- Title: Challenges Following the Ratification of the UN Convention on Enforced Disappearance in South Korea
- Date: Friday, Jan 26th, 2024
- Time: 3:30-5:00PM (PST)
- Location: The Case Room (Room 132), UBC Liu Institute for Global Issues
- Speaker: Dr. Tae-Ung Baik (Professor of Law & DPC Chair, WSRSL, Director of Centre for Korean Studies at University of Hawaii at Manoa)
- Bio: Dr. Tae-Ung Baik is a Professor at the William S. Richardson School of Law and Director of the Center for Korean Studies, University of Hawaii at Manoa. He served the United Nations Human Rights Council Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) as Member (July 2015- April 2022), Vice-Chair (2018-2020), and Chair-Rapporteur (2020-2021). He received his first law degree from Seoul National University College of Law, and earned his master (LL.M.) and doctoral (J.S.D.) degrees from Notre Dame Law School. He was admitted to the Bar as an attorney-at-law in the State of New York and had researched as a visiting scholar at Harvard Law School (2002-2003) and Seoul National University (2017-2018). He teaches international human rights law, comparative law, and human rights in Asia.
- Abstract: On December 8, 2022, South Korea ratified the UN Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (CED), one of the key human rights treaties of the United Nations. Currently, many cases of enforced disappearances directly or indirectly related to South Korea have been filed with UN Special Procedure mechanisms. There are cases related to the Korean War in the 1950s, abductions by North Korea in the 1960s and 1970s, cases related to North Korean defectors in the 1980s, and various cases of enforced disappearance raised by North Korea recently. Cases such as disappearances that happened during the Pacific War have also been raised through the UN systems. The ratification of CED has a very important meaning in that it adopts international standards for dealing with the issue of enforced disappearance. However, Korea has yet to adopt the implementation law. Based on the speakers work at the UN, this presentation will examine the various efforts to prevent enforced disappearance at the United Nations and challenges being raised in South Korea after its ratification of the CED.
