PSPD in English UN Advocacy 2016-06-17   3311

[Oral Statement] Freedom of Peaceful Assembly in South Korea

3f8bcf799ac9d72d6f83ee3d8aba127b.jpg

 

 

32nd Regular Session of the UN Human Rights Council
Item 3: Promotion and Protection of all Human Rights, Civil, Political, Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, including the Right to Development

 

Interactive Dialogue with the UN Special Rapporteur

on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association

 

Oral Statement Delivered by Ms. Minjuwha Baek on Behalf of
People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy (PSPD)
Korean Center for United Nations Human Rights Policy (KOCUN)
MINBYUN-Lawyers for a Democratic Society

 

Friday, 17 June 2016

 
Thank you, Mr. President.
 
My name is Minjuwha Baek, and I am the daughter of the 69 year-old farmer Namgi Baek in the Republic of Korea who was mentioned in the Special Rapporteur’s report. My father was targeted and knocked down by the police’s water cannon on 14 November last year, during a protest for the increase in rice prices. He remains in coma for more than 200 days due to severe brain damage.
 
The Government imposed an arbitrary ban on the protest, claiming it was not an assembly but a crime. They named the protest unlawful and not peaceful, even before it took place. The police arrested or summoned more than 500 protesters. This includes Mr. Sang-kyun Han, the president of Korean Confederation of Trade Unions(KCTU), facing up to 8-year imprisonment for organizing the protest.
 
The police blocked main roads and streets with hundreds of bus barricades and thousands of police forces, even hours before the protest. The police shot water cannons with capsaicin to protesters indiscriminately for hours.
 
No apology, No investigation, No justice.
The government of the Republic of Korea insisted on having a thorough investigation. For 7 months, all they did was summoning my sister once. If you hit someone who is not attacking you, you should apologize and do everything to fix it. Every human being knows this.
 
We want a sincere apology, thorough investigation, and justice for my family and for all.
 
Mr. President,
If you allow me for 5 seconds I would like to invite my father to speak for himself. (Holding Mr. Baek’s photo)
 
Thank you, Mr. President
 

 

 

 

정부지원금 0%, 회원의 회비로 운영됩니다

참여연대 후원/회원가입


참여연대 NOW

실시간 활동 SNS

텔레그램 채널에 가장 빠르게 게시되고,

더 많은 채널로 소통합니다. 지금 팔로우하세요!