to the “Civil Act”, it is parent who have parental authority and rights to take
disciplinary action. Therefore, corporal punishment in homes is hardly
banned under the current law, unless it clearly leads to abuse that damages a
child’s body and harms health and development. In this regard, the Korean
government announced the “Policies for children toward Building an
Inclusive Society” in May 2018 that it will consider ways to exclude corporal
punishment from the rights to take disciplinary action, but no specific
attempts for amendment has been found thereafter.
40.
Children in child welfare facilities, including orphanages, have
limited basic right of personal liberty, and there is a risk of human rights
violations such as corporal punishment and degrading treatment if the
monitoring on the admission and living condition is insufficient. The
NHRCK gave recommendations on 2 April 2018 and 9 May 2019 on harsh
acts occurred in child welfare facilities and is exerting all efforts to
objectively check child rights situation by conducting a survey of child rights
in child welfare facilities (2010) and developing human rights evaluation
index for child welfare institutions (2017) in order to improve the index
which was developed in 2005.
Questions
41.
Please provide the Korean government’s plans on alternative
discipline methods to eradicate and replace all forms of physical violence
against children, including domestic and school corporal punishment. In
addition, please present amendment progress and future plan.
42.
Please present detailed plans to effectively ensure basic rights of
children in child welfare facilities, including independent supervision and
exclusive monitoring agency.
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