The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has selected and made an announcement for the research service on the tasks of human rights survey with respect to the settlement process of people from North Korea, the application of international human rights standard in the judicial process, discrimination against people with disabilities in the investigation, adjudication, and enforcement process, the management and operation of personal information on the administrative forms, meal support system for children of the poor and others in 2007.
The human rights survey is to find out the status of various human rights issues in Korea, which is one of the key projects of the NHRCK since the survey outcome is the basis of recommendations and opinions for improvement of statutes, legal systems, and policies on human rights.
- Task 1: The Settlement Process survey of the people from North Korea (Centered on the occupational status)
It is estimated to be 10,000 people from North Korea residing in Korea today, and learning on their occupation and settlement would be facilitated as an important index in the policies for people from North Korea. Social adaptation of people from North Korea through occupation would be presumed to have close relationship with the education of children and family situation. Therefore this survey on occupational education, selection of occupation, social adaptation, occupation distribution and others would analyze and resolve many problems arising from the settlement process for people of North Korea.
The NHRCK already has published the report on status survey that comprehensively handles the entry process, education process and settlement process of people from North Korea in 2005, and the human rights promotion plan for the people from North Korea is one of the ten focused tasks for the NHRCK in 2007.
- Task 2: Study of Applying the International Human Rights Standard in the Judicial Process
In order to have the efficacy of domestic ratification of the International Human Rights laws, the judiciary branch has to apply the International Human Rights Code in real adjudication situation. However, the courts and the Constitutional Court of Korea have yet to apply the International Human Rights Regulation in the human rights related trials, and there is a need to study for analyzing the cause and status, as well as presenting the improvement plan. Through the cases of foreign courts to apply the International Human Rights Code and the review thereto, it is expected to formulate the basis of practical application of the International Human Rights Code in the courts and the Constitutional Court of Korea.
- Task 3: Issues of Official Development Assistance (ODA) Policy and Impact on Human Rights Promotion of Recipient Nations (Centered on OECD nations)
ODA is one of the government policies for the developing countries or international institutions in order to contribute to the economic advancement and welfare improvement of recipient nations. For the promotion of human rights in under-developed countries and consistent policy development, there is a need for review in humanitarian point of view on the ODA policies, however, the decision and support of our government on the ODA have not been fully considered.
Canada (CIDA), Sweden (SIDA) and others have the detailed manual on the human rights point of view on the aide programs, and Asia Development Bank (ADB) and others also have the guideline or manual so Korea is expected to have the policy alternatives through the comparative studies with the systems in foreign countries.
In the future, the size of the ODA of Korea is expected with substantial amount due to the change in international community that the review on the issues in ODA and improvement plan for the Korean government would be needed in the near future.
- Task 4: A Commentary on the Convention on the Rights of the Child
Promotion of human rights for children and youth is one of the key tasks of the NHRCK in 2007 as well. For the policy review on the promotion of human rights for children and youth, there is a need of accurate understanding of the International Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child that the publication of commentary on the Convention is an indispensable project along with the promotion of human rights with respect to children in our society.
On the Commentary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, it contains detailed analysis and interpretation on each provision, and plans to contain the general comments and human rights Treaties, UN Documents, European human rights Tribunal and other cases as well as the domestic laws and the decisions of the Constitutional Court of Korea.
- Task 5: Survey of Discrimination against People with Disabilities in the Investigation, Adjudication, Criminal Enforcement Process
Notwithstanding the fact that people with disabilities would need the tailored criminal procedures depending on the types of disability or social and economic nature of each, such as visual, hearing, physical, mental disability or others during the course of investigation in the investigation agency, custodial facilities, adjudication process in trial and others, people with disabilities are discriminated against and harmed from not sufficiently provided with the convenience required under the nature of disability.
The NHRCK plans to facilitate the result obtained from the status survey as the policy data to prepare the supplementary legal and systematic measures required in practical protection of human rights and remedial action for the discrimination for people with disabilities.
- Task 6: Survey on Management and Operation of Personal Information on the Administrative Forms
The forms normally used in the central administrative agencies, local governments, judiciary institutions and others require excessive exposure of personal information of civil complaints, and such information collected has high possibility of exposure to outside in a way of interference on human rights. In fact, there is an increasing showing of complaint cases in the NHRCK for the damages incurred by the exposure of individual information by the public institutions.
The Commission plans to find out the status of protecting the individual information on the administrative forms and the management thereto by the public institutions, and confirm the legal basis, and prepare the recommendation to improve the desirable policy, system, law and customs.
- Task 7: Research on the Development of Evaluation Index of Police Affairs based on the Human Rights
Approximately 20% of entire complaints filed in the NHRCK are occupied with the violation of human rights by the police. Even though there is a steady filing and disposition of cases, however no criteria or instructions to evaluate police affairs on the human rights are yet to be available.
Therefore, the NHRCK plans to undertake the status survey to analyze the international norm, the domestic norm, the recommendations of the NHRCK, and others in a way of finding out the status on the development of the human rights indices and working condition of the police from entire police affairs, and plans to develop the instruction thereto. For a similar task, there was a study on developing the instruction (Social Science Research Institute of Kyongwon University) to evaluate the detention facilities in 2003.
- Task 8: Study on the Systematization of Pro-Human Rights Contents in Elementary and Middle School Education
The Ministry of Education and Human Resources Development is expected to develop the government designated and authorized textbooks to be used from the new education courses from this year. In order to solidify and positively reflect the contents of human rights on the textbooks, it is critical to analyze the contents of the new education courses, systematize the contents of human rights, and develop and provide rich educational materials by textbook writers.
Through this survey, the plan is to systemize the contents of human rights (education) to fit into the textbooks and the contents of the human rights is to duly reflected on the new textbooks. The key contents of study would contain the background and implication of the human rights education, objective and contents of the human rights education in primary schools and secondary schools, plan to link the human rights education with the education curriculum for each course, objective of human rights education for each course, contents, teaching-learning method and the like.
- Task 9: Survey on the Meal Service Support System for Children of the Poor
The government has been implementing the meal service support system for the 17-years or younger students who receive the national basic living subsidy and the low income class for sufficient nourishment. However, due to the insufficient policy or operation, it causes the continuing deficiency in meals or nutrition, threatening the rights to health for children.
Accordingly, in order to protect the health of children in low income and next-level class and guaranty their rights, the government is to find out the status of operation for meal service support system and rights to health for children, and recognize the problems in the system, and formulate the improvement plan in policy.
- Task 10: Study on Applying the Criminal Punishment on Labor Cases (Centered on previous court decisions)
According to the statistics of the Ministry of Labor, among the workers who were arrested for the labor cases, 50% of the arrests have been made for criminal interference of public affairs. In particular, the exercise of the excessive criminal penalty right with respect to the labor dispute has been noted several times from the Social Rights Regulation Commission of the UN, ILO and other international organizations, and has been pointed out as the representative case of not satisfying the general labor standard.
With respect to the labor cases, the plan is to survey on the status of applying the criminal penalty (centered on adjudicated cases) on the users of judiciary branch and laborer to find out the status on human rights.
re arrested for the labor cases, 50% of the arrests have been made for criminal interference of public affairs. In particular, the exercise of the excessive criminal penalty right with respect to the labor dispute has been noted several times from the Social Rights Regulation Commission of the UN, ILO and other international organizations, and has been pointed out as the representative case of not satisfying the general labor standard.
With respect to the labor cases, the plan is to survey on the status of applying the criminal penalty (centered on adjudicated cases) on the users of judiciary branch and laborer to find out the status on human rights.
