Asia Times: Human rights activists pin hopes on the UN



	October 15, 1999	atimes.com

The Koreas

Human rights activists pin hopes on the UN
By Ranjit Dev Raj

SEOUL - South Korean rights activists are pinning their hopes on UN Human Rights Commissioner Mary Robinson to prevail on President Kim Dae Jung to keep a proposed human rights commission autonomous and to repeal the draconian National Security Law.

Robinson, here for the 1999 Seoul International Conference of NGOs, assured members of the Coalition for People's Human Rights Commission at a meeting that she would use her good offices to advocate several burning rights issues they placed before her on Wednesday.

According to Robinson, the Human Rights Commission, for which a bill is pending in the Korean National Assembly, could serve as a model for the whole of East Asia if the commission were allowed true independence.

''We are convinced that your meeting with the president will be of great importance to the destiny of the Korean Human Rights Commission,'' Choi Youn-do, president of Minbyun (Lawyers for a Democratic Society) told Robinson. ''If you even slightly hint that the government bill is acceptable only in the light of the Paris Principles, the president would not hesitate to bulldoze the bill in the National Assembly,'' said Choi, who served time as a prisoner of conscience.

Choi said although the bill was drafted by the justice ministry to bring into being a statutory corporation, it could never satisfy well-laid down criteria for independence. ''We want the commission to be as independent as the judiciary,'' he said.

Another major issue which activists want Robinson to take up with Kim is an end to the National Security Law, which was legislated in 1948 as Japanese colonialism in the Korean Peninsula ended. ''We know that you are concerned about the National Security Law and the human rights situation, but we would like you to be even more concerned,'' said Kwak No-Hyun of the executive committee of the National NGO Coalition for an Independent Human Rights Commission.

According to coalition member Rev Mun Jeong-Hyun, who is president of the Catholic Priests Association for Justice, the National Security Law is a major obstacle to the reunification of the two Koreas. Mun said the core concept in the National Security Law was the ill-defined ''anti-state organization'', which includes the whole of North Korea. Under the law, association with North Korea or even praise or sympathy for it is punishable.

Among those who protested against the National Security Law at the meeting with Robinson was Shin Hae-soo, whose husband was incarcerated under it. Shin said currently there were some 200 political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, in Korean jails. And while the present government had ordered several amnesties, they mostly benefited businessmen who were imprisoned on corruption charges.

The UN Human Rights Committee, after studying a government report on the issues, concluded that ordinary but specifically applicable criminal laws were sufficient to deal with offenses against national security. Robinson noted that Abid Hussain, special UN Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of right to freedom of opinion and expression, had strongly recommended to the South Korean government the repeal of the National Security Law.

The government has made several concessions in recent times, such as doing away with ''conversion statements'' by political prisoners, renouncing left-wing ideologies, as a pre-condition for release. But according to the Coalition, nearly 190 political prisoners have been bypassed for amnesty for refusing to sign the new ''law-abiding oath'' which replaced the conversion statements.

The Coalition also seeks an end to discrimination against 120,000 immigrant workers, mostly from North Korea. Cecilia Lee Kum-yeon, who addressed Robinson on behalf of the Joint Committee for Migrant Workers in Korea, said migrant workers continue to be ill-treated, abused, beaten and confined, and risked their wages being extorted and passports confiscated. ''All this happens because there are no laws which ensure protective measures,'' she said.

While the government revised the Exit and Entry Control Act following the U.N. Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, no applicant has obtained refugee status till date.

Robinson promised to ''encourage'' Kim to make suitable announcements on the National Security Law on December 10, the last Human Rights Day of the millennium.

(Inter Press Service)

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