Paper details

Paper authors	Nazanin Zadeh-Cummings
In panel on	The politics of negotiating with authoritarian regimes
Paper presenter(s) will be presenting	In-Person / Online

Abstract

This paper examines disability rights in North Korea as an area of shared interest between humanitarian workers (who operate inside, with the consent of North Korean authorities) and human rights actors (who work outside, in defiance of the regime). Disability issues represent a notable deviation to the usual separation evident between these actors, insofar as the issue is one that both groups agree represents a critical area for engagement. Drawing from a small but deep pool of expert interviews, this paper argues that practitioners across these spaces recognize evidence of improvements in the area of disabilities and perceive potential for further meaningful change in a country that can be difficult to understand and challenging to achieve progress within. It further argues that the human rights model of disability provides a conceptual framing rooted in disability studies literature, which allows for a clearer articulation of the shared meanings embedded in the different approaches to disability in North Korea.

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