A/HRC/25/CRP.1 conduct was still being clandestinely monitored by the DPRK authorities. The Commission is therefore particularly grateful to those individuals who found the courage to break the wall of silence by testifying publicly or confidentially to the Commission. 59. Fear of reprisals for their work and operations has also limited the willingness of many aid workers, journalists, diplomats and other foreign visitors to the DPRK to share knowledge and information with the Commission. Nevertheless, foreigners usually have limited first-hand knowledge about the human rights situation, since they are denied freedom of movement in the country and their contact with DPRK citizens is closely managed and monitored. 60. The Commission found encouraging the amount of information that is seeping out of the DPRK with the advent and wider availability of technology. The Commission was able to rely on commercially available satellite images to confirm the existence of four political prison camps described in this report. Almost certainly, higher resolution satellite imagery produced by more technologically advanced states would have provided further information. Unfortunately, despite requests, these images were not made available to the Commission. 61. The Commission also obtained clandestinely-recorded videos and photographs showing relevant sites, documents and correspondence that elucidated alleged violations of human rights in the DPRK. The Commission relied on such material to the extent that it could confirm its authenticity. 62. The Commission is conscious of the fact that most victims and witnesses cooperating with the Commission had an overall unfavourable opinion of the DPRK’s authorities, though usually not of the country itself or its people. Through its refusal to cooperate with the Commission, the DPRK deprived itself of the opportunity to offer its own perspectives on the human rights situation and to provide information on any advances made in regard to the human rights of its population. The Commission has sought to account for these challenges by carefully reviewing information provided by the DPRK in publicly available documents. In particular, the Commission has reviewed the DPRK’s state reports to the Universal Periodic Review and the Treaty Bodies as well as the publicly available summaries of its responses to letters of allegations transmitted by the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council. Figures and other relevant claims of fact stated in these documents are reflected in this report, even if the Commission could not confirm their basis or validity. E. Legal framework and standard of proof for reported violations 63. In assessing the human rights situation in the DPRK, the Commission relied chiefly on the binding legal obligations that the DPRK voluntarily assumed as a State Party to the human rights treaties mentioned above. Other obligations expressed in customary international law also bind the DPRK. 64. In relation to issues within its mandate that harken back to the period of the Korean War (1950-53), the Commission also took into account those residual obligations of international humanitarian law that continue to be applicable in the relations between the DPRK and other parties to that conflict. 65. The possible commission of crimes against humanity are assessed on the basis of definitions set out by customary international criminal law, which to a large extent overlap with those later expressed in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. 66. Where appropriate, the Commission has also considered relevant obligations of other states, including the prohibition of refoulement under international refugee law and 15