A/HRC/WGAD/2013/35
United Nations
General Assembly
Distr.: General
15 January 2014
Original: English
Human Rights Council
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
Opinions adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention at its sixty-seventh session, 13–22 November 2013
No. 35/2013 (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)
Communication addressed to the Government on 2 September 2013
Concerning Choi Seong Jai, Hong Won Ok, Kim Seong Do, Kim Seong Il,
Lee Hak Cheol, Lee Gook Cheol, Kim Mi Rae and Lee Jee Hoon
The Government replied to the communication on 7 October 2013.
The State is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
1.
The Working Group on Arbitrary Detention was established in resolution 1991/42 of
the former Commission on Human Rights, which extended and clarified the Working
Group’s mandate in its resolution 1997/50. The Human Rights Council assumed the
mandate in its decision 2006/102 and extended it for a three-year period in its resolution
24/7 of 26 September 2013. In accordance with its methods of work (A/HRC/16/47, annex,
and Corr.1), the Working Group transmitted the above-mentioned communication to the
Government.
2.
The Working Group regards deprivation of liberty as arbitrary in the following
cases:
(a)
When it is clearly impossible to invoke any legal basis justifying the
deprivation of liberty (as when a person is kept in detention after the completion of his or
her sentence or despite an amnesty law applicable to the detainee) (category I);
(b)
When the deprivation of liberty results from the exercise of the rights or
freedoms guaranteed by articles 7, 13, 14, 18, 19, 20 and 21 of the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights and, insofar as States parties are concerned, by articles 12, 18, 19, 21, 22,
25, 26 and 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (category II);
(c)
When the total or partial non-observance of the international norms relating
to the right to a fair trial, established in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in
the relevant international instruments accepted by the States concerned, is of such gravity
as to give the deprivation of liberty an arbitrary character (category III);
GE.14-10336
*1410336*