A/HRC/43/58 Republic of Korea on 2 November 2019. According to the Government of the Republic of Korea, the decision was based on the fact that it was unable to confirm the authenticity of the fishermen’s intention to defect, and on their alleged confession of having killed 16 crew members of the fishing vessel on which they were travelling.23 The Special Rapporteur is concerned that the decision was taken without due process and that the two men are at risk of serious human rights violations against them upon their return, including enforced disappearance, arbitrary execution, torture and ill-treatment, and trials that do not conform to international fair trial standards. Their whereabouts following their return are unknown. The Special Rapporteur joined 67 civil society organizations and 10 individuals in signing an open letter to the President of the Republic of Korea, Moon Jae-in, expressing concern about the failure to uphold international human rights obligations. In the letter, the Special Rapporteur urged the Government to take corrective action and uphold the right of individuals not to be returned if they are at risk of torture and other ill-treatment. He also called for an investigation into the deportation of the two fishermen.24 IV. Women’s human rights 20. Women and girls make up 51.1 per cent of the total population of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.25 Since he took up his mandate in 2016, the Special Rapporteur has relied on information shared by those who have escaped the country, the vast majority of whom are women. Those accounts indicate that women are excluded from decisionmaking processes, both in the private and the public spheres and that their experiences often do not receive adequate attention. Therefore, in the present section, the Special Rapporteur summarizes his findings related to the rights of women during their life cycle. A. Legal framework 21. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ratified the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women in 2001. In its combined second to fourth periodic reports to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women, in 2016, the Government reported that women were “full-fledged masters of the society” and that they “fully exercised equal rights with men in all fields of politics, the economy, social and cultural life, performing great feats in the efforts for the prosperity of the country”.26 The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990 and its Optional Protocol on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography in 2014. The Socialist Constitution provides that citizens shall enjoy equal rights in all spheres of State and public activities (art. 65), all citizens who have reached the age of 17 shall have the right to vote and to be elected irrespective of sex, race, occupation, length of residence, property status, education, party affiliation, political views and religion (art. 66) and women shall be accorded equal social status and rights with men (art. 77). 22. A number of other laws protect the rights of women. The Law on Sex Equality (1946), provides for gender equality in many areas, including marriage and divorce, and equal inheritance rights. The Criminal Code specifies that the rape of women, trafficking in persons, forcing a subordinate to have sexual intercourse and child sexual abuse are criminal offences. In 2010, the Government reaffirmed its commitment to ensuring gender equality and intolerance of discrimination against women in whatever form by adopting the Law on the Protection and Promotion of the Rights of Women. This law encompasses the fundamental rights of women, including social and political rights, educational, cultural and 23 24 25 26 8 Press release by the Ministry of Unification of the Republic of Korea: https://unikorea.go.kr/ eng_unikorea/news/releases/?boardId=bbs_0000000000000034&mode=view&cntId=54222&categor y=&pageIdx=. See www.hrw.org/news/2019/12/16/letter-president-moon-jae-re-roks-stance-human-rights-northkorea. As of 2018, see https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL.FE.ZS?locations=KP. CEDAW/C/PRK/2-4, para. 3.