Escape to Freedom:
HRWF, Int'l Rescues 12 North Korean Citizens Stranded in Laos

Two of the North Korean refugees whom HRWF, Int'l led to the South Korean embassy in Laos.

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30 March 2008: "Twelve North Koreans Seek Asylum in Laos"

The South Korean Embassy in Laos, to which HRWF, Int'l, led 12 North Korean refugees to safety.

On Thursday 27 March at 11:55 a.m. (Laos time), a team of Brussels-based NGO Human Rights Without Frontiers Int'l (HRWF Int'l) led by Willy Fautré from Belgium and Pierre Rigoulot from Paris took 12 North Korean citizens into the embassy of South Korea in Vientiane to help them apply for protection and political asylum. The guards were taken by surprise and could not oppose any resistance to the group.

The twelve North Koreans (one man and eleven women, including an unaccompanied 13-year old girl) had travelled through China before getting stranded in Laos. Nine of them had arrived in the country on 20 January 2008 and three more on 26 March. Less than two hours later, HRWF Int'l received the news that the South Korean embassy was processing their request for political asylum in South Korea.

31 March 2008: "South Korean Ambassador in Vientiane Says He Will Respect What the North Korean Defectors Want"
"We're going to respect what they want based on humanitarianism and international customs," the South Korean Ambassador to Vientiane Park Jae-hyun told Yonhap News Agency by phone. On Thursday 27 March at 11.55 am (Laos time), 12 North Korean citizens broke into the embassy of South Korea in Vientiane to apply for protection and political asylum. They had not been the first ones to ask for diplomatic protection in Laos and for political asylum although in the last few years most North Korean defectors preferred to travel further to Thailand at the risk of being caught when trying to cross the Mekong River.

The 27 March Escape to Freedom in the International Press. Human Rights Without Frontiers is very happy that the international media have taken an active interest in the 27 March 2008 escape of the 12 North Korean refugees to the South Korean embassy in Laos. Please see articles appearing in these sources:

HRWF International: New Reports

Control & Punishment: Human Rights Implications of Russian Legislation on NGOs (Moscow Helsinki Group & Human Rights Without Frontiers Int'l), February 2008.

Prisoners of Conscience in a Modern State: South Korea and Its Conscientious Objectors, February 2008.

Human Rights in China 2001-2008
No Olympic Medal
Assessment by European NGOs

On 18 December 2007, Human Rights Without Frontiers International organized a conference on human rights in China at the European Parliament in Brussels.

Objective
When in 2001 the International Olympic Committee awarded the 2008 Olympic Games to Beijing, it did so because the Beijing bidding committee pledged that the hosting of the Games "will help the development of human rights" and most notably, "there will be no restrictions on media reporting and movement of journalists up to and including the Olympic Games".

The objective of the conference was:

to measure the lack of progress of China in the field of human rights between 2001 and 2007;
to have this assessment carried out by European human rights NGOs;
to garner the support of former Sakharov Prize laureates and some members of the Parliament;
to collect signatures of Sakharov Prize laureates, MEPs and NGO leaders under a Declaration confirming the lack of progress in the light of the resolutions of the European Parliament in the last two years.

Please explore the statements and reports delivered at the 18 December conference below. If you have any comments, you are welcome to share them with us here.