A Statement from the NGO’s Collaborative Action to Put the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in its Place (NHRCK
Watch), South Korea
South Korea: The person who should resign is not Standing Commissioners but Chairperson, Mr. Byungchul Hyun!
We are calling for his resignation!
26 November 2010
Yesterday, Standing Commissioner, Mr. Namyoung Yoo and Ms. Kyungran Moon announced that they have resigned from the
National Human Rights Commission of Korea (hereafter: NHRCK). According to them, they recognized that the Commission has
been barely limping along and this led to the Commission to wither away since the current Chairperson took office.
The Chairman who was appointed last year has been criticized by human rights activists and NGOs due to his lack of
experiences, insights, and sensitivity regarding human rights. Therefore, they have insisted that the Chairperson must
resign from the Commission. They also claimed that the Chairperson has been managing the Commission in an undemocratic
way that ignores the Commission procedure and the operation of the Commission was not based on consensus among other
Commissioners. We think all of these were intended not to go against the President who nominated him.
Furthermore, pro-government and non standing Commissioners, Mr. Taehoon Kim and Ms. Yunhee Choi, proposed a draft
amendment to the NHRCK's managerial regulations. The essence of this revision is that Chairperson can bring the case to
the Commission without the resolution of the Standing Commissioners Committee which consists of one Chairperson and
three Standing Commissioners. The intention of this revision is to reduce the authority of Standing Commissioners who
have played an important role in producing many meaningful decision makings for human rights. On the other hand, this
revision is against the basic idea of the
Commission as a polycracy institution since it will lead to strengthening the Chairperson’s authority.
The reason why Chairperson managed the Commission in an undemocratic way was not to challenge the policies made by the
President who has appointed him. However, since the main role of the Commission is to protect and promote human rights,
it is inevitable for the Commission to challenge and criticize the police of the Government. Nevertheless, the
Chairperson has not tried to make decisions which are against state policies. Here are the notorious examples such as
investigations of civilians, unreasonable prosecution of a MBC TV program (PD Notebook) and a government lawsuit against
an NGO leader, Mr. Won-Soon Park. Indeed, the Chairperson has led the Commission to deal with the cases which are not
against the governmental policies.
All of these problems were caused by the Government which appointed an inappropriate person as a Chairperson and has
threatened the independence of the Commission.
The only way to solve all of these problems is the resignation of the Chairperson. We can no longer tolerate the damage
of the Commission's independence and the retreat of human rights in Korea. Furthermore, it is necessary to establish
well-organized procedure for the appointment of Commissioners, which secure that more qualified persons can be appointed
as Commissioners. Therefore, the revision of the NHRCK Act is needed to reform selection processes which secure
democratic and active participation of civil society.
We, human rights activists, will make every effort not only to make the Chairperson Hyun resign from his post but also
revise the NHRCK act for the transparent and democratic appointment procedure.
# # #
About AHRC: The Asian Human Rights Commission is a regional non-governmental organisation monitoring and lobbying human
rights issues in Asia. The Hong Kong-based group was founded in 1984. The above statement has only been forwarded by the
AHRC.
ENDS