On October 10, NKDB released its White Paper on North Korean Human Rights for the first time in four years. For this special occasion, NKDB was honored to have Special Rapporteur Bernard Duhaime on truth, justice, and reparation, and Elizabeth Salmón, Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, deliver congratulatory remarks. Read their remarks below: 

Greetings, everyone. My name is Bernard Duhaime, and I am the Special Rapporteur of the promotion of truth, justice, reparation and guarantees of non recurrence. I am sharing this message with you today in my capacity as the UN Special Rapporteur to celebrate the launch of the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights' Annual White Paper. As a UN expert with limited investigative capacity and resources, my mandate is very much reliant on the incredible work and dedication of civil society. Therefore, I extend my heartfelt congratulations and gratitude to NKDB for its newest report, which represents its unwavering commitment to pursuing the truth within an immensely challenging context. A special congratulations goes to Hanna Song, whom I have had the chance to meet recently in Seoul. In September, I presented my first report to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, and in the coming weeks, I will present my initial report to the UN General Assembly. In these two reports, I provided a roadmap on the priorities that I hope to explore in the next six years. Of my mandate of these priorities, I would like to highlight two that closely align with NKDB's work. First, I intend to study and make recommendations around documentation of human rights violations as a contribution to transitional justice. Effective documentation provides the very foundation for transitional justice's central goals of truth, justice, reparation, memorialization and guarantees of non repetition. This is a priority that I hope to explore in my first year in the mandate, and I will soon invite organizations like NKDB to provide their insight and experience to inform my next report. Second, I plan to use my role to highlight the necessity of a transdisciplinary approach in transitional justice, as the integration of many disciplines lead to more holistic, creative responses to serious human rights violations and humanitarian law, better answering the complex, multi layered needs of victims. NKDB's work recognizes both these priority areas by systematically documenting tens of thousands of human rights violations in the face of severe restriction on information, and pairing their efforts with non legal elements such as psychosocial support for victims. Underlying these and other priorities that I presented is an emphasis on centering victims in all transitional justice efforts. I commend NKDB on the weight that it gives to victims' experiences, agency and voices, rather than just viewing them as data point in a collection of information. This type of approach to transitional justice is the kind I believe best supports long term peace and security, and for that reason, I also feel strongly that the work of NKDB is doing through its annual reports and elsewhere will have a real and lasting impact on people's lives. Thank you again to everyone involved in the production of this year's White Paper. I look forward to reviewing it. Congratulations again.

I am pleased to be here with you even if it's through a video message to congratulate you on the launch of the 2024 White Paper on North Korean human rights by the Database Center for North Korean Human Rights (NKDB). I wish to remark that NKDB has been a great partner in the mandate of the Special Rapporteur on human rights in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea and other United Nations human rights mechanisms.
NKDB is the only human rights organization providing support to escapees from the DPRK through the United Nations Voluntary Funds for Victims of Torture. Their support includes psychological counseling and medical and legal assistance. Escapees from the DPRK are often victims of serious human rights violations and they have the right to reparation, including rehabilitation, to restore in their full abilities and make possible their inclusion and participation in society.
I commend NKDB's unique efforts to support the escapees from multiple angles. I believe that NKDB's consistent victim-centered approach makes such activities possible.
NKDB is well known for documenting and archiving human rights violations committed by the DPRK, based on their rigorous interviews. I see that they creatively used their interviews for documentation for accountability purposes, advocacy through detailed reports such as this white paper and special reports and for resettlement support of escapees based on the understanding of their suffering and needs through interviews. NKDB's accountability initiatives include judicial and non judicial accountability such as fulfilling the victims' right to reparation and memorialization.
All this work can be done only as long as NKDB has access to interview escapees. We all have been facing a difficult time due to the lack of information of the human rights situation in the DPRK. However, I'm pleased to learn that diversifying their investigation methods and their renewed access to the Hana Protection Center made it possible for the NKDB to publish a white paper today for the first time since 2020.
I congratulate the launch of such critical report again and look forward to continue to work with you all in the Republic of Korea.
Thank you for your attention.