To implement the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders established in 1998 the Commission on Human Rights established in 2000 the mandate on the situation of human rights defenders. Since this implementation, Ms. Sekaggya’s visit is the first of its kind for Korea. The investigation was conducted over a period of ten days (29 May ~ 7 June 2013) where the rapporteur met with various government and civil society organizations

Ms. Sekaggya announced her findings on 7 June 2013 and she indicated several dire concerns in the status of human rights in Korea. First in the area of freedom of expression, despite the fact that it is explicitly protected through the Korean Constitution she criticized the existence of the criminalization of defamation seriously limits the space where a human rights defender may exercise his/her fundamental right, as Ms. Sekaggya indicates, “which is a key right to claim other rights.” She also pointed out the National Security Act (NSA), although there has been improvements in regards to the act there is much more room for improvement to reduce the use of the law to prosecute defenders who express “criticism of government policies and labeling them as anti-government organizations.”

It was also noted that there has been multiple instances where the freedom of peaceful assembly has been challenged. There have been reports of arrests during peaceful protests. For example on the scale of local residents protesting against large scale development projects such as the Miryang electrical tower construction and Jeju Island’s Gangjeong Village Navel Base construction there have been incidents of violent arrests. Even the entry of foreign human rights defenders were denied.

The rapporteur also noted the limitations on the right to form trade unions where public officials and teachers were concerned. Noting the continued struggle by the Korean Government’s Employees Union (KGEU) to gain legal status over many years.

In ad midst the accreditation process of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) much concern has arose as over the years the protection and promotion of human rights in the country has been losing confidence.

The full statement of Ms. Sekaggya can be found in the link below.

Mrs. Margaret Sekaggya as Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders © UN Photo

[1] Statement by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders at the end of her visit to the Republic of Korea (29 May – 7 June 2013) 

[2] Statement by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders at the end of her visit to the Republic of Korea (29 May – 7 June 2013) KOREAN VERSION

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The overall budget provided to businesses for establishing day care centres will be expanded from 20 million won to 30 million won, for independent establishments. For Small to Medium Enterprises, shared establishments will be up to 60 million won. Also, the regulation requiring care centres to be built only on the first floor of the building will be lifted, allowing the centres to be established up to the fifth floor of the worksite.

While there are approximately 40,000 day care centres in Korea, it is still difficult for working mothers to find child care establishments that are trustworthy and flexible to look after their children during long work hours.

According to a public survey in 2012, onsite day care centers proved the most popular among parents with 4.13 points out of 5, compared to public or cooperative day care centres. Working mothers find onsite day care facilities more trustworthy and convenient as they have long operating times averaging at 12 hours 36 minutes with extended hours available.

This initiative, in effect, not only aims to increase convenient child care options but also support the welfare and employment of working women. According to the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs’ report in 2012, 89.1% of women in the workforce drops to 51.9% after marriage. 33.1% of married female workers decrease to the rate of 27.1% after the birth of their first child. Late hours, and the burden of familial responsibilities largely discourage work-life for women in Korea. However, “If the number of Day Care centers increase at the workplace, then the employment rate of women will go up as working mothers can work from early morning to late at night,” according to the Korean Women’s Development Institute Head of Department.

http://www.fnnews.com/view?ra=Sent0701m_View&corp=fnnews&arcid=201306110100089410004945&cDateYear=2013&cDateMonth=06&cDateDay=10

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After the recent suicide report of a Social Welfare worker who took his own life last month showing “signs of overwork and stress,” it has been uncovered that 65% of social workers are suffering from depression, with 29.2% feeling urge to commit suicide.

Social workers have higher levels of stress amounting to 51.9%, exceeding those of government workers in fire stations (30.6%) and police officers (33.3%). By gender, the percentile of stress for male workers due to work was 71.5 while it was 72.9 for women.

The main reasons behind depression were linked to their generally stressful working environment:  “disruption or commotion caused by civilians during office work” (93%), being exposed to “excessive swearing and profanities” (92%), oppression from civilians (75%) and shock from witnessing death or injuries of colleagues during work.

Physical violence was also reported to be prevalent with 19% having been inflicted with punching and kicking (7.7%), threatening with objects or tools 5.6%, slapping 3.4%, grabbing of the head 3.3% . 20% of those who experienced bodily harm was found to experience abuse more than four times a year.

The underlying reason behind such abuse of social workers has been attributed to the structural problems of the social welfare system in Korea. Workload is being piled up on social workers without any measures for extra manpower or professional evaluation. Not only is there a clear necessity for the reformation of administrative work in Social Welfare but Korean society’s deferential attitude and maltreatment of service workers must be tackled in order to create a healthier working environment in the nation.

http://news.hankooki.com/lpage/society/201305/h2013052715041621950.htm

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An intern at a financial institution in Korea committed suicide. The 29-year-old man became an intern at a medium-sized brokerage firm last year after graduating from a private university in Seoul with a degree in business. When he first got the position, he believed his goal of becoming a full-time employee in the brokerage firm was near.

The reality was different. At the beginning of his internship program, he was told a full-time position may be offered based on his performance. In order to exceed his peers, he worked day and night to maximize his sales record. Even if he had a good performance record, his firm set an outrageously high goal for an intern to achieve. Therefore, he was always under enormous amount of pressure. His health started deteriorating, and he even had to receive stomach surgery. At the end, he could not take any more pressure.

The brokerage firm gave ₩1,000,000 (USD $910) per month as salary, and expected him to sell all kinds of financial products such as pension funds, mutual funds, and CMA accounts etc. They encouraged interns to compete against each other to sell more products. Interns had to sell more products than their peers to receive the full-time offer.

The brokerage firm already received a warning from the Financial Supervisory Service last year. However, they continued to exploit their interns in which eventually led one of their interns to suicide.

Most firms make great use of the internship program. Firms have a chance to evaluate their future employees before hiring them as full-time. According to last year’s report by the Korea Employer’s Federation (한국경영자총협회), large corporations hired 46% of their new employees as interns, small & medium sized firms hired 53% of new employees as interns. Firms expect their interns to carry out same duties as regular employees, but pay much less salary. At the end of internship program, they let the majority of the interns go, leaving a very talented few behind.

Being an intern in Korean firms is not the same as being an intern in the United States. Most interns in large U.S. firms get almost the same amount of benefits and salaries as regular employees. However, most interns in Korea receive minimum wage or less. Even if they are treated unfairly, they do not dare to complain because firms can so easily “let them go” and interns are desperate to get full-time offers.

http://news.chosun.com/site/data/html_dir/2013/04/29/2013042902419.html

Hong Ju You

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Mr. Kang who is well accustomed to hierarchical Korean culture took the request as a challenge to his authority. He started cursing toward the door manager. The door manager responded by asking Mr. Kang to refrain from using profane words, but Mr. Kang got more infuriated. He slammed the door manager’s face with his wallet 3 to 4 times.

To the press, Mr. Kang admitted his speaking of swearing words and hitting the doorman’s face, but he has refused to talk any further. Lotte Hotel decided not to publicize this incident any further and refused to show the surveillance camera record.

This incident reminded the public of a recent incident in an airplane heading o Los Angeles, when an executive officer of Posco Energy Corporation hit a flight attendant’s face with a magazine. His action caused a public outrage against him. Later on, he had to leave his company.

The reason that these incidents occur is because of the authoritative and hierarchical Korean culture. The old generation tends to treat people who work in the service industry with less respect. They tend to regard those service workers as “under” their social positions, so they get furious when those “under” people do not please them enough.

It is about time the older generation change their way of thought and start treating everyone as equals regardless of occupation. All people regardless of their social status, color, creed, sexual orientation, race, etc are entitled to maintain their human dignity and at no cost should they be subjected to less than equal treatment.

Resource: http://www.seoul.co.kr/news/newsView.php?id=20130430010032

Hong Ju You

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The free trade agreement that India is currently negotiating with the European Union is threatening the lives of people in India and other developing nations. India’s patent legislation has been protecting the production and sale of generic drugs that were patented elsewhere. Thanks to such protection, India could have been the world’s leading manufacturer and exporter of generic drugs.

Indian drug manufacturing firms have been producing antiretroviral (ARVs) that are used for the treatment of HIV/AIDS, and the competition among manufacturing firms have contributed to lowering the price of drugs. Therefore, in spite of original drugs being extremely expensive, people in India and other developing nations were able to purchase drugs at affordable prices.

However, the European Union has been criticizing such action. EU made a statement in 2009 “India is one of the major sources of counterfeit medicines seized by the customs services of the member states.”

Once the trade agreement between India and European Union goes into effect, multinational drug firms in the EU will be able to enforce their intellectual property rights that may prevent the production and sale of generic drugs in India.

To protest against the trade agreement, more than a thousand people that are HIV-positive demonstrated outside the house of parliament in New Delhi. They are worried that the trade agreement may limit their access to affordable drugs. Some of their placards indicate “Life is not for sale.”

With regards to such demonstration, the EU made a press release stating “the free trade agreement currently under negotiations between India and EU is certainly not intended to restrict the ability of India to continue doing the same for domestic and international consumption. It is not EU’s intention to use enforcement measures to hinder the legitimate trade in generic medicines.” However, most Indian people remained skeptical.

Choosing between saving intellectual property and saving people’s lives, the FTA deal between India and EU is gaining great attention from the global community.

Resources:

http://www.thenational.ae/news/world/south-asia/eu-india-deal-to-ban-generic-drugs-angers-the-hiv-positive

http://www.twnside.org.sg/title2/resurgence/2012/259/cover04.htm

Hong Ju You

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The bill specifies that there should be a clause in the bill relating to ‘indisputable misreport’; as for the aggrieved party, it can request a confirmation on a misreport and the Press Arbitration Commission decides whether it is a misreport or not within three days. It can request a correction report to the indicated press under coercion. If the press does not comply with the request and does not revise the misreport within seven days as of the date of the request, the press can be charged with ￦30 million (approximately USD 26628).  KNA states that “the revised bill allows PAC, which should act as a mediator and moderator, to act as an aggrieved party and request a correction report to the press,” and that “this disrupts the objective and the intent of the foundation of PAC.” In partial to the highly debated press arbitration revised bill, KNA suggests that the bill limits of press freedom and the editorial right in case of press dispute.

In the past, the country often went under the scrutiny of a foreign control or a dictatorship, in which exceedingly regulated the content printed by the press. Also, South Korea ranks 50th after Haiti and before Comoros on the 2013 World Press Freedom Index by the Reporters Without Borders. Compared with other OECD members, Korea shows a relatively stricter regulation on the press–partially in rights to access and majorly in limits to contents. The index rank, which has fallen from 44th in 2012 to 50th in 2013 expresses a concern for the press freedom in Korea. Having said, it seems understandable that KNA would be confrontational to the proposed bill, as the concerns for press freedom arise.

Retrieved from:

• http://news.khan.co.kr/kh_news/khan_art_view.html?artid=201306122158265&code=940705
  
• http://news.mk.co.kr/newsRead.php?no=460230&year=2013
• http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html

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No Gun Ri is located in the Chungcheong Province northeast of South Korea approximately two hours away from Seoul. Growing up in America I have a sense of prideful arrogance on being an American. America saved the good and weak guys from the bullying bad guys. This sense of arrogance was put into place when I visited No Gun Ri. At No Gun Ri a feeling of solemn overcomes you and then you see the twin tunnel that is decorated with what looks like polka dots. The polka dots are not a display of art nor is it for aesthetics, rather it is remnants of  war. The polka dots are bullets embedded into the gray concrete that were placed during the Korean War. No Gun Ri was not a battle site between the North Korean and South Korean armies. Nogunri was a site where up to 500 innocent civilian refugees were cornered and massacred by the United States  armed forces. The refugees were those living in nearby villages when the U.S. Army ordered evacuations as the North Korean forces were rapidly pushing the front lines south. Majority of the causalities were women, children, and the elderly.

Across the street from the twin tunnel, is the No Gun Ri peace park and museum. The recently built facility has an  excellent museum that is designed to intricately tell the story of No Gun Ri through the eyes of the survivors. My mentor and I was fortunate enough to be given a tour by Chung Koo-do, Chairman of the No Gun Ri International Peace Foundation. Mr. Chung is not only the one that spearheads and operates this movement but is a child of a survivor of the No Gun Ri incident. Both of his parents were present at the time of the massacre his mother bore injuries being shot in the waist and he lost two older siblings, whom were two and five at the time. Since the 1970s, Mr. Chung’s father worked effortlessly to tell the story of No Gun Ri to the world, but no one listened. The people of No Gun Ri caught a breakthrough in 1999 when the Associated Press released an article that shed light on the incident to the international community. The key aspect of the article was the interviews the journalist team obtained from the 7th Cavalry soldiers that confirmed the story of the survivors.

More details refer to: http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2054848,00.html

Despite initiatives to re-investigate, the United States were found to hide vital information and kept mute about what happened. The Clinton administration did send its letter of regret regarding No Gun Ri and acknowledged that the incident did occur, however did not take responsibility for it.

There are multiple political implications and reasons why the U.S. acted the way it did. However, from a human rights perspective it is important that war crimes and atrocities that occurred in the past such as these, should be exposed and handled appropriately. The past cannot be undone or rewritten, whatever reason the massacre was carried out it is something we need to accept.  Rather than hiding in shame  or attempting to cover our tracks,it is more laudable to acknowledge our wrongs and show effort to make them right. As a nation that takes pride in policing its actions in handling war crimes the right way can become a positive example for other governments.

Life threw me a curveball and took me to No Gun Ri. The trip reaffirmed my passions and interests in human rights. Although the efforts of human rights defenders like Mr. Chung and his peace foundation are mostly gone unrecognized, it is through their efforts that allows us to enjoy our freedom today.

For those of you that are in Korea make sure to visit No Gun Ri Memorial Park and Museum.

There are numerous internship opportunities with the No Gun Ri International Peace Foundation. Please inquire via HRM for more information.

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**This article by no means reflect the views of the Korea Human Rights Foundation or the Human Rights Monitoring Project. This is an opinion piece indicating the experience and thoughts of the author.

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Under the theme “Sustainable Human Right City for All: Guiding Principle for a Human Rights City” the 3^rd World Human Rights Cities Forum (WHRCF) was successfully held in Gwangju, Korea from May 15~May 18, 2013. Distinguished guests, experts, and participants gathered from all over the globe to discuss freedom, equality, and justice in developing a human rights city. In the presence of Former First Lady and current chairperson of the Kim Dae Jung Peace Center, Hee-ho Lee, the opening ceremony was opened with the keynote speech given by Mr. Getachew Engida, Deputy Director-General of UNESCO and Mr. John Maresca, former Rector of the UN mandated University for Peace. Mr. Engida, expressed his gratitude for the opportunity to participate in such an event, he also revealed that his father served in the Korean War 62 years ago, indicating a personal relationship with Korea.

Thematic Workshops

The Forum was carried out over the course of three days encompassing an array of diverse topics in relation to Human Rights City such as: City and Disability, City and Child/Youth, State Violence and Human Rights Cities, City and Gender, and Environment and Human Rights to name a few. As the co-organizer of WHRCF, the Korea Human Rights Foundation (KHRF), invited area experts and successfully held three successful thematic workshops, Human Rights Institutions and Policies, Human Rights Education and Civil Servants, and Architecture and Human Rights.

Human Rights Institutions and Policies

Domestic and international experts in the field of human rights policy gathered to share their knowledge. With Professor Hyo-Je Cho (Sociology, SungKongHoe University) as moderator there were two presentations made. Ms. Eva G. Chueca, coordinator at the Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights (UCLG), made the first presentations on how to apply human rights policy to local governments and some tools local governments use to implement human rights policy. The second presentation was made by Sookmyung Women’s University law professor Sung Soo Hong on the institutionalization of human rights within local authorities of Korea its history and challenges. After the presentations, the panel of discussants carried out a fruitful debate regarding the topic.

Human Rights Education and Civil Servants

In this session, participants discussed the status of human rights education for civil servants. Moderation was done by Kyung Ran Moon, chairperson of the Human Rights Committee of the Seoul Metropolitan Government. Following, presentations by Frank Elbers, Executive Director of Human Rights Education Associates was given on the UN statement on human rights education and various international human rights education programs. Chief researcher at HURIGHTS-OSAKA followed up with a presentation on the human rights education for civil servants in Japan and other parts of Asia. Then finally, Cheol Hong Kim, chief of the human rights education team of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, gave a presentation on human rights education in the domestic aspect of human rights education for civil servants.

Architecture and Human Rights

In the architecture and human rights session, Architect of Tengbom Architects Sweden, Stellan Fryxell made a presentation on the social responsibility of architecture in Sweden’s city and public architecture. Following Mr. Fryxell’s presentation, two domestic cases of architecture with a human rights approach. The first case was on the Namhansan Elementry School Remodeling Project presented by Yunha Lee an architect at the Institute for Eco-Architecture NoDD, and the second was by Young-Keun Han an architect of Archipoly Corporation on the Youngdeungpo Jjokbang Remodeling Pilot Project.

2013 Global Human Rights Cities Essay Contest

In order to promote human rights among the youth as well as encourage their active participation in human rights, WHRCF successfully held its 2^nd annual Global Human Rights Cities Essay Contest. Again this year the competition was fierce with over two hundred international participants from over 10 different countries. Domestically, there were approximately over 100 domestic participants. After a difficult judging process, a total of 6 finalists (3 domestic, 3 international) were selected to compete at the semi-finals. The finalists made presentations on their papers in front of a panel of judges. The winners are as follows:

Experts’ Consultation on Gwangju Guiding Principles for Human Rights City

At the experts’ consultation, experts from diverse fields of human rights from all over the globe came together to discuss and revise a guideline for Gwangju’s Guiding Principles for Human Rights City. With Anselmo Lee, Executive Director of KHRF, and Professor Chin Sung Chung, Seoul National University, as moderators the panel of 16 experts worked together to develop the principles.

Closing

The 3^rd WHRCF came to a close with the closing ceremony where the winners of the essay contest was presented their awards and with Gwangju Metropolitan City Mayor, Kang Un-tae, pledging to host the 4^th WHRCF next year in 2014.

After the WHRCF, participants were also able to enjoy intimately the spirit of the 5.18 Democratization Movement that is Gwangju by participating in the Eve of May 18^th Festival on the 17 May 2013 and the National May 18^th Memorial Ceremony held at the National May 18^th Cemetery in the presence of President, Ms. Park Geun-hye.

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The President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Remigiusz A. Henczel, announced Michael Donald Kirby, Sonja Biserko and Marzuki Darusman as the members of the commission of inquiry to investigate human rights violations in North Korea.

Michael Kirby, a former Justice of the High Court of Australia, will chair the inquiry. Sonja Biserko, is a founder of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia. Marzuki Darusman is a former Indonesia attorney-general and currently the UN Special Rapporteur of North Korea.

Michael Kirby said to Australian broadcaster ABC, they would approach the inquiry with “complete independence” and without “preconceptions.” He added North Korea would be given a thorough “due process.”

They will investigate “systematic, widespread and grave violations in nine specified areas: 1) violations of the right to food; 2) violations associated with prison camps; 3) torture and inhuman treatment; 4) arbitrary detention; 5) discrimination; 6) violations of freedom of expression; 7) violations of the right to life; 8) violations of the right to movement; and 9) enforced disappearances, including the abductions of nationals of other states. “

North Korea has denounced such nominations as a political ploy. The panel would largely rely on satellite images and testimony from defectors as North Korea will not allow their visits.

South Korean government welcomed the nominations of three panels, stating the panels “have independence and expertise to carry out their duties”

Hong Ju You

Resource:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-22445339

http://www.ohchr.org/EN/NewsEvents/Pages/DisplayNews.aspx?NewsID=13301&LangID=E

http://www.yonhapnews.co.kr/

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