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The Ministry of Justice Asserts the Bill of "Corporation" of the National Committee for Human Rights

On August 26, the "Legislation and Judiciary Standing Committee" of the National Assembly held a public forum about the pending problems of the 5-month-old human right laws.

This public forum was the setting for the convergence arguments by the civil society and the bill of government above the disposal in the regular session of the National Assembly of human right laws.

This forum once again cleary revealed the differences in the positions taken by the Ministry of Justice and the groups of human rights and social movement again. Han Sang Dae, the head of the Human Rights Section of the Ministry of Justice, who spoke for on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, brought up the problem of the unconstitutional nature of "the state organization without an identity", and insisted that there should never be a state organization that does not belong to the state structure except for the Election Administration Committee, which is given such status by the Constitution.

Han also emphasized that the bill of "Corporation" is advised by the UN. Ryouk Jeong Soo, an editorial writer of the Dong Ah Daily, Kim Seong Nam, an attorney belonging to the Seoul Bar Association, and Choi Chang Haeng, from the Professional Committee of the Ombudsman of Korea also agreed that the bill of "Corporation" was the most practical method for seeking the independency of the Human Rights Committee.

In relation to this, Cho Yong Hwan, an attorney who spoke on behalf of the "Joint Counter-planning Committee of Non-governmental Groups for the Realization of the True National Human Rights" (Choi Young Do, representative of JCC) emphasized that the Committee of Human Rights was one of the self-corrective functions within the state that fulfilled the inviolable and fundamental duty of the state to guarantee human rights.

Cho also pointed out that the UN advised that the independent nature of and the laws of the Committee of Human Rights only allow for "corporation" as a practical method.

Furthermore, Cho pointed out that the Ministry of Justice did not interpret the advice of UN literally, since the political and historical context should be considered.

This forum made especially clear that a number of speakers and members of the National Assembly had some serious misunderstandings.

This is due to the fact that many of them made misunderstood and placed then in the same category as the NGOs, such as, Amnesty International and the Green Peace.