Our Stakeholder report to the DPRK’s Universal Periodic Review, led by Dr Amna Nazir, makes specific recommendations to the government on the issue of capital punishment.
Researchers
Consultancy background
In March 2024, the UPR Project at BCU submitted a Stakeholder Report to the DPRK’s fourth UPR cycle, led by Dr Amna Nazir. This submission focuses on capital punishment. We make recommendations to the Government of the DPRK on this key issue, implementation of which would also see DPRK moving towards achieving Sustainable Development Goal 16 which aims for peaceful and inclusive societies, access to justice for all and effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels.
On 15 July 2024, the UN’s Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights published its Stakeholder Summary Report for DPR Korea, which cited the Stakeholder Report submitted by UPR Project at BCU:
“Several stakeholders made recommendations for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) to ratify core international human rights treaties and optional protocols to which it was not yet a party.” (para 2)
“AI recommended that the DPRK consider establishing a national human rights institution in accordance with the Paris Principles.” (para 15)
“The UPR Project at Birmingham City University (The UPR Project at BCU) stated that the DPRK continued to hide the full extent of its use of the death penalty by restricting access to death penalty-related information, including lack of access to independent media and sources in the country.” (para 21)
“AI recommended that the DPRK establish an official moratorium on executions with a view to abolishing the death penalty.” (para 22)
Following the citations in the Stakeholder Summary Report. The outcome of the review published on 18 December 2024 in the Report of the Working Group stated that the recommendation will be examined by DPR Korea, which will provide responses in due time, but no later than the fifty-eighth session of the Human Rights Council:
Ratify the first and Second Optional Protocols to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Recommending state: Spain (130.14); Portugal (130.15); Slovenia (130.16); Iceland (130.54); Croatia (130.64);
Establish a moratorium on the use of the death penalty, with a view to its abolition. Recommending state: Spain (130.14); France (130.55); Albania (130.56); Italy (130.57); Latvia (130.58); Liechtenstein (130.59); Lithuania (130.60); Montenegro (130.61); Paraguay (130.62); Costa Rica (130.63); Croatia (130.64); Czechia (131.29);
Abolish the death penalty. Recommending state: France (130.55); New Zealand (131.21);
Restrict the death penalty to crimes that meet the threshold of most serious crimes under international law. Recommending state: Chile (130.65); Belgium (130.66);
These Member State recommendations are consistent with the categories of recommendations identified in the UPR Project at BCU’s Report for DPR Korea.
About the UPR Project at BCU
The Centre for Human Rights (CHR) has been engaging with the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) since 2016. Under the auspice of the Human Rights Council, the UPR is an intergovernmental process providing a review of the human rights record of all Member States.
Through the UPR Project at BCU, the CHR we engage with the UPR through taking part in the UPR Pre-sessions, providing capacity building for UPR stakeholders and National Human Rights Institutions, and the filing of stakeholder reports in selected sessions. The UPR Project is designed to help meet the challenges facing the safeguarding of human rights around the world, and to help ensure that UPR recommendations are translated into domestic legal change in member state parliaments.
We fully support the UPR ethos of encouraging the sharing of best practice globally to protect everyone's human rights. The UPR Project at BCU engages with the UPR regularly as a stakeholder, having submitted numerous reports and been cited by the OHCHR.