possibility of wrongful or abusive application. Given that ‘risk of second conviction’ which is a statutory ground of observation order does not have a clear standard and the assessment of such risk is undertaken by a commission in the Executive Branch, there is the possibility of wrongful application of the Act. Thus, legislative reform and reasonable application are necessary. 17. To promote the human rights of individuals suspected or accused of a crime, an improvement to criminal procedures was achieved with the overall revision of the Criminal Procedure Law and passage of the Act on Execution of the Sentence and Treatment of Prisoners and the Act on Treatment of the Juvenile in Custody. Continuous efforts should be made to ensure the effective application of these laws. In addition, accession to the Optional Protocol to CAT is vital and an effective national mechanism to prevent torture or degrading treatment should be established. 18. The ROK is not a party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance (ICPAPED). The NHRCK recommended ratification of ICPAPED on January 14 2008, and calls on the Government to accede to ICPAPED and reform the law so as to embrace ICPAPED’s definition of “enforced disappearance”. In addition, the Government has not acceded to the ICRMW. Moreover, the reservation concerning Article 22 of ICCPR remains due to domestic law provisions that prohibit collective action by civil servants and restrict the range of public officials who are capable of joining a labor union. These provisions need to be reviewed. 19. The number of conscientious or religious objectors sentenced to imprisonment amounted to 4,185 between 2001 and 2010. This results from tension in the ROK between religious freedom and the national psyche which demands universal military service for males. Although the existing laws generally criminalize conscientious objection, the Government should introduce an alternative service program in order to solve the problems regarding mandatory military service. 20. The Government maintains a passive stance regarding abolition of the death penalty. However, the death penalty has not been carried out over 10 years, and the ROK is categorized as an ‘abolitionist in practice’ nation by Amnesty International. A change in attitude of the Government concerning the death penalty and genuine effort are required in order to totally abolish capital punishment or gradual decrease the number of statutory grounds of the penalty. 21. A legislative amendment to the Criminal Law has been pending before the National Assembly since October 2011 that would implement the Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and the Palermo Protocols, which the ROK signed in 2000 but has not ratified yet. Since there is a risk of migrant women becoming victims of sexual exploitation through various channels in our society, the Government should reinforce the initial immigration procedure and provide more inspections of workplace where migrant women are in danger of such exploitation. 22. The prohibition of discrimination based on sexual orientation made progress with judicial decisions that approved legal modification in gender of trans-genders and acknowledged a property claim made by a same sex partner. In addition, the relevant provision was revised to expand the crime of rape to include same sex victims under the age of nineteen. However, the Constitutional Court upheld Article 92 of the Military Penal Code which penalizes same-sex sexual activity in March 2011. The Government should modify relevant regulations to combat discrimination against sexual minorities and promote education and public awareness in order 4