Speaker Information

Special Session

Heisoo Shin

  • Chair, Board of Directors, Korea Center for UN Human Rights Policy (KOCUN)

    Moderator

    Heisoo Shin has been working for more than forty years in the areas of human rights, in particular women’s human rights. During the 90’s, she successfully led the legislation movements in Korea on sexual violence and on domestic violence. She brought the issue of military sexual slavery by Japan to the UN Commission on Human Rights and advocated the issue of violence against women during wartime, most importantly at the Vienna World Conference on Human Rights and the Beijing World Conference on Women, which resulted in the strong languages to be included on women and armed conflict in the documents adopted.

    In realizing the international human rights instruments, she has served as a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women for eight years, as well as of the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for twelve years. She also functioned as a commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission in Korea for three years. Academically, she taught at various universities, full-time or part-time, for thirty years, with her last teaching at Ewha Womans University until 2020.

    Regarding the WPS agenda, she participated in the process of Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ drafting of the National Action Plan and has been on the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family’s Monitoring Committee for Implementation.

    Currently, she is the Chair of the Board of Directors of the Korea Center for United Nations Human Rights Policy (KOCUN), a human rights NGO with a consultative status with UN ECOSOC. She is also working towards inscribing the ‘comfort women’ documents as UNESCO documentary heritage, together with 14 civil society organizations in eight countries.

    She majored English Language and Literature at Ewha Womans University and had Ph.D. in sociology from Rutgers University, USA.

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