We recommended the provision of around-the-clock activity support services to ensure the
safety of people with serious disabilities during the severely hot season, thereby leading the
Ministry of Health and Welfare and Seoul Metropolitan Government to announce their plans
to take necessary steps and improve their related systems. As for a case of sexual harassment
and secondary damage that occurred at a local press organization, we made sure that the
petitioner did not suffer from a hostile working environment. Our recommendation to remedy
the discriminatory act of denying non-public-official staff members the opportunity to take
part in a sports competition of a local government as athletes led to the removal of restrictions
only applied to public officials. We recommended that social welfare facilities stop verifying
the fingerprints of their employees for calculating overtime pay and come up with alternative
methods, while also urging the imposition of severe disciplinary action against a chairperson of
the board of a public corporation who coerced corporation staff to run his/her personal errands
during on-duty hours and verbally abused them.
We newly established one bureau, two divisions, and one team in July 2018. The previous
Investigation Bureau was divided into the Civil and Political Rights Bureau and Discrimination
Remedy Bureau to more effectively and adeptly remedy human rights violations and
discrimination. We also newly established the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Division,
Armed Forces Human Rights Investigation Division, and Gender Discrimination Remedy
Division, thereby further reinforcing our expertise in relevant areas.
The establishment of the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Division represents our efforts
to deal with polarization, the improvement of the social safety net, and seniors' human rights
in a preemptive manner. The Armed Forces Human Rights Investigation Division, formerly
the Military Personnel's Human Rights Team within Investigation on Civil and Political Rights
Division 1, was set up to serve as the single channel for all human rights issues concerning
the military. The investigation scope was expanded to apply to all human rights violations and
discrimination committed in the process of performing military duty and systematized to deal
with cases concerning conscripted police officers, firefighters, social workers, and public health
doctors.
We strived to establish the Gender Equality Division in order to more effectively prevent
and remedy gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. However, it was
decided, after the discussions with the government, that the temporary Gender Discrimination
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Introduction