FRPSXOVRU\ ODERU XQGHU WKH ,&&35 DV ZHOO DV FXVWRPDU\ ODZ DV GHĂ€QHG LQ WKH UDHR.54 Forced Marriages In many instances, the DPRK forces or compels abductees to marry each other. For example, Megumi Yao, a Japanese student who travelled to the DPRK in 1977, intending to study there for a few months, was abducted and detained in the DPRK for more than seven years.55 During this time, she was forced to marry another Japanese citizen—Yasuhiro Shibata, a member of the Japanese Red Army terrorist group who had been granted asylum by the DPRK. Yao reported that she was regularly beaten and raped by Shibata, and ultimately gave birth to a child while under the control of the DPRK. Three other Japanese women abductees were also forced to marry members of the Red Army, within days of Yao’s forced marriage. Article 23 of the ICCPR provides that “[n]o marriage shall be entered into without the free and full consent of the intending spouses.â€?56 The DPRK’s practice of compelling or coercing marriage among abductees or detainees violates Article 23, and also impinges on the rights to privacy and freedom of family life, as protected by Article 17. Yao’s treatment at the hands of Shibata, who was working as an operative for the DPRK, while in the custody of the DPRK also violates her right to be free from torture and inhuman treatment.57 Rape constitutes torture under international law when condoned by the government or carried out with the NQRZOHGJH RI JRYHUQPHQW RIĂ€FLDOV $ 5HSRUW RI WKH 8 1 6SHFLDO 5DSSRUWHXU on torture found that “rape or other forms of sexual assault against women in detention were a particularly ignominious violation of the inherent dignity and the right to physical integrity of the human being, [and] they accordingly constituted an act of torture.â€?58 Torture and Inhuman Treatment Some foreign abductees detained by the DPRK are tortured and others are sometimes killed. In 1968, the DPRK captured 83 U.S. Navy personnel of the U.S.S. Pueblo, and detained and tortured them for 11 months before releasing them into 54
6HH VXSUD, Chapter 3. ICCPR, supra, note 6, art. 23. 56 Id. at art.10. 57 U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1992/SR.21, para. 35, Report by the Special Rapporteur, P. Koojimans, appointed pursuant to Commission on Human Rights resolution 1985/33, U.N. Doc. E/CN.4/1986/15 (February 19, 1986). 58 The treatment of these U.S. sailors violated the Geneva Conventions that protect prisoners of war and military members of one country who are captured by the military members of another country during times RI FRQĂ LFW See Geneva Convention Relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War, Aug. 12, 1949, 75 U.N.T.S. 135. The DPRK was not a party to the ICCPR in 1968. 55
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