The new U.N. report on human rights violations in North Korea, to be officially released late Monday, is drawing keen media spotlight around the world as the panel has found crimes against humanity committed in the North and will call for an international criminal investigation.

What’s little known is that the U.N. took unprecedented methods of inquiry this time to compile these findings. The inquiry conducted a range of public hearings in Seoul, Tokyo, London and Washington after North Korea refused to comply with the Commission’s mandate, prohibiting any access to the country.

David Hawk, a former U.N. human rights official who has investigated human rights abuses in Cambodia and North Korea, says that conducting the inquiry publicly was a “terrific idea” that may lead to future commissions of inquiry utilizing this method of investigation.

“The hearings gave those testifying public exposure, and the investigation itself exposure in the member states where the hearings were held,” he said.

While there is no standard format that a commission of inquiry must follow, it is generally acknowledged that increased access to a nation’s processes and persons results in increased transparency and ease of reporting. Although the North Korean Commission of Inquiry may not have had this luxury, it has had unprecedented presence in the public eye.

Commission chair Michael Kirby hopes that the public nature of the inquiry will prompt a swift international response.

Speaking from Sydney earlier this month, Kirby told Australia’s Special Broadcasting Service, “It’s over to the (member) states of the U.N. to decide what is to be done. A number of options are canvassed in the report, and those options will be before the international community.”

The report is the result of a year-long investigation into various human rights abuses in North Korea, including the violation of the right to food, use of prison camps and the enforced disappearances and abduction of foreign nationals.

An advance outline of the report received by the Associated Press showed that crimes against humanity have occurred. While the report does not reveal any individual responsibility for these crimes, it recommends an international criminal investigation be conducted to ensure full accountability.

Hawk believes that the commission’s final report is likely to have a long-term impact within North Korea. “It will be the most definitive report extant on the human rights situation in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, much more detailed and authoritative than the special rapporteur reports and other NGO reports.”

Hawk says that the most significant challenge the commission’s report faces is the tendency for these reports to be forgotten or bypassed by the international community.

“Avoiding the bypass requires follow-up by the member states, and I think that the hearings in ROK, Japan, USA. and U.K. will result in more support by those governments of the (commission’s) findings and recommendations.”

When asked what results he would like to see from the report, Kirby echoed this ideal of international support.

“Every country has its wrongs and the U.N. has to act in independent ways that bring the wrongs to notice, and hopefully that encourages the countries of the world to improve their position,” he said. “Hopefully that will happen in the case of North Korea and if not, it will then be up to the international community to decide what follows.”

By Kate Bolster, Intern reporter

(kbol7706@uni.sydney.edu.au)