An International Seminar on Social Rights Conditions in Korea
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) held a seminar for three days from March 10, 2008 to reflect on social rights in Korea in light of international human rights standards. Dr. Eibe Riedel and Ms. Maria Virginia Bras Gomes, members of the United Nations International Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), attended.
Ms. Gomes is a globally renowned scholar in the area of social rights and is on the panel to review the Republic of Korea's government report at the UN CESCR around the end of 2008. Well-informed on a variety of social rights issues in many countries across the world, she has expressed much interest in Korea's human rights situation. Dr. Riedel is a professor at the University of Mannheim, Germany and played a critical role in the drafting of the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR), which recognizes a right to individual communication.
In order to review social rights issues in the framework of a rights-based approach (RBA), which has become a new international standard, the NHRCK also invited Mr. André Frankovits, Executive Director of Human Rights Council of Australia, who is an international expert in the field.
With the new government only recently inaugurated, the NHRCK believes examining the status quo of social rights in Korea together with international experts is extremely meaningful.
Korea still has a long way to go with respect to social rights before it meets the high standards upheld by the UN ICESCR. Social rights lag Korea's economic representation in the international community. In fact, major international human rights treaty organizations including the UN CESCR have continually recommended the South Korean government remedy the country's social rights issues, including social polarization, job insecurity of irregular workers and other types of vulnerable laborers, and discrimination against persons with disabilities, children, seniors, and migrants.
This special seminar with international experts in social rights had a rich program of lectures, discussion sessions, and bull sessions. The event was attended by NHRCK officials, academics, lawyers, and NGO activists, among others.
The UN CESCR will review the third report by the government of the Republic of Korea in November 2008.
