NHRCK Provides Specialized Counseling by Day of Week
On February 1, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) began offering public counseling services provided by expert counselors. Thirty-four experts including lawyers, labor attorneys, clinical psychologists on mental health, and social workers are now serving as specialized counselors. They were formally appointed in a ceremony on January 30.
Human rights counseling by the NHRCK had previously been confined largely to human rights violations and cases of discrimination explicitly stipulated in the National Human Rights Commission Act and other matters that have relevance to human rights. However, people requesting such counseling services called for more comprehensive and specialized human rights and legal counseling, prompting the NHRCK to deploy specialized counselors to meet their needs by providing more effective and comprehensive counseling services.
Each day of the week, counseling in a specific field is provided by professional counselors (one lawyer and one expert in the field) on a rotating basis. They are available 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday.
The professional counselors include twenty-two lawyers, three certified labor attorneys, five clinical psychologists, one social worker, and three members of women’s groups and research groups. They are experts on overall legal issues and also workers’ human rights, mental health and psychology, migrant workers, sexual harassment and sexual assault, juveniles, and so forth.
