with experts to better respond to the rapidly changing situations in Korea and abroad. We plan
to collect opinions and suggestions from relevant ministries and civil society and confirm and
recommend the Second Guidelines on the Human Rights of Migrants in 2019.
Developing Indicators to Identify and Protect Victims of Human Trafficking
According to the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially
Women and Children ratified by the National Assembly in 2015, human trafficking5) refers to
not only the act of buying and selling people like products but also the acts of luring people with
job opportunities, constraining their mobility by taking away their identification documents such
as passports, and prohibiting them from managing their wages.
We came up with the Indicators to Identify and Protect Victims of Human Trafficking to detect
victims of human trafficking in the early stages and protect them and recommended on June
20, 2016, that the Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Employment and Labor, Ministry of Gender
Equality and Family, Korean National Police Agency, and upper-level local governments draw
up measures to prevent human trafficking and protect victims based on the indicators. However,
awareness on the indicators among those on the front lines of investigations was found to still
be low. In view of this, the Guide for the Use of Indicators to Identify and Protect Victims of
Human Trafficking was produced in both Korean and English.
Monitoring the Treatment of Those Recognized as Refugees
Among 40,470 asylum-seekers in Korea, 839 had been recognized as refugees as of the end of
May 2018, but their present situations are unknown. We conducted in-depth monitoring jointly
with Korea Research Society of Refugees' Rights on 11 refugee-status holders to examine how
5) (a) "Trafficking in persons" shall mean the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means
of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a
position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having
control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of
the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to
slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.
(b) The consent of a victim of trafficking in persons to the intended exploitation set forth in subparagraph (a) of this article
shall be irrelevant where any of the means set forth in subparagraph (a) have been used. (Article 3 of the United Nations
Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children)
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Commission's Major Activities