The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea | HEARING: Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity in North Korean Detention Centers @committeehrnk | Uploaded March 2022 | Updated October 2024, 7 hours ago.
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H E A R I N G A G E N D A
[Inquiry on Crimes Against Humanity in North Korean Detention Centers]

Leading international jurists to hear live and in-person testimony from North Korean escapees and experts on whether Kim Jong-un, high level officials, and guards have committed crimes against humanity in North Korean detention centers. (Washington, DC | March 4, 2022)

Four internationally renowned judges – Navanethem ‘Navi’ Pillay (S. Africa), Dame Silvia Cartwright (N. Zealand), Silvia Fernández (Argentina), and Wolfgang Schomburg (Germany) – will preside over an all-day Hearing in Washington, DC, under the auspices of the War Crimes Committee of the International Bar Association (IBA), and the IBA’s partner organization, the Committee for Human Rights in North Korea (HRNK).

Collectively, these judges have spent several decades sitting on, or serving as Presidents of, some of the most consequential international tribunals since the Nuremberg Trials, including the International Criminal Court, as well as Tribunals for Rwanda, Cambodia and the Former Yugoslavia. Never before have judges of this stature been assembled to opine on the potential culpability of North Korean state actors for crimes against humanity committed in North Korea’s detention centers, or for that matter, at any point during the Kim Dynasty’s 74-year reign.

The judges will hear live testimony from experts and six (6) North Korean defectors who have been subjected to unspeakable crimes during their detention in North Korea’s notorious detention centers. Four of the escapees will testify in person at the Hearing.

The goal of the Hearing is to determine whether the evidence justifies a determination that crimes against humanity are being committed in North Korea's short-term detention facilities and to determine next steps for holding North Korean state actors accountable for their crimes, including ‘Supreme Leader’ Kim Jong-un, high level government officials, internal security officials, and low-level prison guards.

At the Hearing, IBA War Crimes Committee lawyers as well as pro bono lawyers from Debevoise & Plimpton will present evidence of the commission of the following 10 crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute: (1) murder, (2) extermination, (3) enslavement, (4) forcible transfer, (5) imprisonment, (6) torture, (7) sexual violence, (8) persecution, (9) enforced disappearances, and (10) a catch-all category referred to as “other inhumane acts.”

In addition to the testimony of survivors of North Korea’s detention centers, the Hearing will draw upon other sources of evidence, including:
• Sworn testimony by Cindy Warmbier, the mother of American college student, Otto Warmbier, who was returned to the U.S. in a vegetative state, and died shortly thereafter from injuries sustained during his detention in North Korea.
• Live testimony by leading experts on North Korea’s political system, and implications for holding North Korean government officials, including Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un, accountable for crimes against humanity.
• A renowned satellite imagery expert, who will provide live testimony about, among other things, the most detailed satellite images of North Korea’s network of detention centers ever been made public.

Please contact outreach@hrnk.org with any questions.