20 March 2009, Melbourne
Address to the 9th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees
Thank you, Michael, for your introduction.
I congratulate you on your work as Chair of the Australian Committee for Human Rights in North Korea.
I acknowledge the support of the Citizens Alliance for North Korean Human Rights in organising this event and welcome our international participants to Australia and to Melbourne.
The Australian Government is firmly committed to international efforts to protect human rights.
The human rights situation above the 38th parallel is appalling. Famine, torture, disappearances, arbitrary detention, repression and countless other indignities have been visited on the people of North Korea by their own leaders.
It is over 60 years now since the Universal Declaration on Human Rights. The international structures and systems that have developed to support that Declaration have faced and still face a severe test in dealing with North Korea.
Today I will outline the Australian Government’s action in support of the international protection of human rights.
We seek to strengthen international action by working to bolster international systems and promote international respect for human rights standards.
We act where we can to promote human rights in North Korea but, like many members of the international community, we are under no illusion that our actions alone will bring about change.
The Human Rights Situation in North Korea
There are many experts here today, from Korea and elsewhere, who will be able to give you first hand information about human rights abuses in North Korea.
I particularly welcome the participation of the UN Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights in the DRPK, Professor Muntabhorn. He has recently reported to the Human Rights Council and I am sure he will bring a well-informed and current perspective to discussions later today.
Professor Muntabhorn’s report makes for troubling reading in its cataloguing of the systematic violation of human rights in North Korea.
From denial of the simple right to food and basic necessities to State-sanctioned torture and execution, millions of innocent people in North Korea are suffering under a brutal regime.
This situation is all the more galling given the considerable expenditure of resources in North Korea on missile and nuclear programs.
Much of the international community’s attention is understandably focused on these programs and Australia has long held grave concerns over them.
Australia deplores provocative North Korean actions like its current planned missile launch, and urges that this not proceed.
Australia also strongly supports Japan’s call for a full accounting of the fate of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korea.
Pyongyang’s continuing unpredictable behaviour is a stark reminder of the dangers of nuclear proliferation.
We are using our strong non-proliferation credentials to support international efforts towards denuclearisation of the Korean Peninsula, including the Six Party Talks.
The Australian Government does not, however, believe that these efforts should impede parallel action to address the grave humanitarian situation in North Korea.
That is why events like today’s Conference are so important. We need to continue to raise awareness, exchange information and explore new approaches to addressing the appalling violation of human rights in North Korea.
We must remember that behind the statistics there are thousands of individual lives being lived and lost.
I was particularly struck by the recent story of Shin Dong-hyuk, the only person living in South Korea known to have escaped from a North Korean prison camp.
Shin was born in the camp, sentenced with his family to a life of unimaginable horror and misery because of the supposed crimes of his uncles.
Shin was tortured by fire, had a finger amputated and witnessed the shooting of his brother and the hanging of his mother before escaping to the South.
To read of these almost unfathomable cruelties is to glimpse State-sanctioned behaviour that is anathema to our common human dignity.
The true magnitude of the situation comes with the realisation that Shin’s ordeal is by no means an isolated case.
Australia’s response in an international context
How do we respond to the tragedy of a State’s blatant disregard for its own people’s welfare?
Our priority must be to provide assistance in those areas where we can do so with immediate effect.
For Australia, this means providing humanitarian assistance including food, water, sanitation and medicines and ensuring this assistance is well-targeted and delivered effectively to those in need.
Since 1994-95, Australia has contributed $75.7 million in humanitarian assistance to the people of North Korea. Our commitments this financial year are A$6.75 million to date.
Australia also consistently registers our deep human rights concern bilaterally with the North Korean Government. Our Ambassador to South Korea visited Pyongyang earlier this month to express our position.
We are, however, keenly aware that effective pressure on human rights standards in North Korea will best come from concerted international action.
North Korea may be isolated, insular, and indeed sometimes impervious to the outside world but we continue to believe that action by the international community can produce positive results.
Australia is therefore active in international fora in encouraging human rights institutions to take coordinated action.
Australia co-sponsored a resolution on the human rights situation in North Korea at the most recent UN General Assembly late last year.
That resolution expressed serious concern over reports of systematic violation of human rights, including torture and inhuman conditions of detention as well as violations of economic, social and cultural rights which have led to severe malnutrition and health problems.
We are looking to co-sponsor a similar resolution in the Human Rights Council over coming days and are working in Geneva to ensure a robust text.
Australia also supports the renewal of the mandate of the Special Rapporteur, Professor Muntabhorn, to ensure that a human rights expert appointed by the Human Rights Council continues to report specifically on the situation in North Korea.
Supporting and strengthening multilateralism
Australia’s strong support for international action in response to the human rights situation in North Korea reflects our longstanding commitment to multilateralism and, in particular, the United Nations.
In fact one of my distinguished predecessors, Foreign Minister, H V Evatt, who led Australia's delegation to the UN’s founding meeting in San Francisco, was a powerful advocate for giving the new body a human rights mandate.
Evatt’s vision of an international body that would protect human rights, and advance global economic and social development, was a significant formative influence on the development of the United Nations.
The member states' pledge to pursue these goals within the UN became known in San Francisco as “the Australian pledge” . It now forms article 56 of the United Nations Charter.
Evatt's vision is more important today than it has ever been. The need for effective, global responses to the challenges such as the human rights situation in North Korea is more urgent and necessary than ever before.
Australia is determined to play a constructive role in shaping those responses and, in doing so, to consolidate our reputation as a good international citizen.
The assistance to North Korea I have mentioned is part of our commitment to the realisation of the Millennium Development Goals.
That commitment also guided our pledge to increase our official development assistance from 0.3 to 0.5 per cent of gross national income (GNI) by 2015.
We have also committed $200 million over four years under the “UN Partnership for the MDGs” budget measure. Through this initiative, Australia will work closely in partnership with key UN agencies leading international efforts to achieve the goals.
Our commitment to strengthen Australia’s engagement with the international human rights system is reflected in the action the Australian Government has taken since coming to office in 2007.
We have extended a standing invitation to United Nations human rights experts to visit Australia.
In July last year, Australia became one of the first Western countries to ratify the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.
The Government has also commenced the process towards becoming a party to the Convention's Optional Protocol.
The Optional Protocol to the Convention on ending all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) entered into force in Australia on 4 March 2009.
Being a party to the Protocol enables Australian women to bring complaints under CEDAW to the United Nations where domestic remedies have been exhausted.
The Government has also begun consultations with State and Territory counterparts and NGOs on Australia becoming a party to the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture.
The Optional Protocol establishes a system of United Nations visits to places of detention and requires states to establish a domestic mechanism to monitor detention.
In last year’s budget the Government announced an additional $200 million over four years in dedicated funding to key United Nations agencies such as UNICEF and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
This commitment enables Australia to contribute directly to work on issues as diverse as increasing child literacy, improving maternal and child health and the empowerment of women in countries beyond our own region.
Earlier this month, on International Women’s Day, Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Status of Women, and I committed over $17 million from this additional funding to UNIFEM to address inequality between men and women.
This will support programs to reduce women’s poverty and exclusion, end violence against women, reverse the spread of HIV and AIDS among women and girls and support women’s leadership.
Conclusion
The strength of the Government’s engagement on human rights reflects our conviction that only global responses will be effective in addressing human rights challenges.
Australia regards the situation in North Korea as one of the most critical challenges in this context. It is not a situation the international community can afford to ignore.
Australia will continue to do all it can to maintain international focus on ways in which we can assist the people of North Korea.
Events such as today’s Conference contribute to that focus and provide important perspectives on a complex and appalling situation.
Thank you for your ongoing efforts.