The United Nations General Assembly is set to vote on a motion that will recommend North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un be referred to the International Criminal Court (ICC) and tried for war crimes.
The resolution, which is co-sponsored by more than 50 countries and has been drafted by the European Union and Japan, is expected to pass by a simple majority, although it is non-binding.
Michael Kirby, the retired Australian judge who headed the Commission of Inquiry into North Korea that recommended ICC prosecution told the Telegraph,
"The members of the United Nations should not, once again, turn away from the rights of the people of North Korea to have accountability for great crimes. Not now that the world has the report of the United Nations Commission. Now the world cannot say that it does not know what has been going on in North Korea."
"If the case of (North Korea) is not, objectively, a case for referral to the Prosecutor at the ICC, it is hard to imagine a case that would be."
However, North Korea’s allies at the UN, have worked to block the resolution, with Cuba submitting an amendment last week that would effectively nullify any language on accountability.
Commenting on the move, Param-Preet Singh, the senior international justice counsel at Human Rights Watch, said “they’re [North Korea] using whatever leverage they can to knock the wind out of this resolution.”
Any referral to the ICC will have to go through the United Nations Security Council, where North Korea’s long-time ally China is expected to veto such a manoeuvre.
Greg Scarlatoiu, executive director of the non-governmental organisation Committee on Human Rights in North Korea, however, told Voice of America that the passing of the resolution would still be a positive development.
"Let China place itself in the position where it is repeatedly attempting to block initiatives to refer the North Korean case to the International Criminal Court. Let China place itself in a position where it is clearly and obviously aiding and abetting a regime that is committing crimes against humanity. The political price of doing that is only going to get higher," said Scarlatoiu.
A coalition of non-governmental organisations, including Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and the Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights wrote a joint open letter to UN member states last week, calling for the passing of the resolution to "ensure justice for decades of terrible abuse."
See the full text of the letter here.