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Your Excellency,
The Global Centre for the Responsibility to Protect is writing to you regarding the 47th session of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) in Geneva.
In 2005 heads of state and government unanimously agreed on the responsibility of states to protect populations from genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and ethnic cleansing. Under the Responsibility to Protect (R2P), it is the primary responsibility of each individual state to protect their own population and the responsibility of the international community to assist them in doing so. The UPR can play an important role in assessing each country’s institutional preparedness to protect human rights and prevent mass atrocities. During the 47th session of the UPR working group, the Global Centre would therefore like to respectfully encourage you to provide all states that are under review with the following recommendations, where applicable:
In addition to these general recommendations, we respectfully ask you to consider the tailored recommendations provided below for the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia and Nicaragua.
Democratic People’s Republic of Korea
In a landmark report issued in February 2014, the HRC-mandated Commission of Inquiry (CoI) on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) established responsibility at the highest level of government for ongoing crimes against humanity, as well as other systematic and widespread human rights violations, including extermination, murder, enslavement, torture, imprisonment, rape, forced abortions and other forms of sexual violence, persecution on political, religious, racial and gender grounds, forcible transfer of populations, enforced disappearance of persons and the inhumane act of knowingly causing prolonged starvation. Many of these abuses remain ongoing.
Women and children in the DPRK face severe risks due to widespread malnutrition, systemic gender-based discrimination and pervasive violence, including sexual and domestic violence. Both women and children also face various and distinct forms of coercion and exploitation through the DPRK’s campaign of forced labor, which conscripts labor from schools and youth organizations, as well as the Women’s Unions, among others.
On 16 July the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published a new report, concluding that forced labor is institutionalized in the DPRK and may constitute the crime against humanity of enslavement. During the UN Security Council (UNSC) open briefing on the human rights situation in the DPRK on 12 June, several states highlighted how North Korea’s use of forced labor and commission of other human rights violations have serious implications for international peace and security, including enabling the DPRK to advance its unlawful nuclear and missile development programs.
For decades the DPRK government has attempted to insulate itself from international engagement and scrutiny. The government has refused to cooperate with international human rights mechanisms and offices, including the OHCHR office in Seoul and the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the DPRK. Prolonged isolationist measures and the alleged diversion of aid have severely restricted access to food, medicine, healthcare and livelihoods. This has been exacerbated by the DPRK further entrenching its policy of isolation, closing international borders and enforcing repressive and unnecessary restrictions on basic freedoms since 2020 under the pretext of preventing the spread of COVID-19.
The Global Centre therefore urges you to include the following recommendations to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea during the UPR session on 7 November:
The Global Centre further respectfully encourages you to consider the following advanced question for the review of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea:
Democratic Republic of the Congo
For nearly 30 years, recurrent attacks by armed groups in the eastern provinces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have escalated despite government and regional military efforts. Armed groups like the March 23 Movement (M23), Allied Democratic Forces, Cooperative for the Development of Congo and various Maï-Maï and Nyatura factions continue to regularly perpetrate widespread violations that may amount to crimes against humanity and war crimes.
Between October 2023 and March 2024 alone, the UN Joint Human Rights Office (UNJHRO) in the DRC documented 2,110 human rights violations and abuses, 59 percent of which were perpetrated by armed groups. These include summary executions and conflict-related sexual violence. Moreover, between January 2023 and March 2024 at least 1,533 civilians were killed, 469 injured and 712 kidnapped. During military operations, some members of the government’s armed forces (FARDC) have also been implicated in violations and abuses that may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. The government has also integrated armed group members who have been implicated in past crimes into the FARDC, encouraging impunity and heightening risks to civilians.
The security situation in the eastern provinces, particularly in North Kivu and Ituri, has continued to deteriorate amid recurrent armed group activity and attacks, posing significant threats to populations. In North Kivu, intense fighting between M23 and the FARDC, who are supported by local militias, has been marked by heavy artillery, shelling and bombings in populated areas. The UNSC-mandated Panel of Experts has provided evidence of Rwanda’s “de facto” control over M23 operations. The renewed offensive has aggravated tensions with neighboring states, prompting several UN officials to warn about the potential for a regional conflict, and has provoked an increase in hate speech and incitement to discrimination. Myriad other armed groups continue to target populations in North Kivu and Ituri, where attacks against civilians and civilian property, as well as kidnappings, occur on a near-daily basis. Meanwhile, the accelerated withdrawal of the UN peacekeeping mission (MONUSCO), at the request of the Congolese government, raises critical concerns regarding the future of civilian protection. The withdrawal of MONUSCO from South Kivu has already exacerbated an existing security and protection vacuum, particularly as armed groups are remobilizing, and thousands of civilians are fleeing to the province amid relentless attacks in neighboring North Kivu.
The Global Centre therefore urges you to include the following recommendations to the Democratic Republic of the Congo during the UPR session on 5 November:
The Global Centre further respectfully encourages you to consider the following advanced question for the review of the Democratic Republic of the Congo:
Ethiopia
Long-standing grievances and recurrent human rights abuses by government forces and armed groups in Ethiopia have caused multiple conflicts to flare since Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed rose to power in 2018. Hundreds of thousands of civilians have been killed, particularly in the Amhara, Oromia and Tigray regions, and 4.5 million people continue to be displaced. Inter-communal and inter-religious violence, as well as regional border disputes in other parts of Ethiopia, also continue. These conflicts – coupled with climate-related fragility – have driven a massive humanitarian crisis, leaving 21 million people in need of assistance.
Since 2018 conflict between Oromia regional security forces, the Ethiopian National Defense Forces (ENDF) and the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA) armed group have killed thousands of civilians in what may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. Government forces continue to commit enforced disappearances and attacks on civilians, including through repeated air and drone strikes and extrajudicial executions of perceived OLA supporters. The OLA, which seeks autonomy for ethnic Oromos, has targeted ethnic Amharas living in Oromia and border areas.
From November 2020 – 2022 the ENDF and its allies, including the Eritrean Defense Forces (EDF), fought in an armed conflict with the Tigray Defense Forces. The fighting began in the Tigray region and subsequently spread to the neighboring Afar and Amhara regions in July 2021. War crimes and/or crimes against humanity were committed by all parties to the conflict, with several UN bodies, including the International Commission of Human Rights Experts on Ethiopia, and international human rights groups documenting indiscriminate bombings, ethnic-based killings, sexual violence, forced displacement, destruction of cultural heritage and systematic destruction of food, water and health infrastructure. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch found that Amhara regional forces and militia, including the Fano, an ethnic Amhara militia, and the EDF were responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Tigrayans from Western Tigray, with ENDF complicity. Despite the signing of a cessation of hostilities agreement on 2 November 2022 between the federal government and the regional governing Tigray People’s Liberation Front, abuses by the EDF and Fano have continued in Tigray, including sexual violence and extrajudicial killings of civilians.
In April 2023 the federal government announced plans to integrate regional militia forces into the federal army and police, prompting fears of a loss of regional autonomy and vulnerability to attacks by armed groups. Protests against the measure in Amhara led to intense clashes between the Fano and ENDF. The UN and international human rights groups have documented arbitrary arrests and drone strikes targeting civilian areas by both parties to the conflict, while ENDF forces have killed civilians during searches for Fano and systematically targeted health facilities, workers and patients.
On 14 June OHCHR released an update, determining that government forces, EDF and myriad militias killed at least 1,351 civilians from January 2023 to January 2024. The report found that between 4 August and 31 December 2023 drone strikes killed at least 248 civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure, including schools and hospitals, in Amhara and Oromia.
The Global Centre therefore urges you to include the following recommendations to Ethiopia during the UPR session on 12 November:
The Global Centre further respectfully encourages you to consider the following advanced question for the review of Ethiopia:
Nicaragua
Since 2018 Nicaragua has experienced an unprecedented human rights crisis. Under President Daniel Ortega, the government has engaged in a broad campaign of repressing dissenting or independent voices, including human rights defenders, women’s rights groups, journalists, community leaders, Indigenous Peoples, students and academics, business owners, political opponents and the Catholic Church. The HRC-mandated Group of Human Rights Experts on Nicaragua (GHREN) has reported that the government, as well as pro-government groups, have committed crimes against humanity as part of a systematic campaign to eliminate any opposition.
Ongoing crimes against humanity have been facilitated in part by the deliberate dismantling of democratic institutions and safeguards since President Ortega took office in 2007, and escalated in the context of a violent crackdown on street protests in April 2018. The GHREN has warned that since then, violations, abuses and crimes are committed to dismantle opposition efforts, as well as to discourage any new social mobilization. This has also been exemplified by the systematic crackdown on civic space, which has resulted in the forced shutdown of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and independent media outlets and the prosecution of independent journalists on charges of hate crimes and terrorism. Since December 2018 more than 5,000 NGOs have been forcibly shutdown, including 1,500 on 19 August 2024 alone. This mass shutdown constituted the largest attack against civic and religious groups in a single day. President Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo, have also dismantled checks and balances and instrumentalized the country’s executive, judicial, legislative and electoral branches. Repression also expands beyond the country’s border, including through the deprivation of nationality, forced deportations and the prohibition of family reunifications.
In a report dated 28 February 2024, the GHREN warned that the situation has continued to deteriorate over the past year as patterns of repression have expanded toward all segments of society. According to the experts, “as the Government has neared its goal of total destruction of critical voices in Nicaragua…there has been an exponential increase of patterns of violations focusing on incapacitating any kind of opposition in the long term.” The GHREN previously warned that patterns of attacks against universities, students and professors may constitute the crime against humanity of persecution on political grounds. To date, the government refuses to cooperate and grant access to the GHREN.
The Global Centre therefore urges you to include the following recommendations to Nicaragua during the UPR session on 13 November:
The Global Centre further respectfully encourages you to consider the following advanced questions for the review of Nicaragua:
Ralph Bunche Institute for International Studies
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