Opinion Poll on
Public Awareness of the NHRC and NHRC Activities
On the second anniversary of the founding of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), the Commission carried out an opinion poll measuring ordinary Koreans and Korean professionals’ awareness of the Commission and their assessment of core NHRC activities.
In assessing NHRC activities, 73% of ordinary Koreans and 91% of professionals felt that “the NHRC did a good job.” 80.3% of ordinary Koreans and 93.7% of professionals have positive expectations of NHRC activities for the future.
In particular, 72.9% of ordinary Koreans and 91% of professionals felt that the NHRC had done well on critical stances taken in the following activities: expressing opposition to the war on Iraq, surveying employment applications forms in the largest 100 companies for questions that could possibly lead to discrimination, issuing the recommendation to remove portions of NEIS that could lead to human rights violations, expressing opposition to the enactment of the Terror Prevention Act, and bringing charges against the Seoul Public Prosecutor’s Office relating to possible torture of suspects and requesting the National Public Prosecutor’s Office to investigate the case.
Additionally, in the question asking whether NHRC activities would impact the human rights situation in Korea in a positive manner, 80.3% of ordinary Koreans and 93.7% of professionals responded that future NHRC activities would exert influence toward reform, reflecting their relatively strong expectations for the NHRC.
