A/HRC/31/38 People’s Republic of Korea issued a statement in which it strongly denounced the convocation of the debate.1 14. On 17 December 2015, the General Assembly adopted resolution 70/172 (119 Member States voted in favour, 19 against and 48 abstained). In line with resolution 69/188, the Assembly encouraged the Security Council to continue its consideration of the relevant conclusions and recommendations of the commission of inquiry and take appropriate action to ensure accountability, including through consideration of referral of the situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea to the International Criminal Court and consideration of the scope for targeted sanctions against those who appear to be most responsible for acts that the commission has said may constitute crimes against humanity. 15. The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is party to four international human rights treaties: the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. In November 2014, the Government ratified the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography. In September 2014, it accepted recommendations made in the context of the universal periodic review to expedite the ratification of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which it had signed in July 2013. 16. In 2014, the Government accepted 113 of the 268 recommendations received during the second cycle of the universal periodic review, as well as 81 recommendations from the first review. They included recommendations to submit reports to United Nations human rights treaty bodies, notably the Committee on the Rights of the Child and the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women. OHCHR has offered to provide technical assistance to facilitate the implementation of the accepted recommendations. Other accepted recommendations relate to economic and social rights, the rights of women and children, human rights education, a rights-based approach to development and family reunification. 17. The mandate of the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea was established in 2004 by the United Nations Commission on Human Rights. The current mandate holder is Marzuki Darusman, whose term expires in July 2016. None of the successive Special Rapporteurs has been granted access to visit the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea. In addition, at the end of 2015, requests from five special procedures to visit the country remained unanswered.2 The Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea conducted two visits to Seoul during the period covered in the present report, from 7 to 10 September 2015 and from 23 to 27 November. 1 2 4 Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, DPRK will counter US anti-DPRK “human rights” racket with tough stand. See www.uriminzokkiri.com/index.php?ptype=gisa3&no=216959&pagenum=29 (available in Korean only). The following special procedures have issued requests to visit the country: the Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, in 1999; the Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, in 2002; the Special Rapporteur on the right to food, in 2009; the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, in 2015; and the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances, in 2015.