National Human Rights Commission of the Republic of Korea 2. Achievements by Project A. The Five Strategic Goals 1) Providing Institutional Protection for and Reinforcing Basic Human Rights Regarding the protection for and reinforcement of the right to freedom, the NHRCK recommended to improve the practices and institutions in regards to the police’s taking pictures of participants, without their consent, for evidence in demonstration or protest sites, in response to several complaints about the violations of the freedom of assembly, the right of self-determination regarding personal information, and the right to one’s portrait due to the police’s evidence collection practices (on March 4). The Commission also recommended that the police improve upon the practices of arresting flagrant offenders of police contempt on October 30, as there had been an increasing number of cases of human rights infringements during the arrest of offenders of verbal abuse against police officials since August 2013. In February 2014, the NHRCK expressed an opinion to the Chief of the XX Provincial Police Agency to be cautious in deciding and managing the security area to prevent human rights violations and inconveniences in the daily lives and passage of residents after on-site investigations in Miryang in response to a number of complaints raised by the local residents about human rights violations caused by the security measures in the power transmission tower construction site in Miryang. The Commission also, on December 8, expressed its concerns over the announcement of the Ministry of Justice to enact the “preventive custody” provision, suggesting that the provision might violate the dignity and value of people and their personal liberties which are guaranteed by the Constitution, as the preventive custody would be no different, in practice, from imprisonment punishment. Introduction ▪▪▪ 7