UN appoints a panel to investigate North Korea human rights

North Korea is unlikely to allow investigators

The UN has named the three panel members for its first-ever human rights investigation into North Korea.

Retired Judge Michael Kirby will chair the inquiry, working with UN special rapporteur Marzuki Darusman, and human rights activist Sonja Biserko.

The panel will examine reports of prison camps, torture and food deprivation, reporting back in March 2014, a UN statement said.

It is highly unlikely that North Korea will give access to the investigators, so the panel will have to rely on satellite imagery and testimony from defectors.

However, Michael Kirby, a former justice of Australia's High Court, said the panel would approach the inquiry with "complete independence" and no "preconceptions", and that North Korea would be given "due process".

Mr Kirby added that many people had already contacted him, offering to make submissions to the commission.

He will be joined by Sonja Biserko, a founder of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, and former Indonesia attorney-general Marzuki Darusman.

Marzuki Darusman is currently the UN Special Rapporteur on North Korea. He had presented the UN's initial report on North Korea, which led the UN human rights council to set up the inquiry.
Source: BBC
Posted by Unknown 5/08/2013