China: Educate Children of North Korean Women

China has nothing to gain by having a growing number of uneducated children, said Elaine Pearson, Asia deputy director at Human Rights Watch. To uphold the rights of these children, China does not need to implement new laws, or amend existing ones. It has only to abide by its own laws and the international treaties it has ratified.  
 
The 23-page report, "Denied Status, Denied Education: Children of North Korean Women in China, documents how such children live without legal identity or access to elementary education. These children live in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in eastern Jilin Province, northeast China (near its border with North Korea). Some are from North Korea while others were born in China and have Chinese fathers and North Korean mothers.  
 
Children who have migrated to China from North Korea have no legal right to obtain the household registration (hukou) papers necessary to go to school. Schools demand these documents, despite Chinas Compulsory Education Law stipulating that all children shall receive nine years of compulsory and free education, regardless of sex, nationality or race. By law, neither North Korean nor half-North Korean children should be required to submit legal identity papers for admittance to schools. Some parents and guardians of North Korean children have been forced to resort to bribery or trickery in order to ensure children can go to school.  

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