The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRC) conducts research project with Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs (KIHASA) on human rights of Senior Citizens .
- 1349 senior citizens were interviewed along with 158 senior citizens who are in detention facilities. 1260 facility workers were sent a questionnaire by mail.
The NHRC conducted research on the actual conditions of human rights for senior citizens from July 2002 for five months. This research had three main objectives: to understand the actual conditions of elderly-abuse in everyday life, at senior citizen facilities and at homeless shelters around the nation. This research will play a vital role in updating and reforming senior citizen policy in the near future.
Current Senior Citizen Abuse in Local Communities
In accordance with the "telephone interview with Korean senior citizens", KIHASA conducted a phone interview with 1000 men and women from the ages of 15 to 75. In addition, they interviewed 1349 senior citizens who reside in one of the following locations: Seoul, Chungchong, Gangwon, Youngnam, and Honam providence.
The results are as follows:
1. As for mental abuse, it showed general public"s recognition was relatively lower than physical one. 98.3% answered they see physical abuse as a human rights violation and 90.1% answered they see verbal abuse as a human rights violation. In contrast, fewer people acknowledged mental abuse as a human rights violation.
2. As for the senior citizens who have experienced abuse, 510 of 1349 people interviewed answered that they have experienced abuse once in their lifetime. And it showed that senior citizens who experienced mental abuse were comparably higher: 19.9% of them have been ignored by others, and 12.3% of them have been yelled at.
3. The results of the interviews that were conducted on 172 senior citizens who have experienced abuse consistently yields following conclusion: women experience mental, verbal, physical abuse more; men experience financial abuse more; senior citizens who reside in rural area experience abuse more frequently than the ones who reside in cities.
4. There were mass differences in actual abuse experience and understanding of an abuse. Because, 2/3 of the general public doesn"t acknowledge mental abuse as a human rights violation, but 1/3 of the senior citizens experience mental abuse, it can be concluded that even though the general public may not intend to violate human rights, senior citizens can feel that their rights have been violated. This fact is an alarming one, since the probability that senior citizens will feel their rights have been violated is much higher.
5. The personal interviews revealed that sons and daughter-in-laws are the main abusers; as for physical abuse, spouses are the main abusers. According to the telephone interview on the same subject, sons (42.9%) and daughter-in-laws (39.9%) are the ones who abuse senior citizens the most often.
6. Most of the time, senior citizens tolerate the abuse since the abusers are their family members. If the abuse is done in the family (52.8%), they are less likely to file a report than if the abuse was committed by some one outside of their family (74.5%).
