ANNUAL REPORT 2015
Commission decided to launch a policy review as it recognized that the case might have been
related to ill-practices in the sports circle against the human rights of athletes.
As a result of the investigation, the Commission found that the club had been monitoring the
entrance and behavior of players through CCTVs installed on the isles of the player lodgings for
away games for nearly two months under the direction of its CEO. It was also confirmed that the
club did not receive prior consent from its players or notify them about the surveillance.
Therefore, the Commission decided that the case was infringement on players’ right to
privacy, freedom, and informational self-determination, according to the Constitution. It also
recognized that the case was an example of ill-practices in the domestic sports circle, which
put gaining control over players before respecting their human rights. To eliminate such illpractices, the Commission expressed its opinion on March 5th to the President of the Korea
Baseball Organization (KBO) to come up with preventive measures against player surveillance
pursuant to the Commission’s “Recommendation on the Sports Human Rights Guideline” in
2010. In addition, the Commission notified the Ministry of Government Administration and
Home Affairs of its decision and requested the ministry to take measure against the violation of
the Personal Information Protection Act.
In response, the KBO announced that it would spread the details of the 2010 recommendations
to all the professional baseball clubs in Korea and come up with preventive measures.
L. Expression of opinion on the implementation of the electro-magnetic card
system in the gambling industry
The National Gaming Control Commission (NGCC) under the Prime Minister made a
proposal to prevent the side-effects of the gambling industry (gambling addiction, bankruptcy
due to excessive gambling, etc.) by introducing electro-magnetic cards (e-cards). It immediately
provoked controversy because e-cards were to collect bio-information (finger vein) of an
individual, and use the information to prevent the use of multiple cards.
Although the Commission acknowledged the purpose, it decided that the proposal was
unacceptable and expressed its opinion on March 26th to the NGCC Chairperson for the
following reasons:
1. The proposal needs to come up with a stronger legal basis, because forcing an individual
to get an e-card issued and have his or her personal information for identification clearly
restricts the constitutional rights to freedom of action and informational self-determination.
34 | National Human Rights Commission of Korea