Human rights report details ‘heartbreaking’ accounts of women

detained in DPRK

OCHA/David Ohana

(FILE PHOTO) A cyclist in Wonsan City, in DPRK.

    

28 July 2020

Human Rights

Women forcibly returned to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) are subjected to torture, ill treatment, sexual abuse, and other violations, according to a report published on Tuesday by the UN Human Rights office.

The study is based on 100 first-hand accounts by North Korean women who said they were beaten or suffered other individual or collective punishment while in detention between 2009 and 2019.

The women eventually managed to escape the DPRK, more commonly known as North Korea, and gave detailed interviews to staff from the UN rights office, OHCHR.

Heartbreaking stories

“It is heartbreaking to read these stories of women who fled their country looking to make ends meet, but who ended up being punished. These are women who have often been the victims of exploitation and trafficking who should be taken care of, not detained and subjected to further human rights violations,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet. “These women have a right to justice, truth and reparation.”

Although the DPRK effectively bans citizens from travelling abroad, women undertake dangerous journeys to pursue work or a new life abroad.

They often fall into the hands of human traffickers, who push them into cheap bonded labour or sexual exploitation, and even forced marriage.

‘Traitors’ systematically punished

On return to their homeland, the women are detained by State authorities and sentenced to imprisonment, often without a trial, or after proceedings that do not meet international standards for due process.

The report revealed that returnees, particularly “traitors” – the label frequently given to those who have attempted to reach neighbouring South Korea, or contacted Christian groups – are systematically punished and subjected to numerous human rights violations.

One witness who had escaped to China recounted her harrowing experience.

“I was beaten with a club by a preliminary investigation officer and was kicked by the officer. The treatment was particularly harsh at the Ministry of State Security. If one is found to have gone to a South Korean church while staying in China, they are dead. I therefore tried hard not to reveal my life in China. I was beaten up as a result. I was beaten to a level that my rib was broken. I still feel the pain,” she said.

Inhumane conditions, malnutrition and death

The women also spoke of the inhumane, overcrowded and unsanitary conditions in detention, where they were under constant surveillance by male guards.

They had little or no access to daylight and fresh air, insufficient food, and were denied access to facilities and items required for women’s specific hygiene needs.  Because they were malnourished, some suffered irregularities with their menstrual cycles.

“During my time in prison about five to six people died. Most of them died due to malnutrition,” one woman told UN Human Rights staff.

Detainees were regularly beaten or otherwise tortured, including for failing to complete the hard manual labour assigned to them. 

Forced nudity, invasive searches

Witnesses said they were subjected to forced nudity and invasive body searches. Some reported sexual violence by guards, or seeing other detainees subjected to sexual violence. 

Several women said that in some cases, prison officials sought to cause pregnant detainees to abort, either by beating them or making them do hard labour.

The practices documented in the report are in violation of the DPRK’s obligations under international human rights law, the authors stated.

‘Systematic’ violations

“These accounts show once again the systemic nature of human rights violations in the DPRK, and the need to keep seeking pathways to proper accountability for such crimes”, said Ms. Bachelet, the UN Human Rights Chief.

“The UN Human Rights Office will continue to gather evidence of this kind to support a process of criminal accountability, whenever and wherever possible.”

The report concludes with recommendations calling for the Government to bring the detention system into line with international norms and standards.

Other recommendations include ensuring that all citizens are guaranteed the fundamental right to enter and leave the DPRK, and that anyone returned or repatriated there is not subjected to imprisonment or other punishment.

The report further urged other countries not to repatriate North Koreans if there are substantial grounds for believing they would face serious human rights violations. Other States were also asked to support any process to investigate whether crimes against humanity, and other international crimes, have been or are being committed, in the DPRK

Courtesy:UN News

COVID-19:Japan needs to step up its teesting capacity

29 July 2020

Author: Keiichiro Kobayashi, Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research

As COVID-19 cases began to mount in Japan in February, it became clear that the government needed to respond with strong policy measures. It was crucial to increase testing capacity and adopt isolation measures to contain the virus and allow economic activity to resume quickly. The Japanese government needed to set and clearly announce a timeline and numerical targets for testing capacity and medical care provision. Some of these ideas have been incorporated in the government’s Basic Policy on Economic and Fiscal Management and Reform 2020, published on 17 July 2020.

The major challenge Japan currently faces is its extremely limited testing capacity compared with other advanced countries. Japan’s polymerase chain reaction testing capacity is only 32,000 tests per day (as of 12 July), compared to 400,000 in the United States and 160,000 in Germany. Japan needs to systematically increase its capacity to 200,000 by the end of November.

Japan’s ultimate target should be to reopen the economy and to carry on normally as before. In other words, Japan must avoid using economic shutdowns as an emergency measure to stop infection. If the country continues the cycle of reopening the economy and shutting it down when cases spike again, the number of suicides due to economic difficulties could exceed the number of deaths from the COVID-19 virus itself. Japan could also find itself in an economic recession of unprecedented scale, leading to losses of about 30 trillion yen (US$285 billion) if economic growth contracts by six percent.

To avoid an economic shutdown, Japan needs to prevent the number of cases from exceeding and overwhelming hospital capacity. Top priorities should be to increase Japan’s capacity to provide medical care, enforce measures that can help prevent cases from becoming severe, and minimise community transmission of COVID-19.

Increasing medical capacity will require a plan for bolstering the availability of hospital beds for severe cases, intensive care units and personal protective equipment. To prevent cases from becoming severe, Japan needs to secure quick access to hospitals, as needed, and ensure appropriate health management in waiting facilities, such as hotels for asymptomatic and mild cases.

The number of tests must be expanded for three categories of people.

The first category is symptomatic patients and those who they have come into contact with. The definition of ‘close contact’ is currently too narrow. This definition must be expanded to include a broader range of contacts and asymptomatic people.

The second category is workers in hospitals, aged care facilities and welfare facilities for the disabled. These workers should be thoroughly tested because infections at these facilities could result in severe and fatal cases. All those being admitted to hospitals and other such facilities should be tested upon admission.

The third category is immigration control at the border. Japan needs to build testing capacity as the number of international visitors increase. There also needs to be a system to monitor the movement of these international visitors during the first two weeks of their stay in the country.

Testing in all these categories must be increased. Japan expects to have between 100,000 to 300,000 influenza patients per day every winter. The capacity of COVID-19 tests should exceed or be comparable to these figures because the symptoms of COVID-19 and influenza are generally indistinguishable.

Currently, the total number of newly hospitalised patients is 45,000 per day. Ideally, all of them should be tested for COVID-19. The number of visitors from abroad would be 20,000 per day if levels returned to 20 per cent of the pre-COVID-19 rate. During the Tokyo Olympic Games, immigration would potentially need to conduct about 100,000 tests per day, as it was estimated by the Japanese government that 1 million people will enter Japan in the two weeks of the Olympic Games.

Considering these numbers, a reasonable target for testing capacity is approximately 100,000 per day by the end of September and 200,000 per day by the end of November.

The cost of increasing testing capacity and implementing isolation measures is well below that of an economic shutdown. Several months of shutdown has resulted in a growth rate of minus 6 per cent, translating to a loss of 30 trillion yen (US$285 billion). The cost of increasing testing and physical distancing measures would be a few trillion yen (US$28 billion) at most. It should be obvious which is the better policy option.

Keiichiro Kobayashi is Research Director at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research and Visiting Professor of Economics at Keio University. He is part of the expert advisory panel to the Japanese government on responding to COVID-19.

This article is part of an EAF special feature series on the novel coronavirus crisis and its impact.

Courtesy:East Asia Gorum

Venezuela: UN report highlights criminal control of mining area, and wider justice concerns

© UNICEF/Claudia Berger

A sample of gold taken from a mine.

    

15 July 2020

The Human Rights Council on Wednesday heard reports of serious exploitation and abuse of children and indigenous communities in Venezuela, where mining for gold and other minerals is booming.

UN rights chief Michelle Bachelet said that Venezuelan authorities had failed to investigate crimes linked to the industry, in the region of Arco Minero del Orinoco, including extortion, amputation and miners being buried alive.

Criminal groups exercise control over a large number of mining operations there, where children as young as nine have been seen working, according to the report from Ms. Bachelet’s office, OHCHR.

This is despite the “considerable” presence of the Venezuelan military, whose commanders were allegedly paid off via a “system of corruption and bribery” – all made possible by exploiting unskilled and sometimes barefoot workers, forced to do 12-hour shifts, descending deep pits without any protection. 

According to a press release from OHCHR on the report, the miners "are required to pay about 10-20 per cent of what they earn to the criminal groups who control the mines, and an additional 15-30 per cent to the owner of the mill where rocks are crushed to extract gold and other minerals”, the release states.

Criminal activity ‘must end’

“Authorities should take immediate steps to end labour and sexual exploitation, child labour and human trafficking, and should dismantle criminal groups controlling mining activities”, Ms. Bachelet said in a statement.

“They must also investigate, prosecute and punish those responsible for human rights violations, abuses and crimes.”

Testimonies in the UN report – initially requested by the Geneva forum amid allegations of serious rights violations during anti-Government protests in the country beginning in 2014 - reported harsh punishments for miners not complying with the rules imposed by the criminal groups.

In addition to severe beatings, other sanctions have included being shot in the hands, as well as killings.

Pit burials

“Witness accounts describe how bodies of miners are often thrown into old mining pits”, the OHCHR report continued, noting that violence was also linked to disputes between criminal groups - or “sindicatos” - over control of the mines, which had likely left 149 people dead in 16 such episodes in the last four years.

“They determine who enters and leaves the area, impose rules, inflict harsh punishment on those who break them, and gain economic benefit from all activity within the mining area, including through extortion in exchange for protection”, the report states, also alleging the involvement of the security forces in some of these incidents.

Highlighting the economic crisis and lack of work in Venezuela which the oil-rich country attributes to sanctions, the OHCHR report noted how internal migration to the mining area has increased “dramatically” in recent years, with workers engaging in arduous and informal labour.

Prostitution and trafficking

Research and interviews by UN investigators also indicated that women are also performing both mining and other related jobs, with several accounts received highlighting  a sharp increase in prostitution since 2016, sexual exploitation and trafficking in mining areas, including of "adolescent girls".

Living conditions in mining areas are described as “appalling” in the press release from OHCHR, with no running water, electricity or sanitation.

“Pools of stagnant and polluted water resulting from mining, are breeding grounds for mosquitoes, leading to a rise of malaria cases in the region, affecting not only migrant workers but also indigenous communities.”

Both workers and native communities - whose territories and natural resources have been destroyed - have also been badly affected by mercury poisoning, women disproportionately, testimonies indicated.

The metal is used to separate gold from other minerals, says the news release, “and toxic fumes created during the process are breathed in by workers and people living in the area. It is also poured onto the ground and seeps into the rivers.”

Fragile judiciary

The report also provides an update on investigations into grave rights violations including extra-judicial killings and repression during protests against the Government of Nicolas Maduro since 2014, detailed in previous UN Human Rights Council-mandated investigations.

It notes the latest information from the country’s Attorney General indicating that from August 2017 to November 2019, probes were opened into 766 members of security forces, of whom 505 were charged, 390 detained and 127 convicted.

Of those convictions, 77 “pertained to violations of the right to life, 18 to torture and ill-treatment, six to violations of the right to integrity, three to violations of the right to liberty, six to sexual violence, and two to enforced disappearances.”

In the context of security operations, the OHCHR report explained how relatives had “regularly observed evidence of crime scenes having been manipulated” to suggest that the victim had confronted the security forces before being shot.

It also pointed to long delays in going to trial caused by the high turnover rate of prosecutors and judges, along with “political interference” in general.

“This situation has gravely affected the judiciary’s capacity to act independently to protect human rights and is contributing to impunity,” said OHCHR.

“Despite recent efforts made by the Office of the Attorney General to investigate human rights violations committed by security forces, the lack of accountability is especially significant in cases of killings in the context of protests and during security operations, as well as allegations of torture and ill-treatment and gender-based violence

Source:UN News

: COVID-19 must not be used to stifle freedoms, says UN rights office

ILO/KB Mpofu

Martha Maocha runs a detergent manufacturing company but has recently started making hand sanitising gel which protects against COVID-19.

    

24 July 2020

The coronavirus pandemic should not be used as an excuse to clamp down on fundamental freedoms, the UN human rights office (OHCHR) reminded authorities in Zimbabwe on Friday.

OHCHR spokesperson Liz Throssell, speaking to journalists in Geneva, expressed concern over allegations suggesting that Zimbabwean authorities may be using the COVID-19 crisis as a pretext to stifle freedom of expression and peaceful assembly on the streets.

Targeting health workers

Amid a deteriorating economy, she said it was clear that COVID-19 has added greatly to the challenges Zimbabwe faces, and placed a further burden on an already struggling health sector.

She said the human rights office was concerned over reports of “police using force to disperse and arrest nurses and health workers”, for breaching lockdown restrictions while simply “trying to protest for better salaries and conditions of work”.

According to OHCHR, on Tuesday, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa, highlighted an increase of 600 COVID-19 cases in a week – to a total of 1,713 – and announced a series of measures that he said were necessary to curb the spread of the disease.

These include a dusk to dawn curfew and the curtailment and suspension of freedoms that, as he put it, Zimbabweans “have always enjoyed”.

“While recognizing the Government’s efforts to contain the pandemic”, the OHCHR spokesperson said “it is important to remind the authorities that any lockdown measures and restrictions should be necessary, proportionate and time-limited, and enforced humanely without resorting to unnecessary or excessive force”. 

Pattern in intimidation

A pattern of intimidation became clear surrounding events in May when three female members of the main opposition party, were arbitrarily arrested and detained for taking part in a protest.  

Joana Mamombe, Cecilia Chimbiri and Netsai Marova, alleged that after State security officials abducted them from a police station, they were tortured and sexually assaulted.  

“The women were then formally arrested in June, charged with participating in the protests and faking their abduction”, said Ms. Throssell, adding that they had been recently released on bail.

Exercising ‘recognized human rights’

Peaceful protest are an exercise of recognized human rights -- OHCHR spokesperson

Among the latest incidents, investigative journalist Hopewell Chin’ono was arrested on 20 July, and charged with inciting public violence.

This came after he tweeted support for nationwide protests against Government corruption and worsening economic conditions, said OHCHR.

Jacob Ngarivhume, an opposition leader who has been calling for the protests on 31 July, was also detained and similarly charged. 

“Merely calling for a peaceful protest or participating in a peaceful protest are an exercise of recognized human rights”, stressed Ms. Throssell.

Finding answers

The UN rights official maintained that OHCHR encourages the Government to “engage with civil society and other stakeholders to find sustainable solutions to grievances while ensuring that people’s rights and freedoms are protected in accordance with Zimbabwe’s human rights obligations”.  

In conclusion, she said the State had an obligation to “guarantee economic, social and cultural rights” of Zimbabweans. 

Source,:UN News

COVID-19: No return to ‘old normal’, says UN health chief, as cases top 15 million

© FAO/Max Valencia

The Lo Valledor main wholesale market in Chile continues to provide the public during the COVID-19 pandemic with all the protective measures for them and the community.

    

23 July 2020

Health

COVID-19 cases worldwide have surpassed 15 million, and nearly 620,000 deaths. On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) urged people everywhere to play a part in preventing further spread of the disease, warning that there will be no return to “the old normal”.

Most cases, or 10 million, were in just 10 countries, with the United States, Brazil and India accounting for nearly half. On Thursday afternoon, the US passed the milestone of four million infections.

Life-and-death decisions

“We’re asking everyone to treat the decisions about where they go, what they do, and who they meet with, as life-and-death decisions – because they are”, said WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, speaking from Geneva.

“It may not be your life, but your choices could be the difference between life and death for someone you love, or for a complete stranger.”

Adjust to the ‘new normal’

COVID-19 has disrupted the lives of billions across the globe, and Tedros said it is understandable that people want to get on with their lives.

“But we will not be going back to the ‘old normal’. The pandemic has already changed the way we live our lives. Part of adjusting to the ‘new normal’ is finding ways to live our lives safely”, he advised.

In recent weeks, outbreaks associated with nightclubs and other places where people gather have been reported, even in locations where virus transmission has been suppressed.

“We must remember that most people are still susceptible to this virus. As long as it’s circulating, everyone is at risk”, said Tedros, adding, “just because cases might be at a low level where you live, that doesn’t make it safe to let down your guard.”

Tedros underlined that anyone, regardless of age or where they live, can help lead efforts to beat the pandemic and build back better.

“In recent years we’ve seen young people leading grassroots movements for climate change and racial equality. Now we need young people to start a global movement for health – for a world in which health is a human right, not a privilege”, he suggested.

10,000-plus African health workers infected

Separately, the UN health agency underscored the threat COVID-19 is posing to health workers in Africa, more than 10,000 of whom have been infected so far.

There have been more than 750,000 cases of the disease on the continent, with more than 15,000 deaths.

“The growth we are seeing in COVID-19 cases in Africa is placing an ever-greater strain on health services across the continent”, said Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, WHO Regional Director for Africa.

“This has very real consequences for the individuals who work in them, and there is no more sobering example of this, than the rising number of health worker infections.”

WHO

A health worker in Brazzaville in the Republic of the Congo puts on clothing to protect against the coronavirus.

Globally, around 10 per cent of COVID-19 cases are among health professionals, though rates differ between individual countries.

Information on health worker infections in Africa is still limited, WHO said, though preliminary data reveals they comprise more than five per cent of cases in sub-Saharan Africa alone.

Factors that increase risk among these frontline personnel include inadequate access to personal protective equipment, and weak infection prevention and control measures.

“One infection among health workers is one too many”, said Dr. Moeti. “Doctors, nurses and other health professionals are our mothers, brothers and sisters. They are helping to save lives endangered by COVID-19. We must make sure that they have the equipment, skills and information they need to keep themselves, their patients and colleagues safe.”

New COVID-19 Law Lab

WHO has announced the establishment of a COVID-19 Law Lab together with the UN Development Programme (UNDP) and Georgetown University in the US.

It contains a database of national laws implemented by countries in response to the pandemic, such as state of emergency declarations and measures relating to mask-wearing, physical distancing and access to medications.

Courtesy:UN News