[Congressional Bills 110th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 234 Referred in Senate (RFS)]

  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 234


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                            October 30, 2007

      Received and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
Calling on the Government of the People's Republic of China to respect 
             the human rights of refugees from North Korea.

Whereas the Government of North Korea is a dictatorial regime that commits gross 
        human rights violations against the North Korean people;
Whereas the Government of North Korea attempts to exert absolute control over 
        the lives of North Koreans through the use of deplorable systems of 
        punishment and torture and by restricting the flow of information;
Whereas the Government of North Korea engages in the systematic torture, 
        unlawful detainment, and mass murder of tens of thousands of political 
        prisoners, defectors, and refugees, employing the world's most brutal 
        concentration camp system;
Whereas the lack of freedom, government persecution, and policies of selective 
        starvation have driven hundreds of thousands of North Koreans to 
        northeast China, fleeing for their lives from prison camps or political 
        persecution;
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China forcibly repatriates 
        North Korean refugees and imprisons foreign aid workers who try to 
        assist North Korean refugees inside China;
Whereas to encourage these repatriation efforts, Chinese central government 
        authorities assign local public security bureaus in northeastern China a 
        target number of North Koreans that they must detain in order to receive 
        favorable work evaluations;
Whereas the refugees returned to North Korea by the Government of the People's 
        Republic of China face imprisonment, brutal persecution, or execution;
Whereas up to 90 percent of North Korean women refugees fall prey to traffickers 
        in China who sell the refugees into sexual slavery;
Whereas the United Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, done 
        at Geneva on July 28, 1951 (189 UNTS 150), as modified by the Protocol 
        relating to the Status of Refugees, done at New York on January 31, 1967 
        (606 UNTS 267), defines a refugee as a person who, ``owing to well-
        founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, 
        nationality, membership of a particular social group or political 
        opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, 
        owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of 
        that country'';
Whereas the Government of the People's Republic of China violates its 
        obligations under the United Nations Convention relating to the Status 
        of Refugees and the Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees by 
        impeding access to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees 
        (UNHCR) and continually classifying North Korean refugees as ``economic 
        migrants'', denying them asylum and forcibly returning them to North 
        Korea without the review to which they are entitled;
Whereas the UNHCR fails to robustly press the Government of the People's 
        Republic of China to grant the UNHCR access to North Korean refugees and 
        has failed in initiate a binding arbitration proceeding against the 
        Government of the People's Republic of China pursuant to the terms of 
        Article XIV of the Agreement on Upgrading of the UNHCR Mission in the 
        People's Republic of China to the UNHCR Branch Office in the People's 
        Republic of China, done at Geneva on December 1, 1995, governing refugee 
        access and the refugee designation process;
Whereas the UNHCR's failure to bring such an arbitration proceeding was 
        determined by the United States Congress in the North Korean Human 
        Rights Act of 2004 (Public Law 108-333; 22 U.S.C. 7801 et seq.) to 
        constitute a ``a significant abdication by the UNHCR of one of its core 
        responsibilities'';
Whereas the failure of the People's Republic of China to abide by its treaty 
        obligations toward the United Nations is a critical means by which the 
        Government of North Korea is allowed to subject the people of North 
        Korea to persecution and effectively imprison them within its borders;
Whereas Special Envoy for Human Rights in North Korea Jay Lefkowitz testified 
        before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia, the Pacific, and 
        the Global Environment on March 1, 2007, that ``the fact that the 
        Government of China is not honoring its international commitments, is 
        not providing genuine access as it is required to the U.N. High 
        Commissioner on Human Rights, I think is really the single most 
        significant issue we have outside of the North Korean Government's own 
        emigration policies that is a barrier now to the free movement of people 
        in that region'';
Whereas the International Parliamentarians Coalition for North Korean Refugees' 
        Human Rights, a coalition of parliamentarians from across the globe, met 
        in Seoul, South Korea, on August 29, 2007, and called on the 
        international community to increase its efforts to protect North Korean 
        refugees; and
Whereas the Korean-American community, acting through various religious and 
        civic organizations, including the ``Let My People Go Campaign'', has 
        worked to bring awareness to the plight of the hundreds of thousands 
        North Korean refugees living in China: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That Congress--
            (1) strongly encourages the Government of the People's 
        Republic of China to honor its obligations under the United 
        Nations Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, done at 
        Geneva on July 28, 1951 (189 UNTS 150), as modified by the 
        Protocol relating to the Status of Refugees, done at New York 
        on January 31, 1967 (606 UNTS 267), by--
                    (A) halting the forced repatriation of North 
                Koreans who face a well-founded fear of persecution if 
                they are returned to North Korea;
                    (B) making genuine efforts to identify and protect 
                the refugees among the North Korean migrants 
                encountered by Chinese authorities, including providing 
                refugees with a reasonable opportunity to request 
                asylum; and
                    (C) granting the United Nations High Commissioner 
                for Refugees unfettered access to such refugees to 
                determine their status and the degree of assistance to 
                which they are entitled; and
            (2) recognizes the efforts of the Korean-American community 
        for bringing attention to the plight of North Korean refugees.

            Passed the House of Representatives October 29, 2007.

            Attest:

                                            LORRAINE C. MILLER,

                                                                 Clerk.