ANNUAL REPORT 2015
recommendations. In addition, the Commission actively responded to current human rights
issues in the society, including child abuse and others. The Commission worked hard to fulfill
the Commission’s responsibility as a quasi-judicial body in charge of remedial actions by
conducting suo motu investigations on cases of serious infringement upon human rights, and onsite investigations on residential care and detention facilities, as well as the usual investigations
on appealed cases. To strengthen its capacity of investigation and of creating remedies in
the years to come, the Commission acknowledged the need to hire enough manpower for
investigations and to foster the capacity building of its investigators with education courses on a
regular basis.
The Commission yielded great results in terms of international exchange and cooperation.
At the 10th ASEM, which took place in Milano, Italy, on October 16th and 17th in 2014, the
ANNEX adopted the ASEM Initiative on Global Ageing and Human Rights of Older Persons
proposed by the ROK government. This led the Commission to host the ASEM Conference on
Global Ageing and Human Rights of Older Persons in Seoul from October 26th to the 28th. It
served as an opportunity for the Commission to officially bring the importance of senior human
rights to the discussion table of the international community, laying a foundation to spearhead
a project to promote senior human rights. In addition, the Commission fulfilled its role as one
of the more active NHRIs in the international community through the following measures:
operating a workshop to invite personnel over to Korea from other NHRIs; participating in a
range of international conferences, including the ICC and APF Annual Meeting; and signing
MOUs with NHRIs in Poland, Denmark, Indonesia, and Mongolia.
The Commission has also seen great progress in human rights education, which is an
important part of its role. To meet the demand and allocate enough resources, it successfully
reorganized its training system to foster enough human rights lecturers, develop various forms
of educational content, and begin the operation of human rights education in each field. Going
forward, especially in terms of spreading and institutionalizing human rights education, the
Commission needs to engage in the reviewing process to analyze the current situation and the
effectiveness of human rights education in academia as well as in the public and private sector.
The Commission shall serve its mission as an NHRI under close cooperation with civil
society, so that improvements in human rights can actually be felt in the life of each and every
member of the society.
16 | National Human Rights Commission of Korea