Civic groups call for UNESCO listing of comfort women documents

Published Sep 6, 2026 5:09 pm KST

Updated Sep 6, 2026 9:54 pm KST

A coalition of civic groups hold a press conference in Seoul, Sunday, to urge UNESCO to list documents related to Japan's wartime sex slavery of women on its Memory of the World Register. Yonhap

A coalition of civic groups on Sunday urged UNESCO to swiftly move forward with a long-stalled bid to list documents related to Japan's wartime sex slavery of women on its Memory of the World Register.

In May 2016, civic groups from 8 countries, including South Korea and China, made an official request for the UNESCO listing of documents related to women, mostly Koreans, forced into sex slavery for Japanese troops during World War II.

The documents, submitted under the title "Voices of the Comfort Women," include victims' testimonies and other materials related to the wartime sex slavery.

The number of known surviving victims has continued to decline, with only five left in South Korea, six in China, five in the Philippines, about 20 in Indonesia and one in Timor-Leste, according to the civic groups.

The listing process has been stalled since UNESCO's International Advisory Committee decided in 2017 to facilitate dialogue between the coalition and four other groups from Japan and the United States that had separately submitted records on the same issue. The first talks, initially planned for June 2025, have been postponed twice.

发布于2026年9月6日下午5:09（韩国标准时间）

更新于2026年9月6日晚上9:54（韩国标准时间）

周日，多个民间团体在首尔举行新闻发布会，敦促联合国教科文组织将与日本二战期间奴役妇女有关的文件列入世界记忆名录。（韩联社）

周日，一个公民团体联盟敦促联合国教科文组织迅速推进一项长期停滞的申请，将与日本战时奴役妇女有关的文件列入世界记忆名录。

2016 年 5 月，包括韩国和中国在内的 8 个国家的民间团体正式请求联合国教科文组织将与二战期间被迫成为日军性奴隶的妇女（主要是韩国妇女）有关的文件列入名录。

这些以“慰安妇之声”为题提交的文件包括受害者的证词以及与战时性奴隶制相关的其他材料。

据民间团体称，已知的幸存受害者人数持续下降，韩国仅剩 5 人，中国 6 人，菲律宾 5 人，印度尼西亚约 20 人，东帝汶 1 人。

自联合国教科文组织国际咨询委员会2017年决定促进该联盟与来自日本和美国的另外四个团体就同一议题分别提交申请以来，列入名录的进程一直处于停滞状态。原定于2025年6月举行的首次会谈已被推迟两次。