Tag: persecution

North Korea: We cannot look away

Posted on by cswpress in Asia, North Korea

‘Our vision remains one of a North Korea in which everyone is free to exercise their rights and freedoms, including the right to freedom of religion or belief, and today we reaffirm our commitment to ensuring that this vision becomes a reality.’

– CSW’s CEO Scot Bower

A CSW delegation recently travelled to Seoul, South Korea to launch a report summarising the condition of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) in North Korea over the past ten years. The report – titled North Korea: We Cannot Look Away was commissioned to commemorate the 10th anniversary of the United Nations High Commission on Human Rights Commission of Inquiry (COI) into crimes against humanity in the country.

In 2014, when the initial report of the COI was published it concluded that the situation in North Korea was one ‘without parallel’ in the world.  The COI found evidence of ‘unspeakable atrocities’ against the North Korean people. They found evidence of ‘widespread, systematic and gross’ violations of human rights occurring across the country. And they found these state actions qualified as crimes against humanity – among them execution, enslavement, starvation, rape, re-education, forced labour and forced abortion.

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“There is no excuse”: The international community must finish the work of holding North Korea to account

Posted on by cswpress in Asia, North Korea

Content warning: This blog contains descriptions of rape, sexual violence and violence against infants

By Benedict Rogers

Almost exactly twenty years ago, CSW began to investigate the human rights situation in North Korea, and in particular the persecution of Christians.

It is fair to say that we were one of the very first human rights organisations to sound the alarm about the gravity and scale of human rights atrocities in the world’s most closed and most repressed nation.

The tragedy is that twenty years on, little has changed and the world continues to turn a blind eye.

Dislodging the bricks

In 2007 we published one of the first and most comprehensive studies of the atrocity crimes in North Korea, in a report titled North Korea: A Case to Answer, a Call to Act. In so doing, we became one of the first organisations to call for the establishment of a United Nations Commission of Inquiry to investigate crimes against humanity.

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Instead of gossiping about the Kim dynasty, the world should focus on North Korea’s human rights atrocities

Posted on by cswpress in Asia, North Korea

By Benedict Rogers

One of the very few non-COVID-19 stories that hit the headlines last month was the rumoured near-death of North Korea’s dictator Kim Jong-Un. For almost three weeks the speculation grew that he was dying or had died, and the discussion around who would succeed him reached near-fever pitch. Would it be his sister Kim Yo-jong? But would conservative North Korea be ready for a female leader? Would it be a senior military leader? But then what would that do to the regime’s credibility in the eyes of the North Korean people, if the Kim dynastic succession was broken?

But then, almost as mysteriously as he disappeared, the man known as “the Dear Leader” re-emerged, opening a fertilizer plant outside Pyongyang. Precisely what had happened remains known only to the core leadership of the world’s most secretive state. There was no shortage of rumours. It was suggested that he may have had surgery, that he may have had coronavirus, that he may simply have escaped Pyongyang to avoid infection and even that he had been injured in a missile test. But will we ever know?

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FoRB on the Frontlines: “We were ready for one of the family to be killed”

Posted on by cswpress in FoRB on the Frontlines, Iran, Middle East & North Africa

Dabrina Bet-Tamraz is an Iranian Christian human rights defender who currently resides in exile in Europe. In her home country, her entire family faces intense pressure from the Iranian government; her father, mother and brother have been charged with national security-related crimes for participating in everyday religious activities.

Dabrina has dedicated her life to advocating for her family and others like them facing persecution in Iran. She has raised their cases at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, as well as with President Donald Trump when she attended the second annual Ministerial to Advance Religious Freedom in the USA. In this interview she sheds light on her experiences as a young Christian in Iran, and on the current situation for her family and other Christians in the country.

“Growing up as a Christian in Iran, it was always obvious we were treated differently. Until I was about ten, the church experienced a decade of severe persecution. Pastors were being killed, churches were under massive pressure, and my parents were regularly taken in for interrogation.

When I was a teenager we were constantly under surveillance; we were bugged and there were spies in the church. It began to make us question everything everyone says. We didn’t know who we could trust.

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Un Tema lingüístico: ¿Qué es la persecución?

Posted on by cswpress in español, Language Matters ES

Los crímenes de lesa humanidad son uno de los cuatro crímenes atroces definidos en el derecho internacional.[1] La primera acusación por crímenes contra la humanidad ocurrió después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Se basaba en la creencia de que ciertos crímenes son una afrenta a la conciencia de la humanidad. La comunidad internacional trató de garantizar que no hubiera impunidad por los crímenes que violen la esencia de la dignidad humana.

Uno de ellos es el crimen de la persecución.

Persecución: un crimen de lesa humanidad

La jurisprudencia sobre crímenes de lesa humanidad fue desarrollada por dos tribunales creados ad hoc por el Consejo de Seguridad de las Naciones Unidas: el Tribunal Penal Internacional para la ex Yugoslavia (TPIY) y el Tribunal Internacional para Ruanda (TPIR).

LEE MÁS