National Human Rights Commission of Korea Annual Report 2021
closed environment, the law provides that the Commission has the authority to make on-site
investigations (Article 50-4), incidents of deaths of service personnel while on duty should
be immediately notified to the Commission and the latter may demand to attend on-going
investigations (Article 50-6); it also provides for exceptions to dismissal of petitions (Article 50-7),
exceptions to investigation methods (Article 50-8), and protection of victims (Article 50-9).
Moving forward, the Commission is enabled to take a more systematic approach to safeguarding
and promoting the human rights of military personnel by leveraging its 20 years of experience and
expertise in policy recommendation, investigation and relief on military human rights issues.
Based on regular on-site inspections, the Commission recommended that the Ministry of
National Defense improve the human rights conditions in military detention facilities. Surveys of
boot camps showed that the excessive COVID-19 quarantine measures in place could constitute
infringement of basic human rights. The findings were used to make institutional improvement
suggestions. It also made ex officio investigations into incidents of sexual violence that resulted in
infringement of the right to life.
6) Establishing a system for diagnosis and assessment on human rights
Developing recommendations to operationalize the Fourth National Action Plan for
the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights
Together with human rights groups, civil society groups, and external experts, the Commission
set out to develop recommendations to operationalize the Fourth National Action Plan for the
Promotion and Protection of Human Rights (NAP) from 2023.
For the planning and execution of the 4th NAP, the Commission established a task force
comprising ten human rights experts and activists, commissioners, and the Secretary-General. The
task force held meetings on three separate occasions. The Commission also consulted with experts
in 20 areas (right to liberty and correction, information rights, social security, older persons, right
to adequate housing, right to work, climate crisis, gender violence, gender gap, family diversity,
gender minorities, persons with disabilities, migrants, military, children and young people, disaster
and infectious diseases, international human rights, education, business and human rights, and
environmental rights) in writing to draw up a list of tasks, held meetings on ten areas (right to
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