A/HRC/25/CRP.1 According to the nongovernmental organization Citizens Alliance on North Korean Human Rights: “[t]he Women’s Act was merely a façade created during North Korea’s [United Nations] human rights review when it faced international pressure… the North Korean state has recently been trying to reinforce through ideological education the traditional role women in a patriarchal society.”365 314. In the political sphere, women remain discriminated against despite the early reforms. Women make up just 5 per cent of the Worker’s Party of Korea Central Committee Members and Candidate Members,366 and 10 per cent of central government employees.367 315. In the home, while women remain subservient to men, women’s economic progress is having an impact. Men, who have also become creative at making money through nonstate sanctioned enterprise, are reticent to work in the market as they are not permitted to by the state (having to remain officially in the employ of a state position) and because the market is considered ‘a women’s area’.368 • A former trader told the Commission that some men sold bicycles in the market but for the most part “women were more numerous because men had their careers”.369 • One witness whose wife traded in the market, explained that he did not engage in the market because it was “embarrassing”. He told the Commission that he also heard “rumours that men who engaged in the black market get punished. From 2002-03, more men have worked in the markets, but there is still a stigma attached to it. Men are expected to work in the official jobs.”370 316. As a consequence of the disproportionate representation of women in the markets, most household income is generated by women, which has led to a perceived disempowerment of men. Some women are allegedly calling their husbands “puppies” because they have to be fed, yet they do not contribute to the economy of the household. The additional financial burden women are bearing is coupled with additional burdens at home due to the lack of electricity and/ or running water in some homes caused by breakdown of state services.371 The extra burdens women carry has begun to have social consequences. Younger women are hoping to delay marriage to avoid taking on a husband, and domestic violence is increasing as many men are unable to cope with the changing gender roles.372 317. Witness testimony revels that domestic violence is rife within DPRK society, and victims are not afforded protection from the state, support services or recourse to justice.373 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 Citizen’s Alliance for North Korean Human Rights, “Status of Women’s Rights in the Context of Socio-Economic Changes in the DPRK”, p. 16. KINU, “Study on the Power Elite of the Kim Jong Un Regime”, (2013), p. 24.. Won-woong Lee, “An Observer Report on the UN Human Rights Committee’s Review Session on North Korea’s Second Periodic Report on Human Rights” as cited in KINU, White Paper on Human Rights in North Korea (2013), p. 381. TAP007, TBG030 and TSH052. TBG030. TSH052. Lim Soon-hee, “The Food Crisis and the Changing Roles and Attitudes of North Korean Women”, KINU, 2005, p. 14. Louisa Lim, “Out Of Desperation, North Korean Women Become Breadwinners”, National Public Radio, 28 December 2012. TAP007, TSH020, TSH055, TLC042, TBG028. 89