‘Comfort Women’ were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II.

The judgment concerns immunity of foreign states from civil lawsuit for damages resulting from international crimes, a question that is decided primarily on the basis of customary international law, developed largely by domestic courts practice.

Vessela Terzieva explains that there seems to be a significant shift in this practice at the moment, towards allowing such suits, and this might affect some Dutch victims. While earlier practice suggests that jurisdictional immunity should be accorded to foreign states, recently high courts in Italy, Brazil and now South Korea have denied immunity, favouring the individual’s right to seek trial. In the 1990s a civil lawsuit against Japan was filed on behalf of Dutch former POWs and civilian internees before the District Court of Tokyo but it was not successful. The Korean judgment could suggest that a new lawsuit in Dutch courts on behalf of Dutch former POWs, civilian internees or 'comfort women' might have better chances. 

The paper presented by Vessela Terzieva: The Territorial Tort Exception and the Victims' Right to a Remedy in the Inter-judicial Dialogue on Sovereign Immunity

All papers presented at the conference can be found here in three languages (Korean, English, and Japanese): 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YR90fj03ZiB9Mjtv8e8_Vth-sdXzIydE/view