PSPD in English UN Advocacy 2009-11-12   2791

Rapidly Deteriorating Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in South Korea


List of Issues Adopted on the South Korean Government by the UN Committee on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

Human Rights and Civil Organizations Addressed South Korea’s Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Issues at the Pre-sessional Working Group


2008. 11. 29

The UN Committee on the Economic Social and Cultural Rights, hereafter the Committee, proceeded with the pre-sessional working group meeting on the South Korean government’s International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural Rights, hereafter the Covenant, on the 27th of November local time, in Geneva, Switzerland. The review conducted by the Committee every five years, provides an opportunity to evaluate the progress of the Covenant member states with regards to the ESCR(economic, social and cultural rights) situation of each respective signatory.


In this pre-sessional working group meeting, issues for questioning the South Korean government at the 43rd Session of the Committee to be held in November 2009, were selected based on the report submitted to the Committee by the South Korean government in July 2007, and reports submitted by National Human Rights Commission of Korea and NGOs.


People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy(PSPD) and MINBYUN-Lawyers  for a Democratic Society, representing 44 Korean human rights and civil organizations, attended the pre-sessional working group meeting, in which they met with the Committee members, and presented an oral statement on the South Korea’s ESCR situation. They asked for the interest and attention of the Committee, and emphasized in the oral statement that “due to the prioritizing of economic-driven policies by the Lee Myung-bak government, ESCR are expected to drastically deteriorate” and that “the Report submitted by the government does not sufficiently reflect current ESCR developments of South Korea since it only covers the period between June 2001 to June 2006.”


[Labor Issues]
These civil organizations criticized the government policies on revision of laws on irregular workers’ working condition to prolong contract terms and expand dispatched occupation lists, while its fundamental efforts are still lacking despite the rapid increase of irregular workers. Moreover, the government attempted to weaken the minimum wage system, moving toward undesirable amendment of the Minimum Wage Law that have been contributed to ensuring the basic livelihood of low income workers.

[Migrant Workers Issues]
They further revealed that excessive force and violence are unconstitutionally and illegally exercised in the process of arresting, detaining and forcefully evicting undocumented migrant workers, while indefinite detention is ensured by law. Moreover, stating recent large-scale police raids in Masuk, the organizations vehemently criticized continuing human rights violations regarding migrant workers, as well as the persistence of the Ministry of Justice’s ‘arrest-quota,’ despite recommendations issued by the UN Human Rights Council and several Treaty bodies.


[Welfare Issues]
They also pointed out that the Minimum Livelihood Support and National Basic Livelihood Security Act are doomed inefficient due to the coarse social security budget and social safety net. The Medical Aid System is also intensifying inequality and infringing the lower-income bracket’s right to access medical service regardless of economic ability.


[Educational Issues]
The recent, troubling issues of rapidly increasing university tuitions and private education costs were addressed. It was pointed out that university entry competition has been intensifying since the Lee government took the office and implemented measures such as the nation-wide examination for academic assessment and establishment of international junior high schools. More and more students are taking leave of absence or dropping out entirely to earn money for university tuitions.


[Medical Service Issues]
Furthermore, in relations to the right to health, it was mentioned that the already fragile public medical service is being threatened by the governmental plans pushing for the privatization of medical service. Despite the fact that public medical spending and the ratio of medical costs covered by public health care system remains quite low, and consequently individual medical spending is excessively high, the government is not even paying the legally binding support on health care. It is merely concerned about privatization of medical service such as the establishment of profit-seeking hospitals and development of private health insurance.


[Housing Rights Issues]
In addition, housing inequality is intensifying, while housing development projects are pursued without consideration for local dwellers. The lack of government-level support for vulnerable social groups such as the people with disability, and rights of sexual minorities as well as HIV/AIDS infected were also mentioned.   


The Committee members attending the pre-sessional working group meeting were gravely concerned about the deteriorating potential after the Lee government took the office in face of the recent economic crisis. They were especially concerned with the living conditions of undocumented migrant workers, suicides motivated by costly university tuitions, and whether or not actual progress was made on the recommendations the Committee issued at the previous, 42nd Session of the Committee. PSPD and Minbyun stated that “similar recommendations are expected for next year’s session, since the bulk of the 42nd Committee’s Concluding Observations has yet to be fulfilled,” and that, “the Counter Report on the government Report will be continuously worked on for next year’s session.”


Finally, the List of Issues on the South Korean government was adopted by the Committee on the 28th of November, local time, Geneva. The Committee also asked the Korean government for a sincere reply by the 43rd Session of the Committee to be held next November. The adopted List of Issues will be available in two weeks on the homepage of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/cescrwg41.htm).

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