including the establishment of a permanent and periodic channel guaranteeing their participation in the monitoring process of the Recommendations and the NAP. 6. Recommendation: It is imperative that the NHRCK should be promoted to a constitutionbased body at a future time of constitutional amendment in order to strengthen the NHRCK’s independence and cement the current national regime for the promotion and protection of human rights. Accession to and the implementation of the Treaties 7. The ROK has yet to accede to seven１ out of eighteen Treaties and their optional protocols (OPs). With regard to the Treaties and the OPs which remain unratified, the Government has just said that it is ‘reviewing’ or ‘studying’ the possibility but no specific progress has been found in this regard. For some of the Treaties to which the Government has acceded, it has put some reservations.２ 8. The Human Rights Committee (CCPR), in its Concluding Observations of November 2015 on the ROK’s fourth periodic report, highlighted the severity of the racial discrimination and stressed the priority implementation in the areas of discrimination based on sexual orientation, conscientious objection and the right to peaceful assemblies. The NHRCK also expressed its view that the Government needs to take positive actions for the implementation of the CCPR’s recommendations in November 2016. 9. Recommendation: Make substantial efforts to accede to the unratified Treaties and OPs and to withdraw several reservations, and start the procedure for the withdrawal of reservations at the earliest possible time in relation to the reservations whose relevant national legal or institutional arrangements have been improved. 10. Recommendation: In order to implement the CCPR’s recommendations of 2015, adopt a comprehensive anti-discrimination law which prohibits all the grounds of discrimination forbidden in the international human rights instruments and introduce alternatives to military service for the conscientious objectors.３ Mindful that its recent efforts to guarantee the right to peaceful assemblies are highly thought of, continue these efforts in future years, and try further to improve the current reporting system of assembly which may be operated as a de facto prior reporting. Low fertility rate, population aging and human rights for the older people 11. The indicators such as suicide and poverty rates reveal that older people’s situations are ever worsening. In spite of the Basic Pension scheme for older people, the benefit is not enough to cover their living costs. This forces them to stay in low-paying and non-regular labour market. ４ Meanwhile, the ROK has been experiencing the lowest low fertility rate for sixteen consecutive years since 2001.５ Although it is not a cause but a consequence of other structural problems, the tendency is that, as illustrated in the controversial ‘ROK Fertility Map’ of the Ministry of the Interior, low fertility is considered as individuals’ responsibilities instead of being viewed in the dimension of social structure.６ In the ROK, women, once their career is interrupted, find it very hard to get 2 / 12