ㅇ Chairperson Lee Sung-ho of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea met with Deputy Executive Secretary Kaveh Zahedi of the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific(UN ESCAP) on 24 October, 2016 in Bangkok, Thailand.
ㅇ Chairperson Lee, the current Chair of the GANHRI Working Group on Ageing, and DES Kaveh Zahedi have agreed to sign an MOU in order to seek measures for cooperation to promote and protect human rights of older persons.
ㅇ Chairperson Lee stated that he highly appreciates activities of the UN ESCAP carried out to respond to population ageing and to protect human rights of the elderly in the Asia-pacific and that the MOU between the two institutions would contribute to promotion and protection of human rights of older persons in the region.
ㅇ They shared their opinion on international trend regarding the issue, and Chairperson Lee asked for further efforts of the UN ESCAP saying that the MOU will facilitate international community’s efforts for promotion of human rights of older persons.
ㅇ In this regard, the NHRCK hosted the ASEM Conference on Human Rights of Older Persons in October, 2015 which have set promotion and protection of human rights of older persons as a major agenda for the international community. It plans to host another conference at the ASEM level in 2017 which was decided in the ASEM Summit held in Mongolia in August.
ㅇ Meanwhile, Chairperson Lee have participated to the 21th Annual Meeting of the APF in Bangkok, Thailand to discuss pending issues faced by NHRIs in the region as a member of the Forum Councilors Working Group of the APF.
