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 Human rights abuses of NK defector women abound: report
Female North Korean defectors are often exposed to serious human rights violations including sexual violence and human trafficking while stateless after fleeing their communist homeland, Seoul's state human rights commission said in a report Monday.
It was the first time that the South's National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a report on human rights abuses North Korean women face in third countries. The report is based on interviews and a survey of 274 of defectors from April-December last year.
"Border areas are where the most of human rights infringements against women take place," Lee Im-ha, a professor at Seoul's Sungkyunkwan University, told a press conference. "Some of the violence or sexual abuse can throw them into an even worse condition than in their home country, which is the worst case."
Lee is one of the professors who took part in the commission's study.
Thousands of North Koreans defect to the South each year, either directly from their communist homeland or via third countries such as China and southeast Asian nations.
According to the report, North Korean women found it very difficult to live with constant fears of arrest before succeeding in reaching South Korea. Other hardships, cited in the report, included their life in refugee camps where they claimed they suffered from rights abuses, the report said.
"By revealing the scars left to the North Korean women who fled their country, we hope to shed light on their human rights issues by trying to hear the voice of North Korean women through in-depth interviews as well as legal and social context," said Park Sun-seong, a professor of Seoul's Dongguk University, who led the commission's study. "Based on the results, we will put in efforts to improve human rights of North Koreans and recommend related policies to the government, if necessary."
Over 16,000 North Koreans have come to South Korea since the 1950-53 Korean War that ended in a truce rather than a peace treaty. The annual number of defectors is increasing year by year and the Unification Ministry expects the accumulated figure to top 20,000 this year.
(2010-02-23 / Yonhap News)
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2/23：Human rights abuses of NK defector women abound: report (Yonhap News)