Human Rights In Political Prison Camps

• Denial of the right to liberty and security in the political prison camps

The denial of the right to liberty and security and other human rights violations are particularly blatant in political prison camps. Political prison camps (kwan-li-so) are the final destination of those suspected of being politically, ideologically or economically subversive to the system. Kwanli-so are operated by the Ministry of State Security and the SSD. The Government has recently started acknowledging the existence of these camps, even though they are well-known and dreaded by ordinary citizens for being often places of no return, as victims imprisoned there have nearly no chance to ever be released. Four political prison camps are known to exist; smaller

The second largest group of prisoners is mainly composed by those held because of guilt by association, and in a smaller number by perpetrators of economic, administrative and ordinary crimes . The principle of collective responsibility or guilt by association causes various generations of entire families to be detained in the camps. Reports from defectors and NGOs also indicate that many children are born in political prison camps and grow up there without any contact with the outside world. The detainees in political prison camps are held secretly and the rule of law is suspended to the degree that camp officials can individually decide over life and death of the prisoners. The COI has estimated that since the prison camps establishment in the 1950s, hundreds of thousands of people have died in them. So the very existence of these political prison camps is therefore a permanent and massive breach to the right to liberty and security, and numerous other civil and political rights such as the due process of law. The professionalism that seems to qualify their organisation shows that these facilities, in complete violation

The state shall guarantee conditions for the free activities of democratic political parties and social organisations.” However, despite this constitutional provision, several other laws drastically restrict the freedom of speech and the press in the country, such as the Publication Law, entered into force in 1975 and last revised in 1999. Freedom House ranks the DPRK at the bottom of 197 countries regarding freedom of expression in 2014. No other law protects the freedom of the press, besides Article 67 of the Constitution. The media in the DPRK are entirely controlled by the State, and have the unique purpose of praising the regime and the Juche ideology. Newspapers, radios and other TV channels thus have no freedom to express other opinions and viewpoints than those of the Government. Censorship is widely applied, and the expression of anything that could be interpreted as criticism of the Government continues to