In addition to discussions on the general situation in North Korea, the 5th International Conference on North Korean Human Rights and Refugees will pay particular attention to the problems of terror, famine, poverty and family disintegration, all closely related to the politics of the current regime. Another important subject to be touched upon during the Conference will be the issue of international society´s efforts to improve the North Korean human rights situation. The programme consists of both panel discussions and experts´ presentations. In addition, the organizers plan to show a documentary on North Korea called “The Seoul Train”. Last, but not least, there will be testimonies from former prisoners of North Korean concentration camps.

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights and the Citizens´ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights intend to develop a common action strategy for the international community in favor of human rights in North Korea, particularly in the light of the upcoming session of the Human Rights Commission. This is especially important now, since during its last session the Commission adopted a resolution expressing deep concern about reports of systematic, widespread and grave human rights violations in the Democratic People´s Republic of Korea.

Previous conferences in this series have been held in Seoul, Tokyo and Prague.  Apart from co-hosting these conferences, the Citizens´ Alliance for North Korean Human Rights concentrates on publicizing the problem of North Korea and providing help to the refugees from North Korea residing in South Korea and the People´s Republic of China. The choice of Warsaw as the place to arrange the next conference has both a practical and a symbolic meaning: first, it is important to draw attention to the human rights and refugees´ situation in North Korea in this part of the world as well, second Warsaw is the capital of one of the countries whose people in recent years have been tremendously successful in their struggle for human rights.

Persons interested in the Conference may contact the organizers either in Warsaw /e-mail: J.Hosaniak@hfhrpol.waw.pl/ or in Seoul /e-mail: friends@nkhumanrights.or.kr/.