"Dying for Rights" scrutinizes North Korea’s treatment of its own people as well as foreign nationals, how violations committed by the state spread into the international realm, and how North Korea uses its state media and presence at the United Nations. Sandra Fahy, associate professor of anthropology at Sophia University in Tokyo, meticulously documents the extent of arbitrary detention, torture, executions, and the network of prison camps throughout the country. The book details systematic and widespread violations of freedom of speech and of movement, freedom from discrimination, and the rights to food and to life. Fahy weaves together public and private testimonies from North Koreans resettled abroad, as well as NGO reports, the stories and facts brought to light by the United Nations Commission of Inquiry into North Korea, and North Korea’s own state media, to share powerful personal narratives of human rights abuses. A compassionate yet objective investigation into the factors that sustain and perpetuate the flouting of basic rights, Dying for Rights reveals the profound culpability of the North Korean state in the systematic denial of human dignity.

Speakers: 

Sandra Fahy, Associate Professor of Anthropology at Sophia University in Tokyo

Stephen Haggard, Lawrence and Sallye Krause Professor of Korea-Pacific Studies, UCSD

-------------------------------------

Korea-Pacific Program Webinar Series:

This webinar series is designed to showcase new research as well as a forum for discussion of major policy issues. This series has received generous support from the Korea Foundation.