|2016

WORLD REPORT 2016
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
goods are usually sent to work in forced labor brigades (rodong danryeondae,
literally labor training centers) or jipkyulso (collection centers), which are criminal
penitentiaries where forced labor is required and where many women are victims
of sexual abuse. Harsh and dangerous working conditions in those facilities
purportedly result in significant numbers of injuries.
People whom authorities suspect of smuggling goods from China, trafficking
people to China, or committing ordinary crimes or minor political infractions
such as watching or selling South Koreans films are often given lengthy terms in
detention facilities known as kyohwaso (correctional, reeducation centers)
where detainees face forced labor, food and medicine shortages, and regular
mistreatment by guards.
Key International Actors
Pyongyang’s record of cooperation with UN human rights mechanisms remains
among the worst in the world. Since 2013, its human rights record has been the
subject of more focused UN attention than ever before, including at the Human
Rights Council and Security Council, as detailed above.
Japan continues to demand the return of 12 Japanese citizens whom North Korea
abducted in the 1970s and 1980s. Some Japanese civil society groups insist the
number of abductees is much higher. South Korea has also stepped up its demands
for the return of its citizens, hundreds of whom were reportedly abducted
during the decades after the Korean War. The North Korean government has also
kidnapped individuals from China, Thailand, Europe, and the Middle East.
On September 21, the HRC held a plenary panel on the situation of human rights
in North Korea, addressing international abductions, enforced disappearances,
and other alleged crimes.
From October 20 to 26, the two Koreas organized reunions of 186 families separated
during the Korean War, the first such reunions since February 2014.
In January 2015, United States President Barack Obama issued an executive
order imposing sanctions following the hacking of Sony’s computers in late
2014, allegedly by groups connected to North Korea. The US sanctions on North
Korea included a human rights clause for the first time.
Oman
The government continued to restrict rights to freedom of expression, association,
and assembly. Authorities harassed and detained, often incommunicado,
several prominent critics and pro-reform activists.
Freedom of Expression and Pro-Reform Activists
The authorities continued to target peaceful pro-reform activists using shortterm
arrests, detentions, and other forms of harassment. Since mass protests in
2011, authorities have engaged in a cycle of prosecutions of activists and critics
on charges such as “insulting the Sultan” that criminalize free speech, leading
to prison sentences followed by release under pardons granted by Sultan Qaboos
bin Said al Said. According to local activists, the arrests and prosecutions
have had a chilling effect on free speech and the expression of dissent.
Articles 29, 30, and 31 of Oman’s Basic Law protect freedom of expression and
the press, but other laws undercut these safeguards. Authorities continued to restrict
online criticism and other content using article 26 of the 2002 Telecommunications
Act. It penalizes “any person who sends, by means of
telecommunications system, a message that violates public order or public
morals.”
Authorities arrested pro-reform activists and held them without access to
lawyers and their families using a 2011 criminal procedure code amendment that
empowers security forces to hold detainees without charge for up to 30 days.
The arrests and detentions followed a pattern that has become entrenched since
2011 that has seen the authorities repeatedly arrest and detain peaceful opposition
activists and those who use social media and other online outlets to criticize
the government.
Security officials arrested Muawiyah al-Rawahi in December 2014, apparently in
connection with two tweets in which he criticized corruption and urged people to
demand their rights. They released him without charge after four days. In February,
he traveled to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where authorities arrested
him on arrival. He remained in UAE detention at time of writing.
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