Global roundtable raises alarm on enforced disappearances by totalitarian states
NK Watch International Affairs Manager David Kay speaks during a roundtable on enforced disappearances, held in downtown Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
By Bereket Alemayehu
In celebration of the International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances on Aug. 30, NK Watch, a civic organization advocating for North Korean human rights, hosted a hybrid global roundtable discussion focusing on the issue of forced disappearances by totalitarian states under the theme "Voices for the Missing: Global CSOs Roundtable on Enforced Disappearances" on Friday at HJ Business Center in central Seoul. The roundtable featured global civil society organizations, including NK Watch presenters from North Korea, Sudan, Cambodia, Syria and Nepal.
The roundtable was attended and led by several human rights groups from around the globe that focus on the serious crime of enforced disappearances. Each organization shared its region's situation of forced disappearance, advocacy processes and strategies and cooperation with the United Nations Working Group on Enforced Disappearance and discussed countermeasures.
Ahn Myeong-chul, executive director of NK Watch, called for strengthening advocacy activities through solidarity with international civil society organizations representing victims of enforced disappearance and political prison camps. Highlighting the importance of global actors, he said that the goal of this initiative is to enhance the impact of the voices speaking out against the problems of enforced disappearance and political prison camps. During his presentation on the issue of enforced disappearance in North Korea and NK Watch's human rights advocacy strategy, he said that NK Watch wants legal justice for crimes against humanity based on humanity's shared universal values and international law. NK Watch also believes that justice can only be achieved if Kim Jong-un and his family are made to answer for their crimes because the Kim regime is at the root of North Korea's atrocities.
"From January 2013 to May 2024, NK Watch submitted 967 petitions to U.N. working groups and the special rapporteur on the human rights situation in North Korea," he said. "NK Watch submits these petitions to the U.N. in order to provide official documentation of specific crimes against humanity committed in the North. Furthermore, NK Watch hopes that these petitions may be used as evidence for the realization of justice via the international legal system. We are sharing information related to human rights violations occurring outside of political prison camps, such as torture, enforced disappearance and the like to the U.N. In October 2020, NK Watch provided the Seoul (Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights) with copies of 768 petitions. The information produced by NK Watch has been deemed highly reliable by the U.N."
Ahn Myeong-chul, executive director of NK Watch, speaks during a roundtable on enforced disappearances, held in downtown Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
Established by North Korean Political Prison Camp Survivors and Family Members on June 3, 2003, NK Watch investigates crimes against humanity in North Korea through interviews with North Korean defectors. It has since acted consistently as an organization for victims of crimes against humanity by the North Korean authorities.
It is an organization for the victims, by the victims and of the victims, that aims to bring democracy and realize human rights in North Korea based on human dignity and freedom. It is devoted to the people who are suffering from murder, torture, forced labor and abuse even now.
The African Centre for Justice and Peace Studies (ACJPS), based in Kampala, Uganda, with global offices in the United States, Britain and Sweden, provided much-needed research and analysis on the human rights situation in Sudan, and its interventions are valued by human rights defenders and policymakers at both the regional and international level.
Mossaad Mohamed Ali, executive director of the ACJPS, explained in his paper that the use of enforced disappearances and torture across Sudan has been endemic over the last three decades.
Sudanese authorities have used torture and other forms of ill-treatment to silence political dissent as well as intimidate detainees and extract confessions. Victims of enforced disappearance and torture include human rights defenders, indigenous groups, migrants, political and other social activists, internally displaced persons and students who are particularly vulnerable.
"Despite Sudan acceding to key international treaties such as the U.N. Convention against Torture and inclusion of the criminal offense of torture under the Criminal Act in 2020, impunity for human rights violations persists. The culture of human rights violations remains deeply engrained and needs to be urgently addressed," he told the audience.
NK Watch International Affairs Manager David Kay speaks during a roundtable on enforced disappearances, held in downtown Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of Bereket Alemayehu
The United Nations characterizes enforced disappearance by three elements: deprivation of liberty against the will of the person, involvement of government officials, at least by acquiescence and refusal to acknowledge the deprivation of liberty or concealment of the fate or whereabouts of the disappeared person.
From 1980 to the present, the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances has transmitted a total of 61,626 cases to 115 states. The number of cases under active consideration that have not yet been clarified, closed or discontinued stands at 48,619 in a total of 100 states.
Visit nkwatch.org for more information.
Bereket Alemayehu is an Ethiopian photo artist, social activist and writer based in Seoul. He's also the co-founder of Hanokers, a refugee-led social initiative and a freelance contributor for Pressenza Press Agency.