2021 is the 20th anniversary of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea. Since its establishment in 2001, the Commission has strived to materialize human dignity and value by protecting and improving the level of the fundamental human rights that are sacred to all individuals. However, our society still has a blind spot regarding human rights, and there are pending issues concerning human rights that must be considered in the long term. On the other hand, the prolonged COVID-19 pandemic served as a trigger to clearly show the many human rights issues that have not yet been revealed to society. We witnessed vulnerable people, such as immigrants, children, women, persons with disabilities, elderlies, people living in social welfare facilities and the inmates of detention facilities experiencing more difficulties from COVID-19. Our sensitivity to human rights has become much greater, incomparable to the past, and human rights demands in many areas have increased. However, as members of our society apply different human rights perspectives on various individual and specific issues, such as controversy over the proposed amendment to the Act on Press Arbitration and Remedies for Damage Cause by Press Reports, the decriminalization of abortion, disease control and the freedom of assembly and protect, etc., conflict and discord occurred on human rights among the members. Under these circumstances, when looking back at the human rights status of 2021 we tend to focus on the result of changing society over the past 20 years, as well as inspecting and verifying human rights issues that need improvements under the rapidly changing human rights environment. Therefore, the NHRCK is publishing the ‘Report on Human Rights Situation in the Republic of Korea 2021.’