79.
In Korea, either the rate of child abuse recognition (the number of children who are recognized as
having suffered abuse in every 1,000 children) or the reporting rate of the people with the obligation to report
child abuse is not high. According to the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the rate of child abuse recognition
is 1 (person), which is higher than in the previous years but still remains low, particularly compared with the
rate of 9 in the United States. In this relation, some experts analyze that this low rate is not because there are
fewer cases of child abuse in the ROK than in the United States but because child abuse cases are not
properly detected and recognized, which is closely related to the low reporting rate.
80.
The number of child abuse reports made by those with the reporting obligation increased by almost
fourfold in ten years, that is, from 1,346 in 2004 to 4,358 in 2014. However, the reporting rate (of 29%) in
2014 is very low, when compared with the rates for the same year in Australia (73%), Japan (68%) and the
United States (58%). Moreover, about 10% of child abuse cases recurred every year, which points to the lack
of initial actions to conduct early intervention in child abuse and prevent recurrence of child abuse.
Questions suggested
81.
In Korea, the reporting rate of the people with the obligation to report child abuse is lower than the
rates in other countries, and about 10% of child cases reported recurred every year. Please provide detailed
data on the measures that the Government has taken to address these problems, what effects have been
brought by those measures, and the Government's plan to improve the conditions.
Issue 15: Child Poverty
Current status
82.
The ROK enacted the Act on Prevention of Child Poverty, Support of Children in July 2012, with a
view to undertaking effective child welfare policy measures to address the child poverty issue. However, the
Act simply consists of the 12 clauses, including the ones concerning the obligation to set up the five-year
basic plan and annual implementation plans on child poverty and the establishment of the Child Poverty
Prevention Committee, but does not provide for specific actions to prevent child poverty. The regulation on
the implementation of the surveys on child poverty is expected to come into force in June 2017.
83.
It is pointed out that the First Joint Basic Plan for Child Policy by relevant ministries (2015-2019)
and the 2016 implementation plan released by the Ministry of Health and Welfare just declare the
Government's commitment to set up basic plans to conduct surveys on the basic needs of children in poor
families and support those children, but fail to include any specific actions. According to the Comprehensive
Survey on Children's Situations (2013), which is conducted by the Ministry of Health and Welfare every five
years pursuant to the Child Welfare Act, child poverty rate was estimated at 10.62% or 9.45%: the first one is
the share of the households whose disposable income is less than 50% of median income and the second one
is the absolute poverty rate which is based on the minimum living cost (the poverty line released by the
Government in 2012), as child poverty rate refers to the proportion of children below 18 years of age who
belong to poor families. Considering that the proportion of the households with children which receive the
benefits under NBLS scheme is approximately 4%, it is estimated that about 538,000~651,000 children,
which accounts for about 5.6~6.7% of total child population, remain outside social protection.
84.
According to the Comprehensive Survey mentioned above, the poverty rate of households with
children differs among different income groups of households, and varies widely, depending on the family
type and the main childcare giver’s employment status. Child poverty rate among the households which
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