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The U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK) seeks to raise awareness about conditions in North Korea and to publish research focusing world attention on human rights abuses in that country. At the same time, the Committee is trying to find creative solutions for improving human rights in North Korea.

November 29, 2007 A report by the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK), entitled Legal Strategies for Protecting Human Rights in North Korea and co-authored by Skadden, Arps, Slade Meagher & Flom LLP, was released November 28 in Washington, DC. The report serves as a handbook for groups seeking to use the international legal system to advance human rights in North Korea. After making the case against the Pyongyang regime, the report outlines the strategies available, including the International Criminal Court, the UN Security Council and the Alien Tort Claims Act, as well as various international covenants and conventions. [read more / read the report]

Report on The North Korean Refugee Crisis: Human Rights and International Response.
[view report]

Václav Havel, Kjell Magne Bondevik, and Elie Wiesel presented the findings of the Committee's report "Failure to Protect: A Call to the UN Security Council to Act in North Korea" in the ECOSOC chamber of the UN.

Sponsored by the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the UN, DLA Piper, and the U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea; and with the support of the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity and the New York Democracy Forum; the event emphasized the responsibility of the UN, particularly the Security Council, to begin engagement with North Korea on human rights.

• View the webcast.
• View the transcript.

• Press Release: U.S. Committee for Human Rights in North Korea Encouraged by South Korean Vote in Favor of UN General Assembly Resolution

The report makes the argument that North Korea is in breach of meeting its international obligations as a state party to the main human rights protocols of the UN system, and is committing crimes against humanity. The report makes recommendations to the UN Security Council under Chapter VI to look seriously at a strategy on human rights.

Václav Havel (former President of the Czech Republic), Kjell Magne Bondevik (former Prime Minister of Norway), and Elie Wiesel (Nobel Peace Prize Laureate) are the report's co-commissioners.

• Download the Report (pdf)
• Press Release (pdf)
• Dealing With North Korea, International Herald Tribune, November 4-5, 2006 (pdf)
• "Turn North Korea Into a Human Rights Issue", New York Times, October 30, 2006 (pdf)

For the first time, authors Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland link an absence of human rights to the severity of the famine and to chronic food-shortage problems afflicting the country. The full report in both English and Korean can be found here.

Exchange between the South Korean Ministry of Unification (kor/eng) and Committee researchers, Stephan Haggard and Marcus Noland (eng).