Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s human rights record to be reviewed by Universal Periodic Review

GENEVA (6 May 2019) – The Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Thursday, 9 May 2019 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

The Democratic People's Republic of Korea is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 6 to 17 May.  The Democratic People's Republic of Korea’s first and second UPR reviews took place in December 2009 and May 2014, respectively.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea on 9 May can be found here.

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 14.30 – 18.00, Thursday, 9 May (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States.  Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles.  During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

The delegation of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be headed by Ambassador Han Tae Song, Permanent Representative of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea to the United Nations Office at Geneva.

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea are: Eritrea, Fiji and Spain.

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea will be posted on the UPR Extranet.

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to the Democratic People's Republic of Korea at 17.00 on 14 May.  The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.  The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.   

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez at +41 (0) 22 917 9711

To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: www.ohchr.org/hrc/upr

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