17
Personal Liberty Act, which provides relief to individuals whose personal liberty was
unlawfully limited, explicitly excludes persons protected by the Immigration Control
Act.
In 2011, the NHRCK provided in the “Human Rights Guidelines on Migration” that
a system should be put in place to protect, rights based on criminal judicature
procedures since protection under Immigration Control Act is practically a form of
constraining personal liberty.
Question
Are there any plans to provide a system to guarantee rights equivalent to criminal
judicature procedures for foreigners in Immigration Processing Center under the
Immigration Control Act?
13. Involuntary Hospitalization Under the Mental Health Act
In January 2014, the Ministry of Health and Welfare proposed a completely
revised bill for the Mental Health Act which includes ways to reduce the range of
mentally-ill persons and strengthen the screening of the conditions for involuntary
hospitalization and of the propriety of hospitalization. Currently, the bill is pending
in the National Assembly. Meanwhile, in April 2014, the Ministry of Justice put
forward the partly amended Protection of Personal Liberty Act, which introduces a
protection officer who checks for persons unlawfully detained in facilities such as
mental hospitals and helps them be released. This bill is also currently pending.
According to the National Mental Health Commission’s 2012 report, among the
80,569 patients accommodated at mental health facilities, 75.9%, or 61,128 persons,
were hospitalized involuntarily. Forced hospitalization rate in Korea is higher than
that of other advanced countries which is lower than 20%, e.g., 17.7% in Germany,