The Report on Human Rights Situation in the Republic of Korea This result reflects the fact that people were unable to think that the human rights status has improved due to strict disease control measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19. Generally, national emergencies serve as a trigger to raise human rights issues, such as restricting freedom, the weakened protection of socially vulnerable people, inequality in labor, education, etc. Some assess the human rights status as not much different or slightly improved. To the question on the seriousness of human rights violations in Korea,3) 41.8% responded ‘serious (very + slightly),’ and 58.2% responded ‘not serious (slightly + not at all).’ The percentage of people who responded as ‘serious’ is lower than in 2019 (54%), but higher than in 2020 (30.4%). Similarly, to the question of the seriousness of discrimination in Korea, 47.4% responded ‘discrimination is severe (very + slightly)’ and 52.6% answered ‘discrimination is not severe (slightly + not at all).’ The percentage of people who responded severe is lower than in 2019 (69.1%) but higher than in 2020 (36.7%). Graph Awareness on the Seriousness of Human Rights Violations (2019-2021) Statistics Awareness on the Seriousness of Human Rights Violations (2019-2021) (Unit: %) Classification (Year) 2019 2020 2021 Ratio 54.0 30.4 41.8 Note: 1) Ratio of people who responded ‘slightly serious’ and ‘very serious’ to the question on human rights violations in Korea. 2) People over the age of 19. Source: NHRCK, ｢Korean National Human Rights Survey｣, 2021. 3) Human rights violation refers to restricting fundamental freedom and the rights to be enjoyed by people. 6