi Buchenwald concentration camp.
It is likely that he will emphasize harmony with Islam in his speech and show consideration for Israel in his visit to the Nazi concentration camp.
NO FENCE hopes that President Obama’s message for peace to be delivered during his tour this time will include not only his interest in those countries with which the U.S. has a strategic relationship, but also a strong, unwavering will to protect humanity and human rights in Asia, including the crimes against humanity and human rights at the North Korean prison camps.
In this connection, we ask for individuals and groups that will approve and support our letter (a statement issued by NO FENCE) addressed to President Barack Obama. If you could join us, please contact NO FENCE at nfstaff@netlive.ne.jp.
"Are you willing to put what power you have at the service of what you
believe?"
- ..............................................................................................Jeffrey S. Irish
Internment Camps
I received a telephone call from a friend who bakes and sells bread.
“Can you translate some writing with regard to North Korea’s forced
internment camps for an international conference to be held in Tokyo?”
she asked. “I don’t have any money to pay for the translation, but I
can pay you in bread.”
Read More…
We can no longer wait!
- There could not be national security when the violation of human rights is ignored!
Democratic nations should expressly indicate that respect for human rights is imperative in the negotiations North Korea.
The Tokyo International Conference for the Abolition of North Korea Prison Camps Commemorating the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was held on December 7, 2008 by No Fence.
* This international conference was broadcasted live. The video is
available on the NetLive Website,
http://www.netlive.ne.jp/archive/event/081207.html.
Read More…
Prison Camp-related Information
- The Chinese authorities were already aware of the existence of North Korean prison camps!
A confidential report entitled Yanbian Prefecture, the Situation around the Chinese-Korean Border (Chinese) issued in June 2000 by the Ministry of State Security, an intelligence agency directly under the State Council (the government cabinet) of China, has revealed that more than a dozen political prison camps called the "farms" existed across North Korea, in which approximately 300,000 political prisoners and their family members were confined. (The Tokyo Shimbun, May 11, 2008 Morning)
Read More…
Testimony
- [Testimony on prison camps and Japanese and Koreans from Japan] delivered to No Fence
Ms. Yumiko Chiba moved to North Korea with her parents in the North Korean repatriation program when she was little. She lived there for 37 years and defected from the country. No Fence has received a letter from her who managed to return to Japan in 2005. In the letter, she testifies about the shocking fact that Japanese and North Koreans in Japan who moved to North Korea in the repatriation program were confined in the prison camps.
< Ms. Chiba traveled from Osaka to attend the No Fence opening ceremony on April 13 and joined us as a member on the same day. Two days later, her letter was delivered to the No Fence office. >
Read More…
Action Reports
- April 13, 2008, NO FENCE Inauguration was held at Seiryo Kaikan, Tokyo.
An event to commemorate the establishment of NO FENCE, Japan's first civic action group focusing on the issue of North Korean prison camps, was held at Seiryo Kaikan in Tokyo.
In this event, testimonial speeches were presented by eight individuals who had experienced the life in the North Korean prison camps.
Video Footage of Lectures
- April 13, 2008
NO FENCE Inauguration at Seiryo Kaikan, Tokyo
An address given by the No Fence administrators and testimonies and lectures presented by eight people who had been in the prison camps, including some members of Democracy Network against North Korea Gulag
Memoirs of Former Prisoners
- On March 29, 2008, a shocking memoir was published.
"Born in a Prison, I Don't Know What Love Is" (Japanese)
Born a child of prisoners and lived as a slave for 23 years.
Such tragedies do exist in this world.
Read More…
