Chapter 1 Improvement of Laws, Regulations, Policies and Practices Section 1. Overview Pursuant to Article 19 Subparagraph 1, 4 and 7, and Article 25 of the National Human Rights Commission Act, the NHRCK carries out various activities, including conducting investigations of human rights conditions, issuing recommendations and opinions on human rights-related laws, regulations, policies and practices as well as on the accession to and implementation of international human rights treaties in order to facilitate the implementation of the treaties in Korea. In order to execute these tasks, the Commission is empowered to request cooperation from government agencies, local government groups, and other public and private organizations (Article 20), hold hearings (Article 23), and submit its opinions to the competent court or the Constitutional Court (Article 28) about trials that may have a significant impact on the protection of human rights. In addition, the Commission is mandated to present an annual report on its activities of the preceding year and a report on the latest human rights conditions and improvement measures to the President of the Republic of Korea and the National Assembly (Article 29). It may form, for different areas that are under its supervision, expert committees (Article 12) and advisory bodies (Article 15). In 2012, the NHRCK remained committed to improving laws, regulations, policies, and practices in the areas of human rights in general, including economic, social, cultural, civil and political rights. To this end, the Commission conducted research and studies on pending issues and collected the opinions of experts by organizing various discussion Chapter 1. Improvement of Laws, Regulations, Policies and Practices 39