Message of the Korean Democratic Lawyers Association

 

The following article was published in the April 2022 special issue of the International Review of Contemporary Law, the journal of the IADL.

At this time, we, the Korean Democratic Lawyers’ Association, profoundly remember and express our high respect for Mr. Roland Weyl, who was a close friend of Korean people and a prominent lawyer.

During his long career in the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL), Mr. Roland Weyl provided meaningful contributions to the activities of IADL to promote contact, exchange and solidarity among lawyers of many countries to defend justice, peace and democracy and to implement the Charter of United Nations through the practice of the law.

The first meeting of members of KDLA with Mr. Roland was in Dec. 1969, in the IADL Bureau Meeting in Cairo. At that time, he showed positive interest and zeal to discuss several issues, including adopting an emergency resolution on the matter of the Korean Peninsula.

He extended his full support and solidarity to the Korean people’s struggle for the reunification of Korea in the IADL Bureau Meeting in Dec. 1972 in Moscow and published an editorial saying that Korea must be reunified in the magazine of IADL in 1979, so as to encourage the Korean people’s struggle for independent national reunification.

In the 12th Conference of IADL in Oct. 1984 in Greece and the 13th Conference in March 1990 in Spain, he also extended his support and solidarity to our proposals which demanded to stop the hostile maneuvers against the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) that violated the Korean Armistice Agreement.

In the 2017 IADL Bureau Meeting in Vietnam and in the COLAP meeting of 2018 in Indonesia, he heard about the human rights violations against 12 young women restaurant employees from the DPRK in south Korea who were lured and abducted to south Korea. He played an important role in deciding to send a joint investigation group of IADL and COLAP to the north and south of Korea.

As mentioned above, Mr. Roland Weyl was a close friend of Korean people who extended his full support and encouragement to their just cause to realize their independent national reunification and defend peace and stability in the Korean peninsula.

KDLA will never forget his brilliant life dedicated to building a just and fair society and will respect him forever.

In this opportunity, we would like to send our warmest regards to his family and friends.

Korean Democratic Lawyers’ Association

All articles published in the International Review of Contemporary Law reflect only the position of their author and not the position of the journal, nor of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers.

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