Ministry of Justice Positively Reconsiders NHRC Recommendation;
Implementation will begin in July 2003
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had issued a recommendation to the Minister of Justice in October 2002 to uphold the right to equality (article 11: clause 1 of the Constitution) and the freedom of religion (article 20: clause 1 of the Constitution) for persons who are incarcerated by permitting them to hold religious gatherings. The case stems from a complaint filed in November 2001 by Jehovah’s Witness member and famed Korean voice actor, Yang, Ji-Wun, 56, on behalf of his son, claiming that his son was prevented from practicing his religion while incarcerated.
In its January 2003 response, the Ministry of Justice notified the NHRC that it would be unable to carry out the recommendation because “the person violated the law in the first place because he was a Jehovah’s Witness follower and allowing them to practice religious gatherings in correctional institutions would only strengthen feelings of self-righteousness when they are in prison for the purpose of reform and edification, besides the facilities are inadequate to allow them to practice, and realistically speaking, we just don’t have enough budget.” Subsequently, the NHRC had requested that the Ministry of Justice reconsider its stance, because “the reasons proffered by the Ministry of Justice do not contain rational enough grounds to justify disallowing the religious gatherings.”
After the Ministry of Justice re-examined the NHRC recommendation, it notified the NHRC that “As of 4 July 2003, wardens of all correctional institutions have been instructed to permit religious gatherings for not only incarcerated persons who are Protestant, Buddhist and Catholic, the three major religions, but also to give permission to the minority of incarcerated persons of other religions to gather according to their religious creed.” On 13 June 2003, prior to the reconsideration of the recommendation, the Ministry of Justice had notified the NHRC that previously, because Ministry of Justice directors had been given broad discretion in dealing with NHRC recommendations the ministry received, decisions on implementing many recommendations had been delayed; however, the Ministry had sent a written directive throughout its organization and sub-agencies ordering that “all measures taken on NHRC recommendations must be approved by the Minister and in principle, carried out within one month.”
