on human rights and the environment; the prevention of such negative impacts; and the
operation of complaint procedures and monitoring mechanisms. The Government needs to
take active action in this regard, considering that human rights due diligence in private
companies’ supply chains has been legislated and carried out in other countries such as
France, Germany, and the EU.
19. It is also necessary to strengthen the judicial and non-judicial mechanisms for addressing
corporate human rights violations so that local victims of human rights abuses by Korean
business enterprises operating abroad can obtain appropriate remedies for their damage.
Furthermore, the Korean National Contact Point for OECD needs to be engaged more
actively in resolving disputes over multinational enterprises’ human rights violations.17
20. Proposed recommendation: The State party should endeavor to enact the Act on Human
Rights and Environmental Due Diligence in Supply Chains to obligate public organizations,
public enterprises, and private companies to carry out such due diligence in their supply
chains.18 The State party should also reinforce remedial measures for victims of human
rights violations by overseas corporate activities so that they can access immediate and
effective remedies.19
Issue 5. Non-discrimination
21. The 3rd NAP (2018-2022) included a policy task of “pushing for the legislation of a
framework act to minimize legislative gaps in prohibiting discrimination and provide
effective remedies for discrimination” as a basic planned task. However, the Government has
not yet pushed ahead with the enactment of the anti-discrimination act. In the 4th cycle of
Universal Periodic Review (UPR) for the Republic of Korea in January 2023, a number of
UN member States recommended Korea to adopt comprehensive anti-discrimination
legislation. However, the Government did not accept this recommendation on the grounds
that it is difficult to implement it immediately.
22. Meanwhile, the National Human Rights Commission Act, the enabling law of the
NHRCK, defines the act of discrimination as a violation of the right to equality and gives the
NHRCK authority to investigate discrimination and recommend remedies. The NHRCK
investigates more than 2,000 discrimination complaints annually.
23. There are individual statutes governing discrimination based on disability, gender
identity, age or employment type in Korea.20 However, the absence of comprehensive antidiscrimination legislation makes it difficult to protect a variety of victims of discrimination
and deal with cases of discriminatory harassment. Recognizing this problem, the NHRCK
proposed a draft of the Equality and Anti-discrimination Act to the National Assembly in
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