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	UN experts warn of grave abuses against Persons with Disabilities in North Korea by UN Human Rights Office, agencies Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK)   Sep. 2025   DPRK: UN report finds 10 years of increased suffering, repression and fear. (OHCHR)   The human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) has not improved over the past decade and, in many instances, has degraded, bringing even more suffering to the population.   Covering the period following the 2014 UN Commission of Inquiry, the latest findings point to the introduction of more laws, policies and practices that are subjecting citizens to increased surveillance and control in all parts of life.   “No other population is under such restrictions in today’s world,” the report concludes, pointing to the remarks of one escapee who recounted, ‘to block the people’s eyes and ears, they strengthened the crackdowns. It was a form of control aimed at eliminating even the smallest signs of dissatisfaction or complaint’.   In 2025, the country remains more closed than at almost any other time in its history, it reads, adding: “The human rights landscape cannot be divorced from the broader isolation that the State is currently pursuing.”   A significant aspect of the report is the link between the degrading human rights situation in the DPRK, the country’s increasing self-imposed isolation and the peace and security situation on the Korean Peninsula.   “What we have witnessed is a lost decade,” UN Human Rights Chief Volker Turk said. “And it pains me to say that if DPRK continues on its current trajectory, the population will be subjected to more of the suffering, brutal repression and fear that they have endured for so long.”   The report says political prison camps continue to operate. The fate of the hundreds of thousands of disappeared people, including abducted foreign nationals of the Republic of Korea, Japan and elsewhere, remains unknown.   Citizens continue to be subjected to unremitting propaganda by the State for their entire lives. The right to food continues to be violated, with some State policies exacerbating hunger.   Today, the death penalty is more widely allowed by law and implemented in practice. Enjoyment of freedom of expression and access to information have significantly regressed, with the implementation of severe new punishments, including the death penalty, for a range of acts including the sharing of foreign media such as TV dramas. The surveillance of the population has become even more pervasive, aided by advances in technology.   The report, which is based on hundreds of interviews by the Office along with supporting materials, points to the increased use of forced labour in many forms, particularly so-called “shock brigades”, usually deployed to take on physically demanding and hazardous sectors such as mining and construction. They often come from poorer families and in recent years, the Government has used thousands of orphans and street children in coal mines and at other hazardous sites and for extensive hours.   The UN Human Rights Office continues to document human rights violations, some of which may amount to international crimes, while the State has no independent institutions or processes to ensure accountability and provide victims with effective remedies..   http://news.un.org/en/story/2025/09/1165837 http://www.ohchr.org/en/stories/2025/09/blocking-peoples-eyes-and-ears-human-rights-violations-democratic-peoples-republic http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/country-reports/ahrc6058-situation-human-rights-democratic-peoples-republic-korea-report   http://www.ohchr.org/en/statements-and-speeches/2026/03/high-commissioner-turk-urges-international-community-keep-dprk http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/03/concrete-steps-and-international-cooperation-key-human-rights-democratic http://www.ohchr.org/sites/default/files/documents/hrbodies/hrcouncil/sessions-regular/session61/advance-version/a-hrc-61-55-aev.pdf http://www.hrw.org/news/2026/03/18/north-koreas-rights-crisis-not-just-missiles-needs-global-attention   UN experts warn of grave abuses against Persons with Disabilities in North Korea   On 3 September the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) issued its findings on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), following the country’s review during the Committee’s latest session.   The CRPD expressed grave concern over credible reports of systematic abuses against persons with disabilities. These include accounts of infanticide of children with disabilities, sometimes carried out in medical facilities with official consent, forced abortions and sterilizations and medical experimentation.   The CRPD condemned the DPRK’s eugenic and discriminatory medical policies, which under the guise of “disability prevention,” infringe on the right to life of persons with disabilities.   The risks faced by persons with disabilities in the DPRK are further compounded by gender and age. Women and children with disabilities are subjected to gender-based and sexual violence, including coerced marriage, abduction, trafficking and rape. The CRPD noted the absence of legal protections, adequate investigative mechanisms, support services and prevention efforts, leaving survivors without access to justice or redress.   Although DPRK authorities have taken some formal steps toward protecting disability rights since 2016, including ratifying the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, hosting the Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and accepting relevant recommendations during its third and fourth Universal Periodic Reviews, a significant gap remains between its international commitments and domestic implementation.   For instance, national legislation does not explicitly guarantee the right to life for persons with disabilities, including those in detention and healthcare settings, where they face heightened risks of medical neglect, starvation and abuse without independent oversight.   Human rights abuses and restrictions on fundamental freedoms targeting persons with disabilities are inseparable from the DPRK’s broader system of discrimination and persecution.   Julia Saltzman, DPRK expert at the Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect, said, “The systematic enforcement of discriminatory and exclusionary policies affecting persons with disabilities in the DPRK is not incidental but a tool of state repression, embedded within broader patterns of indoctrination, discrimination and persecution. These policies and practices occur within a pervasive climate of gross human rights violations and impunity that often amount to crimes against humanity.”   The DPRK should amend its constitution and domestic legislation to guarantee equality and non-discrimination for persons with disabilities, as well as adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination law that includes effective remedies and protections. The government must take a gender-sensitive approach, including measures to prevent gender-based and sexual violence, and expand access to support services for women with disabilities. It should also permit independent monitoring and grant full access to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and relevant UN Special Procedures.   http://www.globalr2p.org/publications/atrocity-alert-no-449/ http://tbinternet.ohchr.org/_layouts/15/treatybodyexternal/SessionDetails1.aspx?SessionID=2795&Lang=en http://www.ohchr.org/en/treaty-bodies/crpd Visit the related web page
	The role of mercenary-related actors as proxies, enablers and facilitators by UN Working Group on the use of mercenaries   In this report, the United Nations Working Group on the use of mercenaries as a means of violating human rights and impeding the exercise of the right of peoples to self- determination highlights the evolving trends and manifestations in the use of mercenaries, mercenary-related actors and private military and/or security companies as proxies, enablers and facilitators by States, non-State actors and other actors.   Attention is also drawn to an understudied area, which is the ways in which mercenaries, mercenary-related actors and private military and/or security companies are engaging States, non-State actors and other actors as proxies, enablers and facilitators in their operations and activities around the world.   Civilian populations bear the brunt of such covert and opaque operations: massacres, extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, torture and sexual violence are not just a consequence of their actions, but a strategy.   While the scope of international and regional conventions includes offences vis-à-vis the use, financing, training and equipping of mercenaries, insufficient elaboration of the concept of acting on behalf of a party allows room for manoeuvre.   Increasingly, proxy, enabling and facilitation operations by mercenaries, mercenary-related actors and private military and/or security companies extend beyond situations of armed conflict to fighting organized crime, conducting privatized humanitarian operations, overseeing cyberoperations and influence operations, “coup-proofing”, overseeing arrest, detention and surveillance functions, protecting critical infrastructure, exploiting natural resources and participating in illicit supply chain networks.   These emerging, ascendant and evolving manifestations have significant ramifications for international order, sovereignty, territorial integrity, the right to self-determination and human rights.   In view of those factors, the Working Group herein provides a consolidated examination of the issue, by identifying the key routes, methods and means through which mercenaries, mercenary-related actors and private military and/or security companies are being engaged as proxies, enablers and facilitators, as well as by highlighting how mercenaries, related actors and private military and/or security companies engage others to act on their behalf.   The Working Group offers concrete and actionable recommendations to combat the use of private military and/or security actors as proxies and to ensure respect for international law, international human rights law and international humanitarian law.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/a80329-role-mercenaries-mercenary-related-actors-and-private-military http://www.ohchr.org/en/documents/thematic-reports/ahrc6027-role-mercenaries-mercenary-related-actors-and-private-military http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/wg-mercenaries/annual-thematic-reports Visit the related web page
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