Chairperson's Statement on the 115th International Women's Day
- The international community, including the United Nations, urges the South Korean government to continue to promote women's rights; creating a gender-equitable society is the responsibility of the both government and all of us.-
8 March is International Women's Day, commemorating the day 115 years ago when women poured into the streets of New York City to demand the right to vote and to work. For 75 years since the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights by the United Nations, we have made efforts to develop legal systems to guarantee women's human rights, but women still experience (sexual) violence and discrimination in all sectors of society.
Despite the fact that South Korea has long been an economically developed country, the gender pay gap in the Korean labour market has been the highest among the OECD countries since 1992. Women's representation ranks low among the OECD countries, and the elements of rape and indecent assault still depend on the use of physical force by the perpetrator, such as assault or intimidation.
For more than two decades, the National Human Rigths Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has made recommendations to the National Assembly and the government to improve discrimination against women in the labour market, eliminate (sexual) violence and increase women's political representation, but changes on the ground has been slow.
At the international level, the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW) and the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR) continue to review and make recommendations on the human rights situation in Korea under international treaties and the Universal Periodic Review (UPR). On 26 January, the UN Human Rights Council's Fourth Periodic Review of the Republic of Korea recommended the prevention of violence against women and gender-based violence and the elimination of the gender wage gap, while also suggesting the strengthening of the NHRCK's mandate and role in promoting women's rights.
This year, the Government of Korea is preparing for the ninth periodic review of its implementation of the CEDAW Convention. In its 2018 concluding observations, the CEDAW made a number of recommendations to the South Korean government, including amending the criminal offence of rape to focus on the victim's consent rather than limiting it to cases of assault or threat, introducing a 'wage disclosure system' to eliminate employment discrimination against women, and increasing women's representation.
Recently, the Ministry of Gender Equality and the Family (MOGEF) announced a plan to revise the components of the offences of rape and indecent assault under the Penal Code in the 'Third Basic Plan for Gender Equality', but it has shown signs of retreating as the Ministry of Justice has expressed the view that the measures need to be taken cautiously. In addition, the MOGEF announced in the above-mentioned Plan that it would implement a Gender Work Publication System to disclose the gender ratio from the recruitment to working and retirement stages, and the disclosure should also include gender wage information.
In 2018, the CEDAW recommended that the Korean government ensure equal representation of women in senior positions, including in public universities etc. In addition, in May 2022, the Committee recommended that the Chairperson of the National Assembly and representatives of political parties to amend the Political Parties Act, the Public Office Election Act, and Party Regulations to improve the gender imbalance in the political sphere, which has not yet been implemented.
The NHRCK will continue to play its role in advising and improving structural gender discrimination in our society, and will do its best to ensure that the recommendations of the international organisations such as the United Nations are properly implemented and that we can move towards a gender-equal society.
