The National Human Rights Commission of Korea adopted an independent report that includes the result of monitoring on implementation status of the Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination(CERD) and its opinion as a national human rights institution. It submitted the report to the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination.
During the 97th session, the committee will review state reports from six countries including the Republic of Korea, Qatar, Honduras, Iraq, Albania, and Norway. To this end, the NHRCK prepared the independent report to provide information and opinion to help the committee in reviewing the 17th to 19th combined periodic report of the Republic of Korea.
The report consists of 20 issues(31 detailed issues). At the report, the NHRCK presented related cases and its opinion on diverse issues including reflection of the definition of racial discrimination under the CERD into domestic legislations, establishment of a provision on punishment for racial discriminatory behavior, and enactment of a comprehensive anti discrimination act.
In particular, the report states that expression of hatred or racial-discriminatory remarks with regards to the surging number of the Yemeni refugee applicants in Jeju Island reaffirms the concern of the UN Special Rapporteur on Racial Discrimination in 2014 who have reported after his visit to Korea that there exists serious racial discrimination in Korea that requires for attention of the government.
The international community emphasizes that a national immigration policy should be devised and implemented based on the “principle of human rights first.” Accordingly, the NHRCK will make its best efforts to fulfil its responsibility and duty by conducting a fact-finding research, monitoring, ex-officio and field investigation to encourage implementation of the CERD in
