educational backgrounds without reasonable cause. Differences in wages, income level,
employment opportunities, or promotion according to principles of capitalistic economy
which reward more compensation to those with stronger capabilities may be socially
acceptable to some degrees. However, placing excessive or unjustified weight on
educational backgrounds to determine a person's overall capabilities can be considered
discrimination without reasonable cause.
○ Rejection of Participation of Youth in a National Traditional Music Contest
Mr. Kim filed a complaint alleging that his children intended to participate in OO
national traditional music contest in 2009, yet the accused, the host of the contest, offered
participation eligibility only to enrolled students. As they were not enrolled to any school
system, they were not allowed to participate in the contest and this, he alleged, was
discrimination based on education.
The accused argued that a participant who partakes in the student category of the contest
and receives the first prize will be awarded a prize granted by OOOO Education
Superintendent, the highest-ranking education official in the host region and that the
contest category was the student category, not youth category, so they restricted contest
participation eligibility to enrolled students.
The Commission deemed that the reasons for school-age youth not attending schools
vary significantly including economic, social, and educational environmental factors, and
that any youth who are in the development phase need diverse cultural activities for
balanced growth, regardless of their attendance of schools and that any youth can learn arts
and participate in contests and improve their performance through fair competition with
other youths and become talents leading the nation's traditional arts. It decided that,
nevertheless, the act of refusing the participation of youth in a national traditional music
contest only because they do not attend schools cannot be considered reasonable.
Accordingly, the Commission recommended that the accused should rectify the practice of
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Part II. Major Activities of the Commission