A/HRC/10/18 page 14 by past State practices needs to be rectified. Those who were victims of inhumane conditions need to be assisted to recover and be reintegrated fully into society. Some abhorrent past practices requiring redress include the reported “neutering” of people with dwarfism to prevent them from reproducing.10 49. With regard to the elderly, one clear negative impact of the food crisis has been the rise in the deprivation suffered. United Nations agencies are increasingly aware of this, and are targeting food aid and allocations to this group. Basic needs requiring attention include access to medical and other care. III. PREVENTION, PROTECTION, PROVISION AND PARTICIPATION 50. The above analysis offers a bleak picture of the state of human rights in the country concerned. There are widespread, systematic and reprehensible human rights violations of a long-standing and insidious nature, which demand attention and commitments nationally and internationally to improve the situation. Often the actions needed have been too little, or come too late. 51. The issues raised above should be addressed more from the angle of effective prevention, protection, provision and participation. The preventive approach - to prevent human rights violations in this context - is inevitably interwoven with the cloistered and self-centred regime, which refuses to abide by international human rights standards in real terms and is geared to perpetuating its power at any cost. Genuine prevention thus requires a more people-centred approach, with less emphasis on the “military first” policy and without the budgetary distortions caused by the nuclearization process practised to date and closely linked to the survival of the regime. Prevention with regard to the food situation would dictate that more attention should be paid to food security, beyond the traditional food aid provided to date. 52. With regard to personal security, it is evident that one key challenge is to prevent the abuses inflicted by the regime in the exercise of its overpowering control and manipulation of the population. The justice and prison system is in desperate need of revamping, despite the various legislative reforms of recent years. Opening the door to freedoms, such as the freedom to choose a Government or freedom of expression and association, invites reflection on ways to institute more democratization in the country, to ensure genuine self-determination. Meanwhile, the various refugee- and migration-related outflows call for more prevention by addressing the environment that forces people to leave, particularly the political, social, economic and cultural set-up in the country of origin which creates incessant insecurity. 53. With regard to protection, many violations have taken place over the years precisely because the authorities have had scant regard for any genuine implementation of human rights, since their priority has been to protect the interests of the regime and the elite surrounding it. Indeed, the protection of human rights requires responsive laws, policies, programmes, practices, mechanisms and personnel, resources, education, monitoring and related reforms based on international standards. The fact that the country is party to four human rights conventions requires the corresponding political will to meet the standards set by those treaties and effective follow-up on the recommendations from the various treaty bodies to improve human rights