The U.N. Human Rights Council on Tuesday appointed three experts from Indonesia, Australia and Serbia to conduct a probe into North Korea’s human rights violations.

U.N. Special Rapporteur Marzuki Darusman of Indonesia will lead the Commission of Inquiry along with Michael Kirby, a retired Supreme Court justice from Australia, and Sonja Biserko, founder and president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia.

The 47-nation body in March approved its first-ever formal inquiry mechanism into North Korea.

With Kirby being chair, the three-member group will for one year look into rapes, torture, public executions, slave labor, abductions and other “widespread and systematic” atrocities believed to be taking place at North Korea’s prison camps and elsewhere.

They are expected to present an interim report to the U.N. General Assembly in September and their final outcome to the HRC at its session next March. 

By Shin Hyon-hee
(heeshin@heraldcorp.com)