The United Nations Office at Geneva
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UN Human Rights report on DPRK forced labour
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UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Liz Throssell and James Heenan, Representative of the UN Human Rights Office in Seoul briefed journalists in Geneva on Tuesday on institutionalised forced labour in the DPRK. Link to full report: https://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/forced-labour-democratic-peoples-republic-korea
Teleprompter
concerns.
The report is based on various sources.
The testimonies in this report give a shocking
and distressing insight into the suffering inflicted through forced
labour on people both in its scale and in
the levels of violence and in human treatment.
2023 with victims and witnesses of forced labour.
People are forced to work in intolerable conditions,
often in dangerous sectors with the absence of pay free choice,
ability to leave protection, medical care, time off food and shelter.
They are placed under constant surveillance,
regularly beaten while women are exposed to
continuing risks of sexual violence on people
both in its scale
and in the levels of violence. Economic prosperity should serve people
not be the reason for their enslavement.
Decent work, free choice,
freedom from violence and just and favourable conditions of work
are all crucial components of the right to work.
They must be respected and fulfilled in all parts of society.
To council to refer the situation to the International
Criminal Court,
detainees are systematically compelled to work under threat of punishment,
including physical violence.
They live in inhumane conditions with no choice
little little food,
scarce healthcare
and disproportionate
uh, work quotas addition
with no choice,
uh, little little food. One woman who was subjected to forced labour as a pretrial
detainee said if I failed to meet my daily quota,
all eight persons in my cell were punished.
We might be punished with additional work hours or a bigger quota to fill
they while being under constant surveillance with no freedom of movement
within this context of detention,
given the almost total control of the state over the lives of detainees
and the widespread extraction of forced labour
in these prisons,
it it in some instances reaches the level of effective
ownership of these individuals, which is an element
of the crime against humanity of enslavement also occurs, uh,
more locally in towns and neighbourhoods.
In in more work is hard, dangerous, exhausting,
uh, with very few again, very few health and safety measures,
a lack of food and sometimes even a lack of shelter.
A nurse who was working in a military hospital
told us that most soldiers came into the clinic,
uh,
malnourished and then came down with tuberculosis because they
were so physically weak and tired from this work.
Uh,
often they were
close with close relations with
after leaving military service or or or for most women leaving school,
every North Korean is assigned a state,
uh, a state assigned job.
Um, the Workers Party of Korea has full
control and exclusive control over all job assignments to
factories, mines, uh, and so forth
again victims reported an absence of free choice, obviously,
but also a lack of ability to
to to collectively bargain a lack of ability
AAA threat of imprisonment or violence for failure
to attend work or for or
if they were complaining about the non-payment of.
And this affects millions upon millions of North Koreans
regularly beaten while women are exposed to continuing risks.
The conditions described in the shop brigades are indeed shocking,
uh, little concern for health or safety, scarce food, scarce shelter
and punishment for failure to meet quotas. We set up to monitor
human
rights in D
PR
K.
Those workers who are looking for this sort of work because of the hardship at home,
uh, go abroad and discover very harsh conditions, hard and dangerous work,
and they lose.
They've reported to us
losing up to 90% of their wages to the state
while being under constant surveillance with no freedom of movement,
passports confiscated, cramped living conditions.
Uh, no time off.
Most of them would tell us that they had one, maybe two days off a month.