NATIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION OF KOREA Submission to the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities – July 2022 who did not take measures including prosecution even after recognizing the fact of forced labor of persons with disabilities, the government continues to inappropriately respond to forced labor of persons with disabilities as seen in the “second Shinan Salt Farm” incident21 in October 2021. ㅇ In addition, the practice of leniency for perpetrators and the low level of punishment are also pointed out as problems. According to data from the Seoul Bar Association in 2017, in 39 criminal cases involving the 2014 Shinan Salt Farm Slave case, 10 out of 33 defendants were sentenced to prison(7 of whom are sentenced to not more than 2 years in prison), three were fined, and the remaining 20 were released on probation.22 In the case of “compulsory labor in a temple”23 where the chief monk exploited the labor force of a person with intellectual disability, a low sentence of one year in prison was sentenced in the first trial(June 2020), and an appellate trial is underway. ㅇ Legal experts who took charge of related cases pointed out that such leniency and low sentences are due to the fact that the victim’s vulnerability is not considered in the agreement between the perpetrator and the victims and victim’s unwillingness to punish24, and the crimes that can be sufficiently applied are not prosecuted. □ Recommendations ㅇ The practice of passive and compassionate application of the law on the forced labor of persons with disabilities should be addressed, related institutions should be reorganized and a detailed manual should be devised so that the government recognizes the related case as a serious crime of abuse not merely as a laborrelated crime. 34