Footprints database (North Korea)

Footprints is an archive of cases of arbitrary detention, abduction and enforced disappearances committed in and by North Korea since the 1950s.

Footprints

Footprints is an open archive of cases of arbitrary detention, abduction and enforced disappearances committed in and by North Korea since the 1950s. It was developed by the Transitional Justice Working Group (TJWG) with support from HURIDOCS. 

The database contains entries for tens of thousands, which include: 

  • basic personal information
  • locations of where the victims were last seen, where they disappeared or were abducted, and where they are detained
  • perpetrator 
  • related photos, news articles and reports
  • video testimonies of family members

Footprints also compiles reports on the human rights situation in North Korea, as well as relevant legal proceedings, policy recommendations and treaties. The database is available in English, Korean and Japanese.

Visit Footprints

Creating a resource for the transitional justice movement

A coalition approach can make for more effective human rights campaigns, and this is something that the TJWG team understands well. Footprints brings together data collected by several organizations working on cases of people taken in and by North Korea, with the aim of cultivating synergy amongst their different streams of advocacy work.

Read more about the collection: “A new database project is memorializing the ‘footprints’ of people taken by North Korea”