{"id":146792,"date":"2014-12-22T15:23:00","date_gmt":"2014-12-22T15:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?guid=9d5fe257265a237f600a63a0bb9e2277"},"modified":"2014-12-22T15:23:00","modified_gmt":"2014-12-22T15:23:00","slug":"why-icc-prosecution-wont-help-improve-human-rights-in-n-korea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/editorials\/why-icc-prosecution-wont-help-improve-human-rights-in-n-korea\/","title":{"rendered":"Why ICC prosecution won\u2019t help improve human rights in N. Korea"},"content":{"rendered":"
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If improving human rights conditions in North Korea is the real aim of the international community, putting the country\u2019s political leadership on trial is a non-starter.<\/p>\n

A recent vote at the UN General Assembly called for North Korea to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged human rights abuses. Pyongyang has faced growing international pressure following the publication of a UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report in February accusing the country of committing crimes against humanity against its own population.<\/p>\n

The 372-page report<\/a> on rights violations in North Korea primarily raises concerns over the country\u2019s penal system, where it claims citizens have been subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, executions and deliberate starvation. Authors of the report have made resolute comparisons between Pyongyang\u2019s alleged abuses and those of Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n

North Korea has categorically denied the COI\u2019s findings, claiming the report is intended to provide a moral justification for a foreign military intervention into the country under the auspices of protecting human rights \u2014 a scenario that would not be without precedent when country-specific UN special procedures have been sought in the past, such as the case of Libya.<\/p>\n

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Read the full story on RT.com<\/a><\/b><\/i><\/div>\n

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Nile Bowie<\/b> is a columnist with Russia Today, and a research affiliate with the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), an NGO based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

If improving human rights conditions in North Korea is the real aim of the international community, putting the country’s political leadership on trial is a non-starter.<\/p>\n

A recent vote at the UN General Assembly called for North Korea to be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged human rights abuses. Pyongyang has faced growing international pressure following the publication of a UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) report in February accusing the country of committing crimes against humanity against its own population.<\/p>\n

The 372-page report<\/a> on rights violations in North Korea primarily raises concerns over the country’s penal system, where it claims citizens have been subjected to arbitrary detention, torture, executions and deliberate starvation. Authors of the report have made resolute comparisons between Pyongyang’s alleged abuses and those of Nazi Germany.<\/p>\n

North Korea has categorically denied the COI’s findings, claiming the report is intended to provide a moral justification for a foreign military intervention into the country under the auspices of protecting human rights – a scenario that would not be without precedent when country-specific UN special procedures have been sought in the past, such as the case of Libya.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
\n
Read the full story on RT.com<\/a><\/b><\/i><\/div>\n

<\/i><\/div>\n

Nile Bowie<\/b> is a columnist with Russia Today, and a research affiliate with the International Movement for a Just World (JUST), an NGO based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. He can be reached at nilebowie@gmail.com<\/span><\/a>.<\/i><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1236,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[461],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-146792","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-editorials"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146792","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1236"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=146792"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/146792\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=146792"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=146792"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=146792"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}