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A/HRC/WGAD/2013/34

United Nations

General Assembly

Distr.: General
4 April 2014
Original: English

Human Rights Council
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention

Opinions adopted by the Working Group on Arbitrary
Detention at its sixty-eighth session,
13–22 November 2013
No. 34/2013 (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea)
Communication addressed to the Government on 29 August 2013
Concerning Kim Im Bok, Kim Bok Shil, Ann Gyung Shin, Ann Jung Chul,
Ann Soon Hee, and Kwon Young Guen
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 Commission on Human Rights, which extended and clarified the mandate of the
Working Group 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
GE.14-13176

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