Dear friends,
We wish to share with you the following statement from 57 human rights and civil organisations in South Korea.
Asian Human Rights Commission
Hong Kong
————-
A Statement from 57 human rights and civil organisations in South Korea forwarded by the Asian Human Rights Commission
Upon our non-participation in the <Civil Society Consultation on Strengthening United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System in Seoul Conference>
To: National Human Rights Commission of Korea
From: 57 human rights and civil organizations in South Korea
Subject: Statement of our non-participation in the <Civil Society Consultation on Strengthening United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System in Seoul Conference>
Date: March 27, 2011
Contact: Myoung-sook, Sarangbang Group for Human Rights
(+82-2-365-5363, +82-10-3168-1864, humanrights@sarangbang.or.kr)
On March 21, 2011, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) sent an e-mail to six organizations including Minbyun – Lawyers for a Democratic Society, Korean Women’s Association United, Korea Center for United Nations Human Rights Policy, Sarangbang Group for Human Rights, and Korea Human Rights Foundation to request the reply regarding the status of attendance to the < Civil Society Consultation on Strengthening United Nations Human Rights Treaty Body System in Seoul Conference>.
All international human rights treaties and conventions are invaluable pledges of human society, which were made as a result of the global community’s quest for ways of ensuring human rights, so that strengthening the International Human Rights Treaty Body is an important agenda and meetings and studies recently conducted in the United Nations (UN) are also very important. This is what Korean civil society should take consideration as well. Most regrettably, however, the human rights and civil organizations of South Korea including the organizations above, which have received invitations from the NHRCK, cannot but point out the following problems regarding the international conference being prepared by the NHRCK.
First, even though the main agenda of the upcoming conference is ways of forging cooperation with global civil organizations to strengthen the international human rights treaty body system, the NHRCK has prepared for the event without any advance preparations or consultation whatsoever with the human rights and civil organizations of South Korea.
Indeed, human rights and civil organizations in South Korea were not notified on the details of the international conference and rather they were made aware only recently and only through press coverage. Likewise, the six organizations invited above had no knowledge whatsoever of the contents, composition, and position of the upcoming international conference. However, cooperation and communication between national human rights institutions (NHRIs) and human rights and civil organizations are not simply matters of discretion or consideration but are obligations of NHRIs.
Ever since the inauguration of Byung-Chul Hyun as its chair, the NHRCK has neglected and disregarded cooperation with human rights and civil organizations. In fact, examples of such acts are far too numerous to be cited. Among other things, the NHRCK has even rejected the request of women’s rights organizations for an interview with the chair regarding the dismissal of the Commission’s Sex and Gender Discriminations Investigator and unofficially exerted pressure on the participation of certain organizations in education involving the NHRCK.
Moreover, if and because the agenda of the conference is “Consultation with Civil Organizations (Role of NGOs),” the NHRCK ought to have sought and maintained collaboration with civil organizations all the way from the planning stage to the preparation stage. However, without thus seeking and securing civil organizations’ participation in the preparatory process at all, the NHRCK did nothing but to e-mail an invitation to and a programme of the conference, both in English, less than a month before the event. With no communication and cooperation between civic organizations that have continuously monitored the international human rights treaty bodies and the National Human Rights Commission of Korea,, we feel that this conference deviates from its core goal.
In conclusion, this international conference is none but a formality that violates the principle of democracy, transparency, and cooperation and consultation with human rights and civil organizations, all of which are obligatory for NHRIs, and, consequently, we feel that this conference will have difficulty collecting the meaningful results.
Second, we cannot but suspect an ulterior motive lying behind the NHRCK’s urgent hosting of such an event even to the extent of disregarding the principle of cooperation above.
As the actual reason for the NHRCK’s sudden hosting and organization of such a large international event without advance preparations, recent press coverage has proposed the Commission’s intention of raising its prestige at home and abroad, which hitherto has fallen considerably, before its reaccreditation (review of its status as an NHRI) by the International Coordinating Committee of National Institutions for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (ICC) in May.
After Chairman Hyun Byungchul took office at NHRCK, the once respectable and model national human rights commission has deteriorated greatly. In fact, Chair Hyun himself has created endless problems, openly denying the independence of the NHRCK, not at all hesitating to make decisions arbitrarily at sessions of the Commission’s Plenary Committee, negating the authority and capacity of the NHRCK without the least understanding of NHRI’s functions and purposes, and attempting to curtail the authority of Standing Commissioners for their righteous critique of his actions. Recently, when staff members of the NHRCK criticized him, with the labor union at the center, no longer able to withstand his ignorance and despotism, the vice chairman of the labor union has been terminated from their job.
As a result, the cooperation and communication that was maintained with NHRCK and civic organizations after its establishment, has now become completely cut off. The human rights and civil organizations of South Korea and 68 human rights experts who have resigned from the Advisory Committee of the NHRCK have requested that Chair Hyun, who has harmed the independence of the Commission, resign first and foremost and that the NHRCK be reestablished in recognition of his and its past mistakes and flaws. However, the NHRCK has ignored and failed to respond to the request thus far.
It is most preposterous that the NHRCK, with all its past errors and faults, should now do a complete about-face and send invitations to six human rights and civil organizations, proposing their participation. We cannot but strongly suspect the NHRCK’s ulterior motive of seeking to conceal and to embellish its status and reality, now fallen due to its own actions, by ostentatiously displaying both at home and abroad the participation of South Korean human rights and civil organizations in an international event organized by the Commission as if nothing has even happened, without at all frankly admitting, revaluating, and apologizing for its past mistakes and flaws.
By no means can we, human rights and civil organizations, collaborate with such a devious and self-seeking intention on the part of the NHRCK. If the Commission truly wished to organize the conference in cooperation with human rights and civil organization, it ought to have sought collaboration and participation at least from the preparatory stage and to have made requests accordingly. Sending invitations to organizations a few days before the event, deviates from the basic meaning of this conference. We cannot deny our grave concern that should we human rights and civil organizations of South Korea accept the invitation and participate in the event, our action may very well be misconstrued both domestically and internationally as a sign that there have been no problems whatsoever within and without the NHRCK and that the Commission has communicated smoothly with the civil society of South Korea.
Consequently, we, human rights and civil organizations, hereby announce our refusal to participate in the Consultation with International Civil Organizations to Strengthen the United Nations Treaty Body System to be held by the NHRCK, unable to agree in any way with the purpose and the contents of the event. We desperately hope that the NHRCK, a precious fruit of the democratization and human rights movements of South Korean society, will no longer be degraded as merely an instrument for providing the government and those in power with an alibi and an indulgence for violating human rights. We earnestly urge the NHRCK, even now, to accept the opinion of the human rights and civil organizations of South Korea and restore a system of trustful cooperation.
27 March 2011
Women’s Association, Gwangju Women’s Association United, Korean House for International Solidarity (KHIS), Center for Military Human Rights, Korea Association of Christian Women for Women Minjung, Dasan Human Rights Center, Daegu Kyoungbuk Women’s Association United, Daegu Women’s Association, Disabled People’s International Daegu (DPI Daegu), Daejeon Women’s Association for Democracy, Democratic Workers’ Solidarity, Minbyun–Lawyers for a Democratic Society, Democratic Legal Studies Association, Busan Counseling Center against Sexual Violence, Busan Women’s Associations United, Busan Women Education Center, Buddhism Human Rights Committee, Saewoomtuh, National Solidarity for Solving Prostitution Issues, Suwon Women’s Association, Korea Women’s Center for Social Research, Ulsan Women’s Association, Ulsan Solidarity for Human Rights, Korea Center for United Nations Human Rights Policy, Human Rights Education Center ‘Deul’, Protesting against Poverty & Discrimination Solidarity for Human Rights, Sarangbang Group for Human Rights, Disability and Human Rights in Action, Information & Culture Nuri for Disabled Koreans (South Korea), Solidarity against Disability Discrimination, Jeonbuk Women’s Associations United, Solidarity for Peace & Human Rights, Jeju Women’s Association, Jeju Women’s Human Rights Solidarity, Jeju Human Rights Center, Korean Progressive Network Jinbonet, National Association of Parents for Cham Education, Korean Catholic Women’s Community for a New World, Catholic Human Rights Committee, Youth Human Rights Action Asunaro, Network of Youth Human Right Activists, Chungbuk Women’s Association, Women Making Peace, Pohang Women’s Association, Korean Gay Men’s Human Rights Group Chingusai, Korea Sexual Violence Relief Center, Korean Women Workers Association, Korean Women’s Association United, Korean Womenlink, Korea Women’s Studies Institute, Korea Women’s Hotline, Korean Differently Abled Women United, Women Migrants Human Rights Center, Korea Human Rights Foundation, Housewives Meeting Together Hamjumo (57 human rights and civil organizations nationwide)
To support this case, please click here: SEND APPEAL LETTER
SAMPLE LETTER
