1. Professor Baik Tae-Ung at the William S. Richardson School of Law of the University of Hawaii was appointed as a member of the UN Human Right Council (UNHRC)’s Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (WGEID) on July 3.

* The President of the UNHRC, German Ambassador to Geneva Jaochim Rücker, appointed six new members, including Professor Baik, to the special procedures of the UNHRC.

2. The WGEID examines questions relevant to enforced or involuntary disappearances of persons; serves as a channel of communication between family members of victims of enforced disappearance and other sources reporting cases of disappearances, and the governments concerned; and assists families in determining the fate or whereabouts of their family members who are reportedly disappeared and gives advice as necessary.

◦ The WGEID is composed of one expert from each of the five regional groups of the UNHRC.
◦ The members serve once-renewable three-year terms.

* The WGEID is one of the UNHRC’s 55 special procedures established by the Commission on Human Rights, the HRC’s predecessor, in 1980, with its mandate renewed even after the launch of the UNHRC in 2006.

3. As a WGEID member, Professor Baik is expected to contribute proactively to the UN efforts to promote and protect human rights, while helping determine the whereabouts of nationals of the Republic of Korea forcibly abducted to North Korea before and after the Korean War.

4. The ROK government has rendered assistance to its nationals with their efforts to expand presence at various human rights agencies of the UN and will continue to do so.

* ROK nationals serving at the UN’s human rights agencies

- Lee Yang-hee appointed in 2014 as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar
- Hong Seong-phil appointed in 2014 as a member of the UN HRC Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, chairing it in 2014
- Shin Hei-soo elected in 2010 and 2014 to the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
- Kim Hyung-shik elected in 2010 and 2014 to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
- Soh Chang-rok elected in 2014 to the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee


* unofficial translation