National Human Rights Commission of Korea Annual Report 2020 degrees of disabilities. Some significant progress was achieved in 2020 for the right of access to information of hearing-impaired people. In February, when the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, he government failed to provide sign language interpretation for the television coverage of its official briefings. On February 28, the Commission announced an emergency chairperson statement that called for the protection of the right of access to information and linguistic rights of hearingimpaired people. In response to petitions filed regarding three top broadcasting companies failing to provide sign language interpretation during their prime-time news, the Commission on April 20 recommended correction as, given the symbolic position and importance of prime-time news, sign language interpretation is essential for the protection of the right of access to information. The recommendation was accepted by all three companies and sign language interpretation became available from September. On September 21, the Commission expressed opinion that the President’s special address to the people should also be interpreted into sign language considering its significance. As to petitions filed in relation to access to digital data by the visually impaired, the Commission made an overall analysis of the issue for the first time, creating baseline data for future inspection manual and decision criteria. Meanwhile, the Commission held policy discussions on deinstitutionalization of handicapped persons in Gwangju, Busan, Chuncheon, and Gyeongju to understand and assess local governments’ policies, further promote and raise awareness on deinstitutionalization and back-to-community options for handicapped persons. Through policy recommendations to improve the human rights of mentally disabled people kept at nursing homes, the Commission recommended the Minister of Health and Welfare to reflect in the Five-year National Mental Health Plan (2021-2025) specific plans for deinstitutionalizing mentally disabled persons and bringing them back to communities. Protecting the rights of migrants and refugees The COVID-19 pandemic not only affected our health and safety, but it also had far-reaching effects on social and economic activities. The resulting damages were experienced equally by migrants and refugees who are part of the same community. Under the disaster situation, migrants and refugees often found themselves in increasingly vulnerable situations in terms of human rights . Because of their status, they were often excluded from public policies on masks and disaster funds, experienced increased discrimination and hate 12