Speaker Information

Panel Discussion 1

Panelist

Shin Heisoo

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

Heisoo Shin has been working for human rights, particularly women’s human rights, for more than forty years. During the 1990s, she successfully led legislative movements in Korea on sexual and domestic violence, while advocating for the issue of Japanese military sexual slavery at the international level. She served as a member of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (2001–2008) and the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2011–2022). She also served as a commissioner of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (2005–2008). Academically, she taught at various universities and retired from teaching at Ewha Womans University in 2020.

Currently, she serves as Chair of the Board of KOCUN (Korea Center for United Nations Human Rights Policy), a human rights NGO. KOCUN provides education on UN human rights mechanisms, engages with the UN, and submits NGO reports to various treaty bodies. It also works for marriage migrants and operates two offices in Vietnam. In addition, she is working together with 14 civil society organizations in eight countries in Asia to have the ‘comfort women’ documents inscribed as UNESCO documentary heritage.

Regarding the WPS agenda, she participated in drafting the First National Action Plan for the Implementation of UNSCR 1325 in 2014, initiated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA). She also served on the Implementation Monitoring Committee of the NAP administered by the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family (MoGEF) for several years. Regarding the “Action with Women and Peace Initiative,” she has participated from the beginning as a member of its Advisory Committee and continues to serve in that role today.

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