Biography
Oh Joon is an Eminent Scholar professor of United Nations studies at Kyung Hee University and a Visiting Professor at the KDI School of Public Policy and Management, both in Korea. He is also serving as Chair of Save the Children Korea and President of the Korea Council of Children’s Organizations.
Previously he was a diplomat of the Republic of Korea. He was Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Korea to the United Nations in New York from 2013 to 2016. During this time, he served as the 71st President of the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) and as President of the Conference of States Parties to the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD) for its 8th and 9th sessions in 2015 and 2016. He was Ambassador of the Republic of Korea in Singapore from 2010-13 and Deputy Minister for Multilateral and Global Affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Seoul from 2008-10.
His other international activities have included those as an Eminent Person Adviser to the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) in 2019; a member of the High Level Panel on the Future of Development Assistance Committee of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in 2016-17; a member of the Korea Agenda Council of the World Economic Forum (WEF) from 2010-13; the Chair of the United Nations Disarmament Commission (UNDC) in 2006; and the Chair of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) in 2004-05.
Professor Oh is currently working with several civil society organizations in addition to Save the Children. He works on the rights of persons with disabilities both in Korea and internationally, including with the International Disability Alliance (IDA) and Rehabilitation International (RI). In 2018, he served as an Honorary Ambassador for the Paralympic Winter Games held in Pyeongchang , Korea.
The Korean Government awarded him an Order of Service Merit twice, in 1996 and 2006. In 2018, he received a Global Korea Award from Michigan State University in the United Sates. Rehabilitation International (RI) gave him a Global Presidential Award in 2016 in acknowledgment of his achievements as President of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. He also received the 2014 Youngsan Diplomat of the Year Award for his work on North Korean human rights issues. He published his first book in Korean “For Mica, Who Contemplates Life” in 2015.
He received a Master’s degree in International Policy Studies from Stanford University (1991- 92); a diploma in International and Comparative Politics from the London School of Economics and Political Science (1982-83); and a Bachelor’s in French literature from Seoul National University (1974-78). He was also a visiting scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University (1990-91).
Keynote Presentation (2024) | TBA
Oh JoonKyung Hee University, South Korea