Dear Friends,

As you may know, the General Assembly resolution on human rights in the DPRK has been tabled in New York. I attach a copy.

It would be very valuable if you would lobby for strong support for the resolution. The level of international concern over North Korea provides a good basis to seek particularly strong support for the resolution. It is important that the level of support increases for us to continue to progress the issue through the UN system. We do hope you can give your support to this important matter. It can be very simple and quick to communicate your support for the resolution to all the voting states.

I am attaching a list of e-mail addresses of country missions to the UN and a separate list of post / phone / fax details. You can reach them all in one e-mail by simply copying and pasting the addresses from the list into your To / BCC box. For more nuanced lobbying, the e-mail list is divided into sections to show the voting pattern for the last General Assembly resolution on the DPRK so that you can direct different mails to the relevant countries. The UN’s five geographical groupings often vote along group lines. It is primarily the Asian and African votes that will make the difference and are therefore the most important to lobby for. It is not necessary to lobby the EU as they are jointly presenting the resolution. We understand the resolution is co-sponsored by the rest of the Western Group and Japan and it is not therefore necessary to lobby for their votes.

In your mail you might wish to stress the nature of the abuses and the complete lack of co-operation by North Korea, including the refusal to recognize the mandate of, or extend co-operation with, the Special Rapporteur and refusal to engage in technical co-operation with the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. Opposition or neutrality is morally inappropriate in the context of the very severe human rights violations and lack of independent access.

The report by the Special Rapporteur to the General Assembly is available here.

For a quick insight there is an interesting report in the Daily Telegraph highlighting some of the relevant issues.

Please do take a few minutes to respond to this to ensure the voting members are left in no doubt about the seriousness with which the human rights situation in North Korea is viewed.

Do let me know if I can be of any further help.

Best wishes,
Elizabeth

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Elizabeth Batha
International Advocate
CSW
PO Box 99
New Malden
Surrey
KT3 3YF
Tel: + 44 (0)20 8329 0037
Fax: + 44 (0)20 8942 8802
W: www.csw.org.uk

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