National Human Rights Commission of the Republic of Korea Residents' Voting Act, Article 15 of the Local Autonomy Act, and Article 49 of the Local Education Autonomy Act. It also informed the Speaker that it would be advisable to separate the age of accession to political parties as prescribed by the Political Parties Act from voting age and to lower the age of accession to political parties than voting age. The current related statutes grant persons aged 19 or higher the right of voting, residents' voting, asking for the making, revising, and repeal of ordinances, and the qualifications for promoters and members of political parties. The Commission thought that the standards on voting age influences very much on the basic human rights such as the right of voting and the freedom to political expressions as the elections are the core institution of representative democracy. As such, the Commission reviewed the statutes governing voting age in accordance with the provisions of Article 25 Paragraph 1 of the National Human Rights Commission Act. The Commission concluded that voting age as prescribed by the Public Official Election Act, etc. should be lowered, and expressed the following reasons. First, most of the citizens enjoy the benefit of public education, and they have an easy access to information in information society. They have, therefore, a high level of knowledge and consciousness as well as the capacity to make political judgments. Second, it is difficult to expect that lowered voting age will lead to politicalization of high schools or sources of trouble for schooling. It should be also pointed out that there are persons younger than the present voting age who are already university students. Third, other statutes allow persons aged 18 Chapter 1. Improvement of Laws and Regulations, Institution, Policies, and Practices ▪▪▪ 63