[imText1]”The 6th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights & Refugees” will be held at St. Ignatius House of Sogang University from February 14 to 16. While the movement for improving North Korean human rights situation is rising like a high wave, the coming international conference will add on to the movement.
“The international conference was held five times already and it played an important role in increasing awareness on North Korean Human Rights,”said Kim Young Ja, secretary general of the Citizen’s Alliance for North Korean Human Rights. “This kind of effort resulted into the UN resolutions on North Korean human rights, having a special rapporteur for the human rights report and the US passed the North Korean Human Rights Act last year.”
“The coming conference is significant in the sense that as the awareness in the North Korean human rights is increasing, this kind of international conference will strengthen all the other activities for the North Korean human rights improvement,” Kim added.
▲ The previous conferences were held in Seoul, Tokyo, Prague, Warsaw and the sixth conference will be held in Seoul once again.
Human rights activists around the world will attend this conference, including Charles Moore of British Foreign Affairs who visited North Korea last year, Carl Gershman of National Endowment for Democracy, and Andrzj Rzeplinski of Helsinki Human Rights Organization of Poland.
The coming conference will be held for three days and will consist of six sessions: ▲ North Korean Human Rights Problem, facing a new challenge, ▲North Korean Refugees, ▲North Korean Children, abuse of children’s rights, ▲North Korean women, discrimination and abuse, ▲Roundtable to find ways to improve North Korean Human Rights, and ▲What must young people do. The conference will end with Suzanne Scholte (NED)’s adoption of resolution.
After the closing ceremony, volunteers for the conference and the participants will have a peaceful protest in front of Dong-A Ilbo building, Kwanghwamun about forced repatriation of North Korean defectors and abduction of South Koreans to North Korea and North Korean human rights improvement.
