National Human Rights Commission of Korea Annual Report 2017 25 network with national human rights organizations to share emerging human rights issues and enhance international cooperation. Global Alliance of National Human Rights Institutions (GANHRI) and of the Asia Pacific Part 1 The Commission also stepped up its global outreach. It attended the annual meeting of the Forum of National Human Rights Institutions (APF) to present its key activities. It actively in the amendment to the APF’s Constitution as a member of the APF Forum Council Working Group. It raised its status by exercising leadership in agenda selection at the United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), GANHRI, and APF. It also secured international conference funding from the APF through an MOU. It strengthened multilateral exchanges and cooperation with the United Nations, APF, and other international organizations, including hosting a visit to the International Criminal Court, to garner support for its priority programs. B. Special Program: Improving Human Rights Conditions in North Korea The Commission responded to North Korean human rights concerns in a timely manner. It issued a Chairperson’s statement calling for peace on the Korean Peninsula and protection of the rights of South Korean nationals detained in North Korea, and sent a petition for special procedures to the Human Rights Council and a letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations. It also issued a Chairperson’s statement urging the PRC government to stop the forcible repatriation of North Korean refugees to North Korea. It recommended institutional improvements to promote North Korean refugees’ right to labor and conducted a study on the traumatic human rights infringements they had suffered. The Commission also strengthened cooperation with the international community by hosting an international symposium on human rights in North Korea. It also leveraged the United Nations mechanism for a discussion on North Korean women rights ahead of a review of the DPRK report by the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) and by participating jointly in that review. Introduction supported an deliberation by the GANHRI Sub-Committee on Accreditation, and participated