NHRC issues recommendation for Gongju City to issue written consent
to weight lifter Lee’s transter
Regarding the complaint filed in February 2003 by weightlifter Lee, 22, against the mayor of Gongju City and as a remedial measure consistent with article 44: clause 1: paragraph 1 of the National Human Rights Commission Act, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) issued a recommendation to the Gongju City mayor to issue Mr. Lee the city’s written consent to Lee’s transfer to another weight-lifting team.
The NHRC investigation of this case found that Gongju City Hall, the former team of which Lee had been a part of, failed to issue the necessary consent forms for Lee’s transfer to the Gyeong-Buk Development Corporation (GBDC) weight lifting team, thereby effectively terminating Lee’s career as a professional weight lifter. The facts uncovered by the investigation are as follows: weight lifter Lee had been a part of the Gongju City weight lifting team from 1 January 2000 to 31 December 2000, but had resigned from the Gongju team in February 2001 when he began his compulsory military service, which is required of all Korean men. In preparing for his discharge from the military (April 2003), Lee signed a provisional agreement with the Gyeong-Buk Development Corporation (GBDC) to join the GBDC weight lifting team. Even though the provisional agreement was already signed, Gongju City Hall failed to issue the required written consent to an athlete’s transfer.
Gongju City Hall claimed that it withheld the consent form because 1) Chung Cheong Nam Do Province had supported Lee for ten years, since Lee’s school-going days, 2) for the grand, long-term growth of professional athletics, it wanted to root out the practice of elite athletes transferring to regions other than their home region, and 3) it had withheld the consent form for Lee’s own good and development as well as to protect the honor of Lee’s hometown, which would have suffered a great loss in terms of nurturing athletes since Lee had transferred to another team without conferring with Gongju City Hall in advance.
However, in light of the fact that the Ministry of Culture and Tourism had rescinded on 2 March 2003 its “General guidelines relating to the recruitment and registration of athletes”—upon which the Korea Sports Council (KSC) bases its own “KSC guidelines for recruitment and registration of athletes” and which stipulates that upon transferring teams, athletes must obtain the written consent of the president of the institution to which the former team belongs— in response to the Regulatory Reform Committee recommendation, it would be an exaggeration to claim that such guidelines hold any external binding force. Additionally, it was not until Lee was competing as an active serviceman athlete that he realized how important and valuable. Last, owing to the Gongju City’s withholding its written consent, the petitioner became an unregistered athlete. Thus, the NHRC concluded that the athlete’s liberties and rights had been infringed.
The NHRC also observed that Gongju City Hall had already been implicated in several similar cases in which the consent form was withheld by the city. But it is a natural right for a sports athlete to want to concentrate all his or her energies on the sport while receiving better treatment. Accordingly, the NHRC found that there remained the possibility that human rights could be infringed when consent forms are withheld because of practices that turn a blind eye to abuses in the sports industry and because of the absence of negotiations in advance of contract conclusion; consequently, the NHRC issued a recommendation for Gongju City to issue its written consent.
