Section 3. Evaluation
The number of complaints filed to the Commission surged dramatically in 2010 due to
group complaints filed by people with disability organizations and opening of the Report
Center for Torture Victims. Without the impact of these two mitigating factors, the number
of complaints in 2011 resumed its normal trend of steady increase. Increased workload
combined with manpower that was reduced significantly after 2009 was a challenge, but
the Commission succeeded in offering fundamental services as the primary channel for
human rights counseling.
Most notably, the Commission committed itself to improving accessibility of vulnerable
groups to services provided by the Commission in continuation of action plans for work
process improvement proposed in 2009. Sign language interpretation service was provided
each Monday via video phones to assist people with hearing impairment, and the
Commission retained full-time English-speaking counselors to meet the needs of
foreigners.
In addition, the Commission tackled the task of improving quality of its services. It
conducted customer satisfaction surveys to identify fundamental reasons of dissatisfaction
and seek solutions as well as modifying its primary response guideline for call inquiries,
but outdated communication system hampered the Commission’s effort to provide efficient
counseling services.
Meanwhile, the Commission offered on-site counseling sessions customized to special
needs in conjunction with its strategic projects and contributed to raising its domestic and
international recognition by actively promoting the service. To maximize the effectiveness
of the on-site counseling sessions, the Commission executed the program by working with
the Ministry of Justice, other relevant ministries, local governments, and domestic and
international NGOs and had the best possible synergy.
Providing human rights counseling training and education was important to improve
counseling capabilities. So the Commission developed programs that are practical and
Chapter 2 Human Rights Counseling & Complaint
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