3. General Projects A. Reinforcing the Foundation for Human Rights-Friendly Policies The NHRCK, with the aim of strengthening the foundation for human rights-friendly policies, carries out surveys of the actual status of human rights and also recommends or expresses its opinion on related laws, systems, policies and practices. It also makes recommendations about signing onto international human rights treaties and recommends or expresses opinions on the implementation of treaties. The Commission, in order to ensure adherence to the consistency of its recommendations and to explore policy tasks, conducted a total of 19 studies and pieces of research into human rights alone in 2012. The Commission revealed the vulnerable state of human rights in Korea and continued its research into human rights in various different areas. In this way, the Commission has constantly strived to lay the groundwork for human rights-friendly policies by means of institutional improvements. Based on the results of studies and research, the Commission made 23 recommendations and proposed 18 opinions about the overall issue of human rights, including the improvement of the right to freedom, the right of children who are in a vulnerable social criteria to participate, the protection of the right to work, social issues such as school violence and sexual violence, as well as civil / political / economic / social/ cultural rights. The separate groups were organized to deal with the right of soldiers, students and the elderly to develop comprehensive measures to revise policies and systems. The supportive actions for the human rights of migrants, women and people with disabilities were also continuously promoted. 30 Part I. Introduction