Women’s Leadership in the Diaspora

Timeframe: 2020 - 2022

Background

Women comprise 72% of the North Korean diaspora in South Korea. Yet men account for 63% of all leadership roles in organisations working on North Korean human rights. Between 2020-2022, Korea Future built the capacities of emerging exiled women leaders to increase their involvement in and leadership of human rights investigations, documentation, and organisation.
In September 2022, we released our report, ‘Opportunities and Challenges for Exiled North Korean Women in the Human Rights Field.’ Our findings explore how the human rights movement and, in particular, grant-makers, can deploy their resources to better support the active participation and leadership of exiled women and exiled women-led organisations.

Our work

In 2021, we worked alongside 178 exiled North Korean women and over 30 global experts to identify barriers that prevented exiled North Korean women from entering human rights organisations. Our findings were published in our report and launch event. 
In 2022, we supported a core group of emerging women leaders in the diaspora through a monthly series of human rights workshops. Participants were provided with opportunities to strengthen their core human rights skills and grow their practical skills in leadership and organisation. Our findings were published in our report and launch event.

Updates