status of its staff. However, the Government downsized the organization and personnel of the NHRCK by 21% in March 2009, making it very difficult to perform the functions as a national human rights institution. In response, the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, expressing concerns about the inordinate curtailment of the NHRCK's organization and the possible infringement on its independence, recommended to the Government that appropriate personnel and financial resources should be allocated to NHRCK. In a related move, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child recommended to the Government in 2003 and 2008 that the subcommittee on children's human rights should be set up within the NHRCK and a government agency dedicated to children's human rights should be established, but the Government has not taken any specific action to comply with the recommendation. 10. The Government should provide full personnel and financial supports to facilitate the NHRCK to fulfill its function of protecting children's human rights and reinforce its expertise in that area. 3. Allocation of Resources Budget for Children's Welfare (CRC/C/KOR/3-4, para. 33~38; CRC/C/KOR/Q/3-4, para. 13~14) 11. It is encouraging that the budget for children's welfare of 2011 is 16.5% higher than that of 2008 (CRC/C/KOR/Q3-4, para. 13), but it is still substantially low by international standards. According to the 2009 OECD Family database, Republic of Korea ranked the lowest among the 26 Member states in terms of the budget for children's welfare as percent of GDP by 0.17%, comparing with the OECD average of 2.3%. A detailed plan should be formulated to increase budget allocations for children's welfare to the level of the OECD average. 4. Data Collection (CRC/C/KOR/3-4, para. 39~47) 12. It is noted that the various kinds of statistical data mentioned in the Periodic Report were used as basic data for preparing and implementing the policies concerning children. However, the statistical data cannot serve as comprehensive standards for evaluation of the CRC implementation because the data does not provide detailed information by age, regional area and sub-group. Moreover, as the government agencies and the research institutes have separately produced the statistical data for their own purpose and using a different method of data collection, the possibility of data overlapping or omission cannot be ruled out. These concerns about possible data overlapping or omission are particularly apparent for the Child-Youth Panel Survey (a longitudinal study by the National Youth Policy Institute that includes first-grade and fourth-grade students in elementary schools and first-year students in junior high schools, until they become a freshman in college/university), the Child Panel Survey (a longitudinal study by the Korea Early Childhood Policy Research Institute, which was conducted among children aged 1~12), the Comprehensive Study on Children's Status (a repeated cross-sectional survey by the Ministry of Health and Welfare) and the 3