Survivor of wartime sexual slavery calls on S. Korean government to pursue UN action

The government has said that it will "examine the matter carefully," but sources have said it does not view a referral to The Hague as an appropriate solution

Lee Yong-soo, a victim of wartime sexual slavery by the Japanese military, holds an online press conference from the Museum of Military Sexual Slavery by Japan (Heeum) on Tuesday afternoon. (Yonhap News)

Lee Yong-soo, a survivor of wartime sexual enslavement by the Japanese military, shared a message Tuesday urging the Moon Jae-in administration to proceed with resolution procedures pursuant to the UN Convention against Torture.

A committee spearheaded by Lee is pursuing the referral of the “comfort women” issue to the International Court of Justice. This committee held a video press conference Tuesday afternoon to share a message for South Korean President Moon Jae-in, calling on the South Korean government to go through resolution procedures on its own according to the UN Convention against Torture if no agreement can be reached with the Japanese government on referring the matter to the international court.

“I have asked the president to refer the comfort women matter to the International Court of Justice to prevent distortions of the history surrounding the comfort women, but it is now almost November and there has been no response from the Blue House, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the National Human Rights Commission, or the National Assembly,” Lee said.

“We cannot wait any longer,” she stressed.

“If this sort of situation can happen when the living witnesses to history are still alive, what will happen once we [survivors] are all gone?” she asked.

In February, Lee asked the South Korean government to refer the comfort women issue to the United Nations’ highest court, but neither the South Korean nor Japanese government have given a concrete response since then.

The South Korean government has said only that it will “examine the matter carefully.” But sources have said it does not view a referral to the international court as an appropriate solution to the wartime military sexual slavery issue, as Japan is not likely to agree to the proposal and there is no guarantee of a South Korean victory if a legal battle does proceed.

This was the background behind the decision by Lee and others to push for a solution based on the UN Convention against Torture.

“For the sake of victims in Korea and around the world, we are asking the South Korean government to take the comfort women issue to the UN Committee against Torture and obtain a decision clearly stating that Japan’s creation and operation of the ‘comfort station’ system was a war crime and a crime against humanity,” she said.

In a press release Tuesday, the group led by Lee said, “The victimization suffered by the ‘comfort women’ corresponds to ‘torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment’ as indicated in the UN Convention against Torture.”

“On that basis, the UN Committee against Torture has advised both the South Korean and Japanese government to pursue a victim-centered resolution to the ‘comfort women’ issue,” it noted.

As its basis for this, the group stated that the system of sexual slavery was created and managed at the request of Japanese military authorities; that women were recruited through deceptive and coercive efforts by operators working at the request of authorities and the military; and that acts of wartime sexual violence represented a deliberate infliction of physical and psychological suffering on individuals.

It also noted the UN Committee against Torture’s 2019 determination that the rape of Bosnian women by Serbian militia members during the Bosnian War in the 1990s was a form of torture rooted in discrimination based on gender and ethnicity.

The committee pursuing referral to the UN further argued that the UN Committee against Torture had indirectly recognized the “comfort women” system as a form of torture with its communication of concern and recommendations on the issue in its opinions on South Korea and Japan’s regular implementation reports. It also said the Japanese government had violated the convention with its failure to execute seven demands, including an investigation of the wartime sexual slavery issue, acknowledgment that it was a war crime, and issuance of an official apology.

The Korean group went on to note that even without the approval of the Japanese government, South Korea could go ahead with the UN Committee against Torture adjustment procedures based on communication between countries (Article 21) on the matter of Japan’s violations of the convention. To date, there has been no case in which those procedures were invoked.

Responding to Lee’s proposal in a regular briefing that afternoon, Ministry of Foreign Affairs deputy spokesperson Ahn Eun-ju said only that the government would “carefully consider the matter of resolution procedures through the UN Committee against Torture.”

The UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment went into effect in 1987. South Korea joined the convention in 1995, with Japan following suit in 1999.

By Kim Ji-eun, staff reporter

Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]