10,000th Petition Filed by Korean-Chinese,
NHRC Has Established Itself as the Organ Defending the Rights of the Socially Vulnerable and Marginalized
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) received its 10,000th petition on 28 May 2004. The 10,000th petitioner was Korean-Chinese Park, who filed a complaint charging that decrees deriving authority from the 「Act on the Immigration and Legal Status of Overseas Koreans」 discriminated against him relative to Korean-Americans and Korean-Europeans with regard to departure and re-entry, and petitioned for reform of discriminatory measures.
Since the NHRC was established on 26 November 2001, it has steadily gained stature as the organ advocating the human rights of the socially vulnerable and marginalized; the number of cases steadily grew amounting to 803 petitions in 2001, 2790 petitions in 2002, 3815 in 2003, and 2839 from January - May 2004.
By type of case, 82.4% of the cases (8439 complaints) were for human rights violations, 6.8% (698 complaints) were for discrimination, and 10.8% (1,110 cases) related to reform of other laws and institutions.
The human rights violation cases can be broken down into the following categories: 42.1% for human rights violations at incarceration institutions, 21.1% for violations by police officers, 21.1% for violations by the state, and 6.3% for violations by the public prosecutor. The proportion of incarceration-related cases is high because incarcerated persons have readily taken advantage of a special complaints protocol (provided for in article 31, NHRC Act). Under that special protocol, upon the request of confined persons, NHRC inspectors go on-site to such facilities so that internees can file a petition in the presence of a NHRC staff member.
The forms of discrimination by caseload are as follows: 20.8% of petitions charged discrimination on the basis of social status (longterm occupation of a particular social position), such as contingent employment, 11.0% for discrimination against disability, 8.2% for gender discrimination, 7.6% for ageism, 6.3% for national origin and 4.9% for discrimination on the basis of educational attainment.
The fact that the NHRC has already received 10,000 petitions in less than three years of existence reflects the high expectations regarding the NHRC role in Korean society. The NHRC will continue to faithfully defend the rights of the socially vulnerable and marginalized as when it first undertook that mission in 2001. In addition to the number of petitions received, the Commission has counseled or advised of petitioning procedures an average of 50 persons a day. –End.
