The National Human Rights Commission of Korea announces an official opinion concerning the Ministry of Justice’s proposal to adjust act rang in the Juvenile Act
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has expressed an official opinion regarding proposed amendments to the June 2007 version of the Juvenile Act, as proposed by the Ministry of Justice. Of these proposed amendments is the lowering of minimum age consideration for juvenile criminals and young offenders from 12 years of age to 10 years of age. The Commission is unsupportive of this proposal, and has expressed in the official opinion that the current minimum age should be maintained in order to align with global trends, which are raising the minimum age for criminal responsibility.
The current Act sets forth four categories of juveniles and their age ranges. Generally juveniles are under 20 years of age. There are three different categories for juvenile delinquents: one is "criminal juveniles," whose acts are in violation of penal statutes and who are at least 14 years of age but under the age of 20; another is "young offenders," whose acts are in violation of penal statutes and who are at least 12 but under 14; and the last one is "high-risk juveniles," who are deemed likely to commit a criminal act and who are at least 12 but under 20.
The Ministry of Justice is also pursuing, among other things, to alter the age range in the Act for young offenders from 12-14 years to 10-14 years and lowering the maximum age consideration for all juvenile offenders from 20 years to 19 years.
Lowering the minimum age requirement for young offenders from 12 years to 10 years is a step backward and violation of the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which recommends the minimum age consideration be held at 14 years of age. Commonwealth nations and Switzerland—all of which once held excessively low minimum age considerations for criminal responsibility—have raised their limits. Other nations are quickly following suit.
The Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) issued recently a general statement on rights of the child in connection with youth criminal justice law, in which it suggested that states parties not lower the minimum age for criminal responsibility below 12 years of age. It also recommended that states parties should not set the minimum age for criminal responsibility too low, and should instead raise existing minimum ages for criminal responsibility to an internationally acceptable level.
With these things in mind, the Ministry of Justice’s proposal can be seen as a step against global trends for juvenile criminal responsibility, and violates both the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the United Nations Standard Minimum Rules for the Administration of Juvenile Justice (The Beijing Rules).
Additionally, the Commission believes that governmental statistics do not suggest any need to take steps in these directions and that the Ministry’s claims are exaggerations of statistical research. Government statistics, especially those of the Ministry of Justice, reveal that while juvenile criminal activity is increasing, the number of juvenile criminals under the age of 14 is not evident.
Therefore, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea has expressed an opinion to the Ministry of Justice that the minimum age for young offenders not be lowered, as lowering the age would breach the Convention on the Rights of the Child, would go against global trends to raise the age of criminal responsibility, and that government statistics do not suggest any reason for such a move.
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea was established in 2001, offering investigation and remedy services for Korean citizens and foreigners residing in Korea against human rights violations and discrimination. The Commission provides policy recommendations and remedial action against human rights infringements, collaborates with international human rights organizations and implements educational programs to improve the human rights culture.
