June 26- The NHRCK and the Critic Social Society held its 2009 Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Symposium on June 26. The symposium centered on economic, social and cultural rights in the economic crisis.
First held in 2007, the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Symposium provides an annual forum to examine and improve social rights in Korea. This year, the symposium focused on the economic crisis and its impact on the civil and political rights of the underprivileged. The symposium also provided an opportunity to examine international efforts to promote and protect economic, social and cultural rights.
Maria Virginia Bras Gomes, UN Rapporteur on the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights for Korea, delivered a presentation on both the international human rights standard for securing such rights and the work that various governments have done to promote and protect economic, social and cultural rights. Korean experts on such rights participated in the symposium and discussed issues including Korea’s social safety net and social rights budget as well as the social rights of irregular workers, women, and migrant workers in Korea.
The UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights will use the results of the symposium when it examines the Korean government’s fulfillment of the convention in November 2009.
The international Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights was adopted in 1966 and came into effect in 1976. Korea joined the covenant on April 10, 1990 and submitted its third report on its fulfillment of the convention in July 2006. The UN headquarters in Geneva is scheduled to review the report this November.
