In January 2013, a group of young activists, journalists, and academics united with North Korean exiles to form the European Alliance for Human Rights in North Korea.
Founded with a guiding mission to understand how and why North Korea’s human rights tragedy has persisted and to propose solutions as to how it could be addressed, EAHRNK formed a small group in the United Kingdom and across Europe to formulate theories for change.
We aspire to present informed perspectives on North Korea and for our work to move beyond borders, ideologies and geographical narratives. In travelling beyond the known compass points of North Korea, our vision is simple: to improve the lives of North Koreans.
Why We Formed
In founding EAHRNK, its members believed that new paths of knowledge were needed to discern how human rights continue to be violated in North Korea and why the efforts of the international community have failed to halt modern history’s most enduring human tragedy.
In defiance of the efforts of European countries, the North Korean government continues to exploit all efforts at engagement. If our engagement sought to transform North Korean society, it has failed.
In pursuit of a new understanding, we look not just to these factors that allow the North Korean government to defy international pressure, but also to the factors that can lead to truly transformational changes in North Korean society. From the jangmadang generation to the calls of the tens of thousands of North Koreans who have escaped their home country, change is possible.
How We Seek To Support Change In North Korea
To forge better understandings of complex issues and offer hope to North Koreans, EAHRNK looks to:
- Unite European citizens by raising awareness of the unprecedented and ongoing human rights violations in North Korea and to highlight how our community can build pressure for change.
- Empower the North Korean people, inside and outside of their country, by providing a platform for their voices and a means for their agency.
- Encourage European governments to formulate policy on North Korea based upon well-researched evidence and North Korean testimony alongside an informed understanding of how transformations occur within contemporary North Korean society.
- Promote a conscientious and responsible media approach to reporting North Korea that moves from away from a narrative defined by sensationalism and Otherness and toward a reporting that is grounded in conscientiousness and gives space for the North Korean voice.