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Section 2. Key Progress
1. Institutionalization and foundation for human rights education
A. Institutionalizing human rights education in schools, public sector, and
civil society
Article 26 of the NHRC Act stipulates that human rights education is a main task of the
Commission. As the only state organization in Korea in charge of human rights education,
the Commission, monitored human rights education in 2016, to ensure that they are offered
while analyzing relevant statutes and making policy recommendations.
recommendations to the Ministry of Health and Welfare regarding the enactment and revision
of statutes to make human rights education mandatory for staff and the elderly in geriatric care
facilities and long-term sanatoriums, and also recommending legislative improvement for more
efficient education targeting persons with disabilities assistants.
The Commission also conducted inspections of public official education and training
institutes, teacher training institutes, and colleges to monitor the status of human rights education
in different domains. In line with the United Nations’second phase of the World Programme for
Human Rights Education, it inspected 365 state, public, and private colleges in Korea to check
the status of available human rights programmes and/or make requests for new lectures. This
initiative helped strengthen human rights education at the college level, with approximately 300
colleges responding.
The Commission reached out to 64 public official and teacher training institutes for a human
rights education audit, and 55 of them (or 86%) responded. The findings showed a quantitative
growth in human rights education, with programmes mainly focused on human rights public
administration (case studies of human rights in local governments, and human rights in judicial
administration, etc.), human rights 101 (human rights sensibility, understanding of human rights,
etc.), and women’s rights (prevention of sexual harassment and sexual violence, etc.). The
survey results will be used for reinforcing human rights education.
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Commission's Major Activities
The Commission worked to institutionalize human rights education by making
Part II
in public institutions, educational institutions, protective facilities, and various other domains,