A. INTRODUCTION I. Assessment in Overall Situation 1. Recent policies by the Government of the Republic of Korea (the Government) characterized by free competition, labour flexibility, retrenchment of social welfare spending, and increased budget allocation to massive development projects has caused the general retrogression in the field of economic, social, and cultural rights (ESCR). The Governments privatization of necessity public goods such as healthcare, education, water supply and electricity has become a concern as it challenges the full realization of the ESCR. 2. Based on the recommendation made by the National Human Rights Commission of the Republic of Korea (NHRCK) in January 2006, the Government developed a National Action Plan for Human Rights (NAP) in the following year. NAP not only omitted many of the core recommendations by NHRCK upon its adoption but also partially reduced budgets allocated to the social welfare projects on its August 2008 revision. This contradicts the recommendation from the Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (the Committee) demanding states to strengthen support for socially marginalized groups. 3. In 2006, NHRCK recommended a draft bill of the Anti-Discrimination Act which was subsequently submitted to the National Assembly as a government draft bill in the following year. However, the bill was automatically disposed as the term of the Seventeenth National Assembly expired and the possibility of re-submission seems to be scant regardless to increasing social demand. 4. On March 2009, the Government unilaterally downsized the staff and structure of NHRCK by 21.2%. In an era of above-mentioned retrenchment of social welfare spending and contrary to a growing demand for NHRCK to promote and protect ESCR, the government has been severely undermining the essential function of NHRCK as a human rights defender. 1