NHRCK Expresses Opinion on the Bill for Partial Revision of Criminal Law
The National Human Rights Commission of Korea presented its opinion to the Speaker of the National Assembly and the Minister of Justice on the "Bill for Partial Revision of Criminal Law" (hereinafter, referred to as “Revised Bill”).
The revised bill is significant for it is the full revision of the general rules of the "Criminal Law" in 60 years or longer since the establishment of the law in 1953 and has positive aspects as it reflects accumulated precedents, advanced theories of criminal law, and the internationalization tendency of the criminal law. However, some of its contents such as the preservation of capital punishment and the introduction of preventive custody have significant human rights implications and the NHRCK gave its opinion requesting for improvement in accordance with the National Human Rights Commission Act.
The NRHCK requested, among others, to abolish death penalty, not to introduce the protection preventive custody, to consider the right to vote of convicts depending on the gravity of crimes, to incorporate the period of sentence serving outside Korea into the sentence to be served in Korea, and to clarify the meaning and scope of the "mentally challenged" that replaces the term of "mental or physical disorder".
