National Human Rights Commission of Korea Annual Report 2021
site inspections on 83 institutions, on progress made in implementing recommendations, it worked
to increase effectiveness of recommendations made for student athletes in elementary, junior high,
and high schools, and those made for professional athletes, while driving real change in the sports
world.
To prevent human rights violations against student athletes and conduct on-site monitoring,
the Commission also attended nine national sports competitions and the 102nd National Sports
Festival. The findings were used to inform the publication and distribution of proposed standard
competition management guidelines for human rights in sports competitions.
Together with the regional human rights offices, the Commission carried out promotional
activities in sports stadiums to raise awareness about human rights in sports. It also sustained
public interest through a Declaration of Human Rights in Sports Campaign, which was organized
online due to COVID-19. Given the need to continuously highlight human rights issues in sports
and change how human rights are perceived in the sports community, the Declaration of Human
Rights in Sports Campaign kicked off in 2019 continued into Season 3 in 2021. As in previous
seasons, the campaign continued the message that sports should be fun, and to do so, human rights
should be the first consideration. The campaign saw 4,100 people get involved in the declaration,
for an accumulated total of over 10,000 people since 2019. The commitment garnered from the
campaign, coupled with the general public support, is expected to contribute to furthering changes
in other parts of the sports community.
7) Improving human rights conditions in North Korea
The Commission announced a chairperson’s statement on the adoption by the 76th United
Nations General Assembly of the resolution titled Situation of Human Rights in the Democratic
People’s Republic of Korea and set up a committee specialized in human rights in North Korea to
leverage the expertise in the area and respond quickly to various North Korea human rights issues.
It also commissioned research on the state of the policies related to human rights in North
Korea, including the Human Rights NAP recommendation, prior to developing the 4th National
Action Plan for the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (NAP) to be implemented
from 2023. Together with international human rights organizations and experts, it hosted an
international symposium on human rights in North Korea to discuss the topics of ‘Tasks and
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