National Human Rights Commission of Korea Annual Report 2019 status of their petition, reorganized the classification of existing cases for improved user access, Part 1 Meanwhile, the Commission made online upgrades to make it easier for petitioners to check the and developed an e-petition system for faster and more efficient processing of petitions. Human Rights Violations Inspection Manual, which now includes all referenced cases, and laws and regulations that were reviewed during investigations. Revision of the NHRCK Act for greater independence of the Commission The Commission established an advisory committee to reinforce its independence in terms of organization, personnel, and budget, to ensure independent and transparent appointment of commissioners, and to give it more authority in terms of working with the private sector and civil society groups. The committee reviewed a revision of the NHRCK Act on four separate occasions. Preliminary study of discrimination criteria To ensure a more efficient response to discrimination cases, which continue to grow in both variety and complexity, the Commission commissioned a study of discrimination criteria using precedents over ten years from 2009 to 2018. The study reviewed not only those cases that resulted in a recommendation or opinion, but also 3,500 cases that were dismissed because they did not fall into the Commission’s scope of business or were not deemed to be unjustifiable discrimination. The study analyzed the Commission’s rationale or criteria in determining what constitutes discrimination. Using the results of this study and following a review and analysis of antidiscrimination legislation and examples of other countries, the Commission will establish criteria for assessing discrimination. Human rights competence-building programs for the staff The Commission upgraded its staff education and training program to be more systematic and constructive. Staff education and training, which had been managed at each department level, were integrated and reorganized by target audience and job. To strengthen the Commission’s expertise in key human rights domains, specific topics were 19 Introduction Efforts were made to help investigators better perform their job, including an update to the