The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) recommended the mayor of Ansan install elevators for the disabled and elderly at the Gunja Social Welfare Center. The Commission declared the municipal authority’s failure to install elevators at the facility frequently used by the disabled and elderly to be a discriminatory act in violation of their right to equality.
In January 2006, a complainant known as Park (male, 49) filed a complaint with the NHRCK, stating, “The Gunja Social Welfare Center, located at a permanent rental housing complex of the Korea National Housing Corporation (KNHC) Gunja Complex 13 in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province, does not have elevators, even though it is commonly used by the disabled and elderly. This constitutes discrimination against them.”
In response, the municipal authority of Ansan said that expansion of the Gunja Social Welfare Center was started in April 2005 in accordance with a housing environment improvement project undertaken by the Ministry of Construction and Transportation. The authority also said that installation of elevators would be reviewed, adding that necessary budgetary resources would be secured, but immediate installation would be difficult since the expansion work was already ongoing.
According to NHRCK’s findings, the two aboveground floors of the Gunja Social Welfare Center (which is a three-story building with one underground floor and two aboveground floors) are connected by steep stairs with only a handrail, and the building has no convenience facilities promoting mobility of the disabled including elevators.
In addition, the permanent rental apartment complex of the KNHC Gunja Complex 13, where the Gunja Social Welfare Center is located, had 588 households as of November 2006, of which 266 (38.4%) were of disabled persons; 115 (19.6%) were elderly persons living alone; 65 (11.1%) were North Korean defectors; two each (0.3%) were headed by minors, mother-child families, or persons rewarded for meritorious service to the state; and the remaining 176 (30.0%) were others. Members of 226 of the households of the disabled were primary users of the welfare center. It turned out that the Gunja Social Welfare Center was the only welfare facility in the neighborhood providing educational and cultural programs for them.
Based on its examination of the Act on Promoting Convenience of the Disabled, the Elderly, Pregnant Women, etc. (“Act on Promoting Convenience”), the NHRCK confirmed that the municipal authority of Ansan was obligated to install elevators for the disabled at the welfare center. The NHRCK also determined that the absence of convenience facilities guaranteeing disabled persons’ right to move at the welfare center constituted discrimination against the disabled and elderly.
The decision of the NHRCK was based on the judgment that disabled people’s social participation is an important objective; that they must be permitted to enjoy an adequate quality of life; and that their right of access to public facilities and buildings toward that end is the basis of such values as freedom and opportunities enjoyed by all members of society.
