As a co-founder and activist of “Women in Black,” Stanislava Staša Zajović has played a pivotal role in leading a movement to support women who were victims of sexual violence during the civil war in the former Yugoslavia. Currently, she continues to be actively involved in organizing networks for women’s rights and peace, as well as campaigning against the ongoing Ukraine War.

The International Law & “Comfort Women” Seminar Team started its first season in 2020, which was the 20th anniversary of the Women's International War Crimes Tribunal on the Trial of Japan's Military Sexual Slavery in 2000.  Researchers of various majors have come together every other week to read international law-related materials, and have studied gender-based violence, including the Japanese military “Comfort Women” issue, from a new perspective in a contemporary awareness of the issue. Through this seminar, we learned that international law, which is still being developed, is an ongoing endeavor.

During the past three years, there were two rulings related to the Japanese military “Comfort Women” issue in Korea. One became a pioneering precedent acknowledging the Japanese government's responsibility for reparation for the Japanese military “Comfort Women” system, which is a crime against humanity by the Japanese Empire. The other recognized the Japanese government’s state immunity and dismissed the lawsuit of the plaintiffs who were the victims of the Japanese military “Comfort Women” system. Our seminar team has read various reports, verdict statements, written opinions, and interrogations on prisoners of war on the Japanese military “Comfort Women” issue, and takes great interest in gender-based violence in armed conflict, the issue of impunity for gender-based violence in international war crime trials, as well as colonialism as a criminal act and the impunity for it.

We are delighted to be able to interview Ms. Staša Zajović in Women in Black Belgrade and Ms. Sue Finch in Women in Black London, as we have been reading various sources and thinking about what kind of issues could be raised in tangible history.

International Law & "Comfort Women“ Seminar Team members: Kim Sooyong, Kim Ellim, Sim Ajung, Lee Seulki, Lee Eun-jin, Lee Jieun, Jang Soohee, Jang Wona, Jang Eun-ae, Cho Sihyun, Hong Yoon-shin and Furuhashi Aya.