{"id":36579,"date":"2015-07-14T15:00:02","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T01:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=36579"},"modified":"2021-08-11T11:25:26","modified_gmt":"2021-08-11T21:25:26","slug":"law-professor-joins-un-group-to-combat-politically-motivated-disappearances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2015\/07\/14\/law-professor-joins-un-group-to-combat-politically-motivated-disappearances\/","title":{"rendered":"Law professor joins UN<\/abbr> group to combat politically-motivated disappearances"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading time: <\/span> 2<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>
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Associate Professor Tae-Ung Baik<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

An associate professor at the William S. Richardson School of Law<\/a> at the University of Â鶹´«Ã½<\/span> at Mānoa has been appointed to a United Nations Human Rights Council<\/a> mandate-holder position aimed at combating politically-motivated disappearances on a global scale.<\/p>\n

Associate Professor Tae-Ung Baik<\/strong> will join four other members of the Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances at his first meeting in Geneva, Switzerland in mid-September. He was appointed to a three-year term beginning July 3.<\/p>\n

Each of the members is selected to represent one of the five regions of the world. Baik will represent Asia-Pacific.<\/p>\n

Driven by personal experience<\/h2>\n

Baik’s personal history as a political prisoner under a repressive former regime in his home country of South Korea makes his appointment particularly compelling. In a powerful letter of recommendation, William S. Richardson School of Law Dean Avi Soifer<\/strong> wrote,” “Tae-Ung Baik has had to bear directly and at length what few of us would be able to bear at all. Nonetheless, he has emerged as a strikingly careful, wise and effective human rights advocate.”<\/p>\n

Joachim Rucker, president of the Human Rights Council under which the Working Group operates, welcomed Baik’s strong victim-centered approach that draws on both his academic expertise and his own experience.<\/p>\n

Formed 35 years ago, the group’s main task is to help families determine the fate or whereabouts of family members who have disappeared. It plays a key role as a liaison between families, agencies assisting them and the governments involved by submitting evidence and asking for investigations. Only when the fate of a disappeared person is known is a case closed.<\/p>\n

In formal terms, as a “mandate-holder” of the Human Rights Council, Baik will work as an independent expert to report and advise the council on human rights issues.<\/p>\n

—By Beverly Creamer<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Associate Professor Tae-Ung Baik appointed to UN<\/abbr> Human Rights Council Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[881,9,68],"class_list":["post-36579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-people","tag-human-rights","tag-uh-manoa","tag-william-s-richardson-school-of-law","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t