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NHRCK Recommends Improvement of Mobility for the Disabled on Mugunghwa and Saemaeul Trains
Date : 2007.03.29 00:00:00
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The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) recommended that Korea Railroad (KORAIL) improve facilities promoting ease of mobility, based on its determination that the right to mobility of disabled persons using automatic wheelchairs is not fully guaranteed due to a lack of such facilities on Mugunghwa and Saemaeul trains.
This decision was made in response to a complaint filed by a thirty-year-old male known as Seo (Daegu Chapter of Disabled People’s International Korea) in June 2006 to the effect that “The Mugunghwa and Saemaeul trains operated by KORAIL seriously limit the right to mobility of disabled persons using automatic wheelchairs because they do not have necessary convenience facilities for them, which constitutes discrimination against disabled persons using automatic wheelchairs.”
KORAIL replied that the Mugunghwa and Saemaeul trains in operation had been introduced before the enforcement of the Disabled Persons Transportation Mobility Promotion Act*. It added that it was pushing for installation of wheelchair fixing equipment on passenger cars of Mugunghwa trains, in accordance with its high priority policy to improve convenience for disabled persons and promote the public interest, so that disabled persons may use wheelchair lifts and travel in their own automatic wheelchairs. KORAIL also said that most Saemaeul passenger cars were introduced from the late 1980s to the early 1990s and would be scrapped gradually starting in 2008 when their durable period comes to an end. These cars will be replaced by new electric cars fully equipped with mobility convenience facilities according to KORAIL. The company argued that refitting existing Saemaeul cars would be unfeasible because they have integral stainless steel structures, making any possible refitting unsatisfactory, technically very difficult, and extremely costly.
Based on the Commission’s findings, it was confirmed that the landing doors and access doors to passenger cars of Mugunghwa trains as well as the aisles of their passenger cars are wider than those of automatic wheelchairs, providing adequate space for their passage. However, it was also found that there no rails installed on either side of inclined landing plates for wheelchairs, rendering safe boarding by disabled persons using automatic wheelchairs difficult. The landing doors of Saemaeul trains were found to be too narrow to accommodate automatic wheelchairs. Their passenger car access doors and passenger car aisles are also too narrow for automatic wheelchairs.
Although KORAIL is seeking installation of mobility convenience facilities on its Mugunghwa passenger cars and is planning to introduce new Saemaeul passenger cars fully equipped with such facilities as part of its effort to make rail travel safe and convenient for disabled persons using automatic wheelchairs, the Commission determined that the right to mobility of disabled persons using automatic wheelchairs is seriously restricted because of a lack of mobility convenience facilities on ordinary trains and the absence of alternative transportation, which constitutes unfair discrimination against disabled persons using ordinary trains.
Our society is obligated to reasonably accommodate disabled persons so that they may enjoy the right to mobility and their social participation and welfare can be promoted subsequently. KORAIL may indeed incur costs to reasonably accommodate disabled persons using automatic wheelchairs. However, their right to mobility can be understood as a basic right for social integration. Given that KORAIL is an institution that must place top priority on the public interest and a large well-funded government-invested agency with a monopoly on public railroad transportation, traditionally a primary means of transportation for vulnerable people, KORAIL is naturally deemed obligated to effectively ensure the right to mobility by setting up necessary mobility convenience facilities.
The Commission determined that lack of mobility convenience facilities on Mugunghwa and Saemaeul trains for disabled people using automatic wheelchairs constituted discrimination and accordingly recommended corrective action.
* Ref. Disabled Persons Transportation Mobility Promotion Act.
Article 3 of said Act provides that all vulnerable persons including the disabled have the right to use all means of transportation safely and conveniently without any discrimination to ensure their right to human dignity and value as well as happiness. Article 5(1) of said Act stipulates the obligation on the part of transportation service providers to constantly endeavor to improve convenience of mobility for vulnerable persons.
