Failure to protect:
A Call for the UN Security Council
to take action in North Korea
An unidentified 71-year-old woman carries last year’s dried
cabbage leaves in Anju, North Korea.
Monday, November 13, 2006
12:00pm – 1:00pm
Room 501
The Center for Human Rights and Humanitarian Law hosted Mr. Jared Genser, a senior associate at DLA Piper LLP, who discussed a then recently released report on the human rights and humanitarian situation in North Korea. DLA Piper LLP and the US Committee for Human Rights in North Korea were commissioned by former Czech Republic President Václav Havel, former Norwegian Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik, and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Elie Wiesel to produce the report entitled “Failure to protect: A Call for the UN Security Council to Work in North Korea”. The report seeks to spotlight rights abuses that have been previously reported but are often overshadowed by concern about North Korea's nuclear ambitions. Released after North Korea's Oct. 9 nuclear test, the report describes Pyongyang's brutal treatment of its citizens, from the beatings of pregnant women to force miscarriages to the abduction, torture and execution of political prisoners. The report also states that North Korea has committed "crimes against humanity" against its own people and makes a long-shot appeal for the U.N. Security Council to deal with the issue.
Mr. Jared Genser is a senior associate at DLA Piper LLP and represents both national and international clients before Congress and the executive branch and counsels them on a variety of issues such as foreign affairs, appropriations, and international dispute resolution. Mr. Jared Genser led a team of lawyers to produce the report on North Korea in 2006. Also, in 2005, Mr. Genser led a team of DLA Piper lawyers to produce the report A Threat to the Peace: A Call for the UN Security Council to Act in Burma. Since the report's release, the situation of Burma has twice been discussed in the Security Council. Independently, Mr. Genser is also president of Freedom Now, an all-volunteer nonprofit organization which seeks to free prisoners of conscience around the world through legal, political, and public relations advocacy efforts.
