78 Commission's Major Activities ● Seniority culture, forced memorization, and punishment among fire department conscripts With respect to abusive language, punishment, and forced memorization imposed by senior conscripts on their juniors in Fire Department X, the Commission on 29 March recommended the head of the fire department to issue a disciplinary warning to the officer who made the inappropriate remark of “hunting down the whistle-blower” and to organize special training programs to educate the staff and conscripts. An investigation showed that restrictions, forced memorization, and punishment based on seniority have long been practiced in the fire department, but recently, these practices have been less frequent or non-existent. However, those who brought the practice to public attention were labeled “whistle-blowers” and were subjected to abusive language from their seniors. It was also found that the fire department had delegated the mandatory training of new conscripts to their seniors, and had the victims and offenders of abusive language attend the same training on ethics. The Commission concluded that the department’s lukewarm response to complaints filed by the conscripts and its failure to organize a disciplinary committee to address abusive language and punishment constitute non-fulfillment of its obligation to protect the basic rights specified under the Constitution and the State Public Officials Act. In addition, given that this incident is a recurrence of similar atrocities that occurred in a fire department in Gangwon-do Province in December 2015, the Commission concluded that there is a need to conduct routine inspections of fire departments around the nation. ● Archery training by a training center regimental commander The Commission concluded that a regimental commander of the Army Training Center shooting over a road used by soldiers during archery practice sessions for his personal enjoyment is an infringement of the soldiers’ right to be safe. On 28 September, the Commission recommended the Army Training and Doctrine Commander to take disciplinary actions against the regimental commander and to establish measures to prevent a recurrence in the future. An investigation found that the respondent practiced archery for his own enjoyment at a military training ground more than ten times during weekdays (1630-1800) and weekends in May and June. To secure the necessary range of 145 meters, he shot over two training grounds