Politics

Dear Ambassador, The South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo has reported that on 3 November, as many as 80 people were publicly executed in your country. If confirmed, this would be profoundly shocking. FIDH, like thousands of civil society organizations worldwide, considers the death penalty as a violation of due process as well as a violation to the right to life, and a cruel, inhumane and degrading form of punishment. The international trend is already towards universal abolition. The silence of DPRK’s authorities on the matter may only lead to impunity and to an arbitrary application of the death penalty. FIDH is additionally concerned by the public character of the reported executions: according to JoongAng Ilbo, a crowd of 10,000 people was gathered at Shinpoong Stadium, in the...

Dear Secretary-General, On World Toilet Day, 19 November, we the undersigned are writing to you on behalf of the 2.5 billion people who face a daily health crisis. When they wake each day they are unable to do what we take for granted: relieve themselves in a clean, safe toilet. In the developing world, over 1,400 children under the age of five will die today of a diarrhoeal disease simply because they and their families do not have access to clean drinking water, a basic toilet or a safe way to deal with human waste. Nor do they have sufficient water to keep their hands and bodies clean. We know that you share our grave concern on this critical issue. This crisis touches the lives of hundreds of millions of children, from birth to adulthood, if they are lucky enough to make it...

Hello. I am an ordinary Korean teenager but I am not sending you this letter for an ordinary reason. I wanted to talk about something very serious with you. It is about the new agreement between the Republic of Korea and the United States. Our countries are now both very sensitive about the beef issue. My belief is that free trade must be fair trade, as US ambassadors are on record as saying in the FTA between Peru, which means that both countries should benefit. I admit that Korea has benefitted from trade in the areas of automobile exports, IT products, and cell phones. However, Koreans are very upset with their government. This is clear from the candlelight demonstrations in Korea, yet our government is saying that it is not possible to renegotiate the KORUS FTA...

Dear Mr. President, You will be making a state visit to my birth country Ethiopia early next month. Ethiopia and Korea had long relation and in fact many Ethiopians died during Korean war. I personally worked with North Koreans during the military dictatorship of Mengistu Hailemariam in the 1980s. Ethiopia has been under Meles Zenawi dictatorship for the last two decades. Highly educated Ethiopians are now refugees all over the world including South Korea. You should speak out against dictatorship and for the right of Ethiopians to live in their own country as free people. South Korea attain its current economic position by hard working South Koreans and Ethiopians should do no less. I want to alert you too that Meles Zenawi has been selling/leasing Ethiopian farmlands to...