North Korean Memoirs: a discussion on the trafficking of North Korean women

Approximately 70% of North Koreans who flee across the Chinese border are women. It is estimated that up to 90% of these women become victims of human trafficking, forced labour, and prostitution. As a part of our North Korean Memoirs project, the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea is proud to host a discussion on the trafficking of North Korean women at 6pm on the 15th of December at Amnesty’s Human Rights Action Centre, London. Speakers will include Siobhan Hobbs, gender adviser at the UN Commission of Inquiry into human rights in North Korea; Ruth Dearnley, CEO of Stop the Traffik; and Jihyun Park, North Korean refugee and EAHRNK Coordinator who will share her experience of being trafficked in China. Tickets are £3.

Siobhan Hobbs is the gender adviser for the UN Commission of Inquiry into Human Rights in the DPRK, a commission established by the United Nation Human Rights Council in 2013. The commission is responsible for investigating the systematic and widespread violations of human rights in North Korea in order to keep the country accountable for crimes against humanity. Investigations for violations include, but are not restricted to, torture and inhumane treatment, arbitrary detention, freedom of expression and freedom of life.

Ruth Dearnley is the CEO of Stop the Traffik, a global organisation dedicated to the awareness and empowerment of communities in stopping human trafficking. She has been awarded the Order of the British Empire (OBE) by the Queen in the New Year’s Honour List in 2013 for her contribution to the organisation and efforts to combat human trafficking worldwide.

Jihyun Park was born in Chongjin City in the 1960s. She worked as a high school teacher in North Korea, but fled into China during the famine. Jihyun became a victim of human trafficking, was sold to a Chinese man and later gave birth to a son. She was discovered by Chinese police, repatriated, and experienced horrific conditions in a North Korean labour camp but was eventually released as her health had deteriorated. It was then that she escaped a final time to find her son in China. She now lives in the UK and works as a coordinator for EAHRNK.