The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) concluded that police forcing peaceful protesters to disperse while blocking them on all sides is a violation of their right to freedom of assembly and personal liberty.
The commission received a complaint from a man who argues that he and 200 other demonstrator’s human rights were violated by the police who besieged them without any warnings for having set off firecrackers and forced them to disperse.
Freedom of assembly and association guaranteed by Article 21 of the Constitution is more than just basic individual rights. It is the cornerstone of democracy as it protects the political expression of the minorities. In this regard, the Constitutional Court and the Courts in South Korea have ruled that the restriction on the freedom of assembly and association must be used as the last resort by the police trying to disperse protesters.
The investigation by the commission confirmed that the police’s dispersion of the protesters was inevitable. Nevertheless, the commission has a firm conviction that the police must follow legal procedures when dispersing a protest even if dispersion is necessary and make sure they minimize any physical collision and restriction of basic rights.
The NHRCK’s investigators found that the police in question did not follow any necessary steps in dispersing the protesters; rather they surrounded the demonstrators on all sides, giving them no routes to go out of the police blockade.
Also, the investigation confirmed that the police informed the demonstrators of harsher penalties than they deserve.
The NHRCK concluded that such action of the police was a breach of procedures set forth by relevant laws including the Assembly and Demonstration Act, and a violation of the Act on the Performance of Duties by Police Officers and freedom of assembly and personal liberty guaranteed by the Constitution.
Therefore, the NHRCK recommended that the defendants must be given a warning to avoid a recurrence of similar incidents and police officers be offered with education on the procedures of dispersing protests.
