6^th EASG Seminar

Title: Reporting Victimhood: Escapee narratives of human rights abuses in North Korea

Speaker: Dr Sarah Son (Lecturer in Korean Studies, School of East Asian Studies, University of Sheffield)

https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/seas/staff/korean/son

Time: 10 February (Monday) 14:00-15:30

Venue: E2.02 (PAIS meeting room)

Abstract:

This presentation considers the question of accountability for human rights abuses alleged to have been committed in North Korea, via a possible future process of transitional justice. It focuses on the efforts of South Korean nongovernmental organisations who have worked for over two decades to document reported abuses and, more recently, to consider how perpetrators of those abuses may be held accountable from a legal perspective. While noting the significance of this work, the article draws on research focused on the efficacy of accountability from the victim perspective, to learn more about how those who may identify as victims of the North Korean regime perceive the possible routes to redress and both individual and collective recovery from abuses. The article engages with some preliminary research done with self-identifying victims of the North Korean regime and assesses some of the weaknesses in current South Korean civil society practice involving victims of the North Korean state. It highlights challenges to pursuing an alternative approach which places victims at the centre, and provides some recommendations for how NGOs might develop and pilot new approaches to planning for, and implementing a transitional justice process in and for North Korea when the opportunity arises.