A/HRC/25/CRP.1 that is disabled. For example, if you don’t have a hand, or missing a wrist like me, then they would refer to it as a gravel hand. They have derogative terms for blind people, for people who have hearing disabilities. And even instead of names, even to refer to my family, they refer to my family as the family of the gravel hand. So that’s [the] kind of the prejudice that we encountered.”390 324. The government in 1998 established the Korean Federation for the Protection of Disabled People, closely modelled on the China Disabled Persons’ Federation. The Federation, established through a cabinet resolution, is intended to be a civil society organization representing people with disabilities and addressing their needs. The Federation developed a partnership with an international non-governmental organization by signing a long term memorandum of understanding in 2001. Together they have implemented projects in the areas of physical rehabilitation and education for children with sensory disabilities. 325. It is believed that, in 1959, the government built 11 special boarding schools for hearing-impaired children and vision-impaired children. There do not appear to be any schools or systems for the educational integration or inclusion of children with intellectual or multiple impairments. 326. While acknowledging the legal rights of persons with disabilities appears to be a positive step in addressing the human rights concerns of this vulnerable population, reliable information about this population is scant. Witnesses have reported systematic discrimination against people with disabilities, whereby families of babies with disabilities have been banished from Pyongyang and forced to relocate in rural areas where there are no services for them, in addition to generally harsher living conditions.391 According to a former high-level official interviewed by the Commission, the Ministry of Public Security was responsible for cases of children with disabilities. He said that the public security officers visited families to discourage them from keeping their children with disabilities. If they were residents of Pyongyang and insisted on keeping their children, the families would have to leave the capital. If the family agreed to be separated from the child, however, the child would be taken by the government to a designated location. The family would have to sign documentation to agree never to seek that child again and the name of the child would be deleted from the Family Registration File as if the child with disabilities never existed.392 To what extent this policy is still in practice is questionable as there have been recent reports that people with disabilities are permitted to reside in Pyongyang.393 This may be an indication that this policy may have been abandoned or not pursued as strictly as in the past. This is may reflect preparations by the DPRK to accede to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities following its signature in July 2013. Nevertheless, if the allegation regarding the deletion of a child with disabilities from the family registry was true, the Commission notes this would amount to a violation of articles 7 and 8 of the CRC. • Nevertheless, Mr Kim Soo-am of the Korea Institute for National Unification explained to the Commission that “there is still a high level of discrimination 390 391 392 393 92 Seoul Public Hearing, 22 August 2013, morning (01:36:00). Mr Ji lost his left hand and part of his lower leg after falling from train and being run over by it. After the incident he had trouble accessing coal for food and went to China to find food. Upon his return, he was arrested and held for bringing shame to the DPRK for going to China as a disabled person. He left the DPRK in 2006. TAP007, TAP011. TCC014. EBG002, TBG026.