Government Agencies Take Increasing Interest in Human Rights
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has consistently implemented human rights education programs for government officials, and the results of its efforts are becoming apparent in statistical data and materials.
The NHRCK’s endeavors to promote human rights training for government employees produced the following outcomes: (i) the Ministry of National Defense’s effort to enact its internal directive on human rights education; (ii) the National Police Agency’s development of a human rights manual on investigations, assemblies, and demonstrations; (iii) the Civil Service Commission’s inclusion of human rights training as a major subject in government employee education and training guidelines for 2008; (iv) the Central Officials Training Institute and local governments’ strengthening of human rights education in government employee education and training courses; and (v) the Ministry of Health and Welfare’s pursuit of formulation of various human rights protection guidelines.
The Ministry of National Defense has proactively been seeking enactment of a directive on human rights education in the military. The directive incorporates overall aspects of military human rights education and provides for the purpose of such education, obligatory formulation of a comprehensive human rights education plan, and the target and time of compulsory human rights education.
The National Police Agency recently developed a human rights education manual in partnership with the NHRCK. The manual details how police officers should handle a variety of human rights issues that arise in carrying out their duties concerning investigations, assemblies, and demonstrations. It presents specific guidelines for police officers regarding ambiguous issues that they face in performing their duties.
The Civil Service Commission included human rights training as a major subject in government employee education and training guidelines for 2008. Accordingly, the Central Officials Training Institute and six local governments including the authorities of Gyeonggi-do, Gwangju, and Busan plan to incorporate the subject of human rights in their basic job training for 2008.
The Ministry of Justice intends to step up human rights education for prosecution personnel as well as correctional and immigration officers. The Ministry of Health and Welfare is seeking to enact human rights protection guidelines for people living in residential facilities for the disabled. It formulated such guidelines for those accommodated in residential facilities for the elderly in 2006. It has also been bolstering human rights education, reflecting human rights training performance in evaluating social welfare facilities.
Requests for human rights education to the NHRCK from government agencies have been steadily increasing since its launch in 2001. The scope of agencies is expanding from law enforcement agencies including the police and correctional institutions to ordinary administrative agencies such as the National Tax Service, Ministry of Construction and Transportation, Ministry of Environment, and local governments.
The NHRCK has made multi-pronged endeavors to gain support from government agencies concerned in the belief that raising the human rights awareness of public employees is of the utmost importance. In the seventh year since its establishment, the NHRCK believes that its efforts are producing outcomes. By proactive participation and cooperation from each government ministry, the NHRCK will concentrate on monitoring and evaluating human rights education and providing technical support to improve it.
