[Hankyoreh, May 7] S. Korea to be visited by UN human rights special rapporteur

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http://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/586278.html

S. Korea to be visited by UN human rights special rapporteur

Posted on : May.7,2013 15:04 KST

Margaret Sekaggya, UN special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.

Civic groups now preparing a report on the situation of S. Korea’s human rights defenders

By Um Ji-won, staff reporterCivic group representatives gathered on May 6, ahead of a visit by a UN special rapporteur who will assess South Korea’s human rights situation.The participants criticized South Korea’s legal and institutional practices for having repressed and not protecting human rights defenders.The Sarangbang Group for Human Rights, People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD), and around 20 other human rights and civic groups gathered at Zelkova Hall in PSPD’s offices in Seoul’s Tongin neighborhood for a report on the 2013 situation for South Korea’s human rights defenders. The meeting was organized ahead of a scheduled May 29 visit by Margaret Sekaggya, the UN’s special rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders.The term “human rights defender” encompasses a wider range of people than “activists,” including all those who are working to protect and promote human rights.This will be the first time a UN special rapporteur concerned with the situation of human rights defenders has visited South Korea. The groups at the meeting noted the significance of the occasion.“The fact that a special rapporteur is visiting South Korea despite its being one of 47 member states of the UN Human Rights Council shows that South Korea’s legal and institutional practices are not protecting human rights defenders,” they said.Myeong Suk, an activist with Sarangbang, said repression of human rights defenders were “clearly visible in the 2009 deaths of redevelopment protestors in Yongsan due to excessive police force, or physical violence used against strikers opposing layoffs at Ssangyong Motor.”“Yet the National Human Rights Commission, after it was shaken up by the government, has not been able to fulfill its role as an effective national human rights organization,” she added.Myeong went on to point out several characteristics of repression by authorities in South Korea, including economic punishment such as obstruction of duty and indemnification claims and excessive fines, widespread illegal surveillance, violence not only by police but by hired thugs, and charges of support for North Korea.One particular example was the situation at the village of Gangjeong on Jeju Island, where a naval base is currently under construction. According to figures given to Progressive Justice Party lawmaker Seo Gi-ho by the Ministry of Justice, a total of 649 people were arrested for protesting the construction between April 2007 and December 2012. Charges were pressed against 473 of them.Baek Ga-yoon, an activist with the National Committee to Block the Jeju Naval Base Construction, said an estimated 100 million won (US$91,300) in fines had been paid for the roughly 50 criminal cases concluded to date.Civic groups planned to deliver a report from the meeting to Sekaggya. The special rapporteur is planning to stay in South Korea until June 7, during which time she will meet with human rights defenders who suffered repressions, associated government agencies, and members of civil society. After surveying the situation, she is scheduled to submit a report on the findings to the UN Human Rights Council.　Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]