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Human rights legislation controversial

Posted August. 24, 2000 19:37,   

한국어

The Justice Ministry revealed August 24 its draft human rights bill, which calls for the establishment of a national human rights commission as an independent, non-governmental organization. The commission will be charged with investigating various human rights abuse cases and discriminatory activities. But many human rights groups are adamant in their assertions that the human rights body should be a governmental body, sparking a controversy over the proposed legislation.

Justice Ministry officials said that the UN Human Rights Committee is also recommending that the domestic human rights commission be established as a non-governmental organization authorized to make independent decisions. They also asserted that an independent, non-governmental human rights commission is necessary to ensure the body is not hampered by interference from government and ruling party organizations or forced to cope with their human rights abuses.

However, lawyer Cho Yong-Hwan of the joint measures committee for the establishment of a moral national human rights body said that the Justice Ministry is opposed to a governmental human rights commission because it hopes to exercise its own influence on the proposed organization. Cho said that even if the commission is a private organization, it is subject to the Justice Ministry`s authority in terms of the selection of commission members and budget outlays. In order to preclude ministry intervention, the commission must be completely independent from the ministry, he added.