#South korean root out sexual assaults full

In 2015, the ministers of both South Korea and Japan reached an agreement that Japan would send 1 billion yen (approximately $8 million) to a South Korean fund that helps to support the survivors. The group asked South Korea to call for an arbitration of whether Tokyo has failed to comply with the 1984 Convention Against Torture by downplaying or failing to acknowledge their past war crimes, should Japan fail to jointly bring the case to the ICJ. The 93-year-old leads an international group of sexual slavery survivors and advocates and who sent a petition to the UN last week demanding that the organization take the issue to the ICJ. Lee believes that the historical dispute between South Korea and Japan cannot be settled without the involvement of the UN and has been campaigning for the issue to be taken to the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ) since last year. Of the 239 women that registered with the Seoul government as victims, only 12 remain alive today. With the number of survivors declining, Lee believes that her recent plea to the UN may be her last hope in getting closure. Lee faced harrowing torture and abuse at a Japanese military brothel in Taiwan until the end of the war. She described having been dragged away from home at 16 and forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese Imperial Army.

#South korean root out sexual assaults full

Lee Yong-soo, a woman who was subjected to sexual slavery during World War II under the Imperial Japanese Army, is demanding that the United Nations (UN) seek justice by asking Japan to formally apologize and take full responsibility.Īfter being inspired by Korean human rights activist Kim Hak-sun, Lee told her story to the world in 1992.