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United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child - States Parties Reports |
UNITED
NATIONS |
|
CRC
|
|
Convention on the Rights of the Child |
Distr. GENERAL CRC/C/70/Add.14 26 June 2002 Original: ENGLISH |
COMMITTEE ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD
CONSIDERATION OF REPORTS SUBMITTED BY STATES PARTIES
UNDER
ARTICLE 44 OF THE CONVENTION
Periodic reports of States parties due in 1998
REPUBLIC OF KOREA*
* For
the initial report submitted by the Republic of Korea, see CRC/C/8/Add.21, for
its consideration by the Committee, see documents
CRC/C/SR.266268 and for the
concluding observations, see CRC/C/15/Add.51.
The appendices referred to
in the document are available from the secretariat.
GE.0242765 (E)
180702
CONTENTS
Paragraphs Page
Introduction 1
9 5
I. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RIGHTS IN THE
CONVENTION 10
31 6
A. Measures taken to harmonize national law and policy
with
the provisions of the Convention 14 20 7
B. Mechanism for
coordinating and monitoring
implementation of the Convention 21
31 8
II. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD 32 41 11
III. GENERAL
PRINCIPLES 42 56 12
A. Nondiscrimination (art. 2) 42
44 12
B. Best interest of the child (art. 3) 45 48 13
C. The
right to life, survival and development (art. 6) 49 53 13
D. Respect
for the views of the child (art. 12) 54 56 14
IV. CIVIL RIGHTS AND
FREEDOMS 57 80 15
A. Name and nationality (art. 7) 57
60 15
B. Preservation of identity (art. 8) 61
64 15
C. Freedom of expression (art. 13) 65 67 16
D. Freedom
of thought, conscience and religion (art. 14) 68 70 16
E. Freedom of
association and peaceful assembly
(art. 15) 71 17
F. Protection
of privacy (art. 16) 72 17
G. Access to appropriate information (art.
17) 73 78 17
H. The right not to be subjected to torture or other
cruel,
inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment
(art. 37 (a)) 79
80 18
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
V. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND
ALTERNATIVE CARE 81 113 19
A. Parental guidance and
responsibilities
(arts. 5 and 18, para. 2) 81
84 19
B. Separation from parents (art. 9) 85 88 19
C. Family
reunification (art. 10) 89 91 20
D. Recovery of maintenance for the
child (art. 27, para. 4) 92 21
E. Children deprived of a family
environment (art. 20) 93 95 21
F. Adoption (art. 21) 96
101 21
G. Illicit transfer and nonreturn (art. 11)
102 23
H. Abuse and neglect (art. 19), including physical
and
psychological recovery and social reintegration
(art. 39) 103
110 23
I. Periodic review of placement (art. 25) 111
113 24
VI. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE 114 141 25
A. Survival
and development (art. 6, para. 2) 114 128 25
B. Disabled children
(art. 23) 129 133 28
C. Social security and childcare services and
facilities
(arts. 26 and 18, para. 3) 134 137 30
D. Standard of
living (art. 27, paras. 13) 138 140 31
E. Budget for health and
welfare 141 33
CONTENTS (continued)
Paragraphs Page
VII. EDUCATION, LEISURE
AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES 142 181 33
A. Education, including vocational
training and guidance
(art. 28) 142 174 33
B. Aims of education
(art. 29) 175 176 42
C. Leisure, recreation and cultural activities
(art. 31) 177 181 42
VIII. SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES
182 45
A. Children in conflict with the law (art. 40) 182
215 45
B. Children in situations of exploitation 216
232 51
IX. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS
OF THE COMMITTEE
CONTAINED IN ITS
CONCLUDING OBSERVATIONS (CRC/C/15/Add.51) 233 259 54
Introduction
1. The Republic of Korea’s perception of
children’s rights is in accordance with the philosophy of the Convention,
and
in that sense Korea has taken concrete actions in all legal and
institutional measures in a wide range of areas.
2. Korea has made every
endeavour to broaden the understanding of children’s rights and to
increase their physical and emotional
protection. The main goals of this
endeavour are to ensure that “every child should have human dignity and
equal rights without
discrimination, receive respect as the emerging future
generation, and enjoy the opportunity of developing with rectitude and
selfassurance”
(Children’s Charter); to help “provide them
with the required conditions and environments for their humane and happy
lives” (revised Youths’ Charter); and to secure “welfare for
them to have a happy and healthy birth and growth”
(Child Welfare
Act).
3. The Children’s Charter of the Republic of Korea,
consisting of a preamble and 11 articles, states that children’s
rights
must be respected. The contents of the Charter are listed as
appendix 1.
4. The basic rights and responsibilities of youths are
concretely presented in the New Youths’ Charter, which was revised in
October 1998. The New Youths’ Charter stipulates youths’ autonomous
life and voluntary participation and suggests the
principle of coexistence
between adults and youth in the twentyfirst century, which can be attained with
the cooperation of the present
generation as listed in paragraph 3 of the
initial report.
5. As of the end of 1995, the number of children aged 0
to 17 was 12,886,000, or 28.6 per cent of the total population.
There are
more boys than girls; there were 110.0 boys for every
100 girls in 1995. The size of the child population is projected to
decrease
to about 12 million (26 per cent of the total
population) by 2010 and to about 11 million (21 per cent of the total
population) by
2020.
Table 1
Child population profile by age group
|
1980
|
1985
|
1990
|
1995
|
2000
(projected) |
Total population (A)
|
37 407
|
40 420
|
43 390
|
45 092
|
47 275
|
Child population (B)
|
15 219
|
14 844
|
13 752
|
12 886
|
12 383
|
(B/A, per cent)
|
(40.7)
|
(36.7)
|
(31.7)
|
(28.6)
|
(26.2)
|
0 year
|
755
|
611
|
632
|
720
|
705
|
15 years
|
3 840
|
3 929
|
3 313
|
3 473
|
3 570
|
611 years
|
5 486
|
4 763
|
4 877
|
3 901
|
4 081
|
1217 years
|
5 138
|
5 541
|
4 930
|
4 792
|
4 027
|
Source: National Statistical Office, Future Population
Projection, 1996.
6. The Medical Insurance Act, enacted in 1977, and the nationwide health
insurance system introduced in 1989 are the basic foundations
of health security
for children’s health. In addition, the medicaid system has played a
significant role in promoting the
health level of children by providing primary
health care for the children of lowincome families.
7. The enactment and
revision of the Child Welfare Act and its related acts and regulations are
cornerstones for improving the child
welfare sector. The Child Welfare Act, a
basic law for child welfare, was revised in 1981 from the previous Child Welfare
Act which
was enacted in 1961. The basic idea of the Act has been changed
from the past practice of providing social security benefits for
the children in
need, to the active implementation of the welfare and sound upbringing of all
children. Basically, this change was
caused by the childcare problems derived
from pervasive divorce along with the rise of industrialization. The Infant
Foster Act
was enacted in 1991 to mitigate the child fostering burden of working
married women. In addition, the Youth Foster Act was totally
revised as the
Framework Act on Juveniles in 1993, which has become the legal basis for
constructing social environments where all
youths grow to be intellectually,
morally and physically balanced. At present, the revision of the Child Welfare
Act is being proposed
and discussed in the National Assembly in order to include
a clause about child abuse which aims at preventing child abuse, intervening
in
cases of such abuse and providing treatment for the victims.
8. The
education of children is of great importance in Korea, which has invested
heavily in education to teach and develop the minds
of children. Every child in
Korea has the right and obligation to receive a nineyear compulsory education.
A majority of children
receive institutional education. As of April 1998,
99.9 per cent of children who graduated primary school enrolled in
junior school,
and 99.4 per cent of children who graduated junior
school enrolled in high school. Korea has endeavoured to increase the quality
of education in addition to the number of students who receive
education.
9. The Korean Government has made efforts to promote the
rights of children. Also, a large number of nongovernmental organizations
and
agencies such as the Korean Council for Children’s Rights, the Korea
Neighbourhood Society, the Korean Child Protection
Association and UNICEF/Korea
have contributed to the promotion of children’s rights as well.
I. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RIGHTS IN THE CONVENTION
10. The Republic of Korea signed the Convention
on the Rights of the Child on 25 September 1990. The Republic of
Korea ratified the
Convention on 20 November 1991, with reservations
on three articles which are contradictory to the current laws of Korea. As the
Convention entered into force on 20 December 1991, the Republic of Korea
submitted the first national report on the Convention on
8 November 1994,
following article 44 of the Convention.
11. The articles in the
Convention against which the Republic of Korea has lodged reservations are
article 9, paragraph 3 (guarantees
of the child’s right to
maintain contact with the parents), article 21 (a) (permission for the
adoption of a child by the competent
authorities only) and article 40,
paragraph 2 (b) (v) (reassessment of the verdict of a
child’s trial). The concrete explanations
for these reservations are
contained in the first national report.
12. The reservations to the
Convention by the Republic of Korea are not considered to have a great influence
on children’s rights.
For example, the guarantee of the right of appeal
for children’s suits is limited by the Constitution (art. 110,
para. 4) and the Court Martial Act (art. 534). Under such provisions,
the right of appeal is restricted because a singletrial
system is permitted in a
military trial when the State is governed by martial law. The singletrial
system is, however, not operated
in ordinary times, and an emergency situation
governed by martial law is unlikely to happen. The Government of the Republic
of Korea
will keep trying to revise domestic laws and withdraw these
reservations for honest implementation of the Convention.
13. The
Convention makes it the duty of the participating State to make its provisions
and principles generally known to both children
and adults in the individual
country. UNICEF/Korea, established in 1993, published the brochure
“Children have human rights
too” as a joint project with
Citizens’ Participation Solidarity, and disseminated it to schools and
relevant organizations.
UNICEF/Korea publicizes children’s rights by
educating parents. It further plans to hold a conference focused on
publicizing
the Convention. Save the Children/Korea, a nonprofit
nongovernmental organization which is a member of the International Save the
Children Alliance, provides publicity and educational activities on
children’s rights by producing video programmes on children’s
rights. Good Neighbours International and SBS (Seoul Broadcasting System)
coproduce a public relations programme on child abuse
prevention that was
televised once every day for one month from 21 December 1998.
A. Measures taken to harmonize national law and
policy
with the provisions of the Convention
14. Before ratifying
the Convention, the Republic of Korea had been endeavouring to realize
children’s rights legally, administratively
and systematically. Through
amendments to the Child Welfare Act, and its relevant regulations in 1981, to
the Children’s Charter
in 1988 and to the New Youths’ Charter in
1998, the legal and institutional bases for children’s rights were
strengthened.
All proclaimed the rights of children and youths and secured
legal and institutional bases for realizing children’s rights
(See
appendix A and appendix B). The legal reforms taken by the Korean Government
since submitting the first report are as follows.
15. The Framework Act
on Juveniles replaced the Juvenile Upbring Act in 1993 to provide a basis for
creating the social conditions
and environments which can improve the
development of young people. In 1998, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism
revised the Youths’
Charter, which became the New Youths’ Charter.
This new Charter consists of a preamble, 11 articles on the rights of young
people and 9 articles on their duties.
16. The Labour Standards Act
revised in March 1997 strengthens the protection of children through raising the
minimum legal age for
work from 13 to 15. In order to provide a legal basis for
an education system that was appropriate for internationalization and
globalization, the previous Education Act was revised and became the Framework
Act on Education in December 1997. According to the Civil Act, revised in
December 1997, the
new regulation (“any child with a foreign father can
use the mother’s family name and family line and be registered in
the
mother’s family”) was added in article 781, paragraph 1,
to ensure that newborn babies whose fathers are foreigners
acquire citizenship
and are registered in the civil register.
The Nationality Act (art. 2, para. 1) was revised to read, “
if the children’s father and mother have Korean nationality
at the time
the children are born, they are considered to have Korean nationality”.
Article 10, paragraph 2, of the revised
Nationality Act, was amended
to read: “the children who cannot lose their original nationality against
their will cannot lose
their Korean nationality”.
17. The Criminal
Procedure Act was revised in 1997 in an effort to implement the Convention more
fully. The revised act stipulates
the obligation to inform the accused of the
evidence for suspicion and of reasons for imprisonment. The Immigration Control
Act,
which was revised in 1993 and came into force in 1994, strengthened the
protection of refugees, including children.
18. In order to protect
children effectively from domestic violence, the Special Act for the Punishment
of Domestic Violence was promulgated
in 1997 and came into effect in 1998. To
ensure professional intervention in case of child abuse and neglect, the revised
Child
Welfare Act regulates the reporting of child abuse, the treatment of child
abuse offenders, the establishment of professional child
protection
institutions, the establishment of an emergency telephone hot line service, etc.
The Juvenile Protection Act, designed
to protect youths from detrimental
environments, was enacted in July 1997. The restrictions on placement service
for those aged
less than 18 was included in the Employment Security Act (art.
21, para. 3 and its Enforcement Decree, art. 26, para. 2) in December
1997,
aiming to prevent adolescents from working in immoral entertainment
businesses.
19. The national plan of action for the 1990s was included in
the child welfare section of the eighth FiveYear Social and Economic
Development
Plan for the period 19982002. To realize children’s rights in accordance
with the Convention, the basic direction
of the policy for children and young
people is to promote their healthy development by increasing social attention
and governmental
support (see appendix C).
20. More legal, institutional
and administrative efforts are required to harmonize national laws and the
provisions of the Convention.
To do this, the Government, as well as
nongovernmental organizations and agencies, should continue such measures as
amending laws,
improving institutions, establishing and implementing new
policies, and making service campaigns and announcements.
B. Mechanisms for coordinating and monitoring
implementation
of the Convention
21. National policies
for children and youths are handled by various government departments and
national authorities. Within the
Government, the Ministry of Health and
Welfare, formerly the Ministry of Health and Social Affairs until January 1994,
is responsible
for policies concerning children and is the leading governmental
authority for coordinating and implementing the Convention, while
the Ministry
of Culture and Tourism, formerly the Ministry of Culture and Sports until March
1998, is responsible for policies concerning
young people.
22. The Child Care Division, the Family Welfare Division and the Women
Welfare Division under the Bureau of Family Welfare in the
Ministry of Health
and Welfare take charge of the administration of child welfare. Their main
functions are: (a) counselling services
to prevent an increase in the number of
children in need; (b) protective services supporting families headed by minors;
(c) incountry
adoption; (d) foster care programmes; (e) administrative support
and supervision of child welfare facilities; (f) sponsorship programmes
for
disadvantaged children; (g) selfhelp programmes for children at residential care
facilities providing living places and jobs;
and (h) the development of child
and infant care service programmes.
23. The Bureau of Youth in the
Ministry of Culture and Tourism, which governs youth fostering policies, has the
Division of Youth
Planning, the Division of Youth Education, and the Division of
Youth Training and Guidance. The Youth Fostering Committee, which
was
established in 1988 with the Prime Minister as head, has several functions such
as establishment of the basic youth policies
and annual policy measures,
providing long and midterm youth fostering policy direction, and assessing and
improving policies and
institutions. The Committee proclaimed the Youths’
Charter and reviewed and agreed to implement a longterm (19922001) youth
policy,
Basic Plan for Korean Youth in April 1990.
24. The Office of School
Policy in the Ministry of Education is responsible for the various primary,
middle and high school education
systems as well as for infant education and
special education for the disabled.
25. The Ministry of Justice works to
eliminate harmful environments detrimental to the healthy development of young
people, with aid
from the prosecutory authorities, and provide public awareness
campaigns through joint work of related administrative authorities
and civil
volunteers. In order to enlarge the effectiveness of remedial education,
juvenile delinquents are classified and dealt
with according to their individual
characteristics and needs. The Supreme Public Prosecutor’s Office and the
Prosecutor Offices
nationwide has been enforcing a comprehensive programme of
juvenile protection called the “Safe Schools Initiative” since
September 1997. Specifically, in order to put an emphasis on the
prevention and investigation of school violence and to promote
a new and
forwardlooking campaign “led by civil society and in collaboration with
Government”, the Korea Citizen’s
Foundation of the Safe Schools
Initiative was established in May 1999.
26. The role of family
courts is to mediate domestic conflicts. However, when intervention fails, a
judgement is made. The intervention
and judgement are in accordance with the
principle of the best interest of the child.
27. The Women and Youth
Division, the Wage and Welfare Division, the Labour Standards Division, and the
Women’s Guidance Division
under the Labour Standards Bureau in the
Ministry of Labour are all responsible for vocational training, job
introduction, and various
cultural activities for children.
28. The
Commission on Youth Protection under the Office of the Prime Minister is
responsible for establishing and implementing policies
for protecting young
people from various detrimental environments, which includes protecting of
youths from harmful visual materials
and entertainment places, restricting and
inspecting potentially negative social items such as records, video tapes,
publications,
the illegal employment of young people, preventing of underaged
drinking and smoking, drug abuse, etc. There are three subcommittees
within the
Commission on Youth Protection as well as a secretariat. The Bureau of the
Secretary administers the affairs of the Committee
and consists of four
divisions: the Protection Planning Division, the Education and Publicity
Division, the Protection Standards
Division and the Protection Inspection
Division.
29. There are many Governmentfunded research institutes
developing welfare policies for children. The Population and Family Research
Team in the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs carries out
concentrated research on adoption, childcare programmes, child
abuse and neglect
and children’s rights, in addition to the general affairs of children.
The Korea Institute for Youth Development
has the primary role in undertaking
research and establishing youth policies on their healthy upbringing,
protection, and guidance.
The Korean Educational Development Institute carries
out comprehensive and scientific research on the purpose, content and methods
of
education, provides longterm development programmes for better education, and is
in charge of increasing public awareness related
to those activities. The
Korean Women’s Development Institute, established to improve and enhance
women’s status and
social participation, undertakes studies on children,
especially on policy measures to assist working mothers to raise
children.
30. Nongovernmental and voluntary organizations are playing an
important part in working for children and promoting their rights.
The Korean
Teachers’ League, the Korean Kindergarten League, the Korean Academic
Institution League, the National Parents’
Society for True Education,
Parents’ Solidarity for the Realization of Humane Education, the Youth
Conversation Plaza and the
Korean Youth Association are all organizations
related to children’s education. The Korea Council of Children
Organization,
the Korea Child Facility Association, the Korea Day Care Centres
Association, the Korea Women’s Association, the Child Welfare
Committee
and the Maternal and Child Welfare Committee are public organizations concerned
with child welfare. Particularly, the
Child Welfare Committee under the
Ministry of Health and Welfare and the local committees of each city and
province all across the
country carry out surveys, research and supervision on
child welfare policies and institutions, child facilities, underprivileged
children and other child affairs. The Korea Children’s Rights
Association, an academic organization, undertakes research and
activities for
the protection of children’s rights and contributes to the academic
development of child welfare. Maternal
and Child Health Centres of the Korean
Planned Parenthood Federation work for child protection programmes through
providing pre and
postnatal care and support healthy family
environments.
31. The coordination of the aforementioned childrelated
policies and the monitoring of the implementation of the Convention have been
executed under cooperation between Government and nongovernmental organizations.
The procedure for drafting the report on the Convention,
which was done by the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Health and Welfare, the
Korean Committee for UNICEF,
the Korea Institute for Health and Social Affairs,
etc. with the participation of NGOs and universities, provided a good
opportunity
for reviewing and evaluating various activities taken by the
Government in relation to children. The Government also disseminated
the draft
report to seven NGOs and held a symposium, which include as participants
Government, NGOs and universities; this was to
reflect the participants’
opinions and strengthen cooperation with civil society for improving
children’s rights. This
report was finalized and submitted after review and coordination by the
Children Rights
Coordination Committee, composed of the Ministry of Health
and Welfare, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of
Education, the Ministry of Justice, NGOs and universities. To prepare the third
report, a committee will meet on a regular basis
after submitting the second
report.
II. DEFINITION OF THE CHILD
32. The term “child” is defined as
“a person under 18 years of age” in article 2 of the Child Welfare
Act.
However, other laws related to the Child Welfare Act have different
definitions or different terms.
33. The Civil Act legally regulates
“a person under 20 years of age” as a “minor”, who does
not have voting
rights in Korea. In order to perform any legal act, a minor
must obtain the consent of his/her legal representative. The father
or mother
who exercises parental rights shall become the legal representative of his/her
child who is a minor. If there is no person
to exercise parental rights over a
minor, or if the person with parental authority is unable to exercise those
rights or represent
the child with respect to the law or the rights of
management of property for a minor, a guardian shall be appointed for the
minor.
34. Article 32, paragraph 5, of the Constitution contains special
protection of the employment of “young persons”; its concrete
protections are explained in the Labour
Standards Act. The Labour Standards Act
provides that a person under 18 may not be employed in a number of occupations
in order
to guarantee the right of child to education. A person
under 15 years - increased from 13 in the revision of the Labour
Standards
Act in March 1997 is prohibited from working in order
to guarantee the opportunity for compulsory education. However, those with
written permission to work issued by the Minister of Labour may be employed
doing light work which is not detrimental to their health,
growth, or
schooling.
35. The Framework Act on Education (art. 8, para. 1)
designates nine years’ compulsory schooling - six years in elementary and
three years in middle school. Children in compulsory schooling are defined as
“persons under 15”.
36. Children committing crimes before
they are 14 years may not be sentenced under the Criminal Act. A young offender
less than 20
receives special treatment under the Juvenile Act. This aims to
return juveniles to society by providing correction and guidance,
not by
punishment.
37. The Civil Act regulates that a boy who reached his full
18 years of age and a girl of her full 16 years of age may marry with
his/her
parents’ or guardians’ consent. If a minor gets married, he/she is
deemed to have reached the age of majority
and is granted legal capacity,
independent from parental authority or guardianship. The difference in the age
requirement for marriage
between men and women is in line with the gap in
biological and mental development. The details on minors’ marriage and
parents’
consent are contained in paragraph 32 of the
initial report.
38. Korean men are liable for military service at
the age of 19 after conscription screening under the Military Service Act (art.
11). However, a person aged 17 or over who voluntarily applies for military
service may be enlisted in military service (art. 20).
39. No minimum age
has been set for giving testimony in court. A child may testify if he/she is
able to express himself/herself and
is physically and mentally strong enough to
handle all court proceedings. Whether the testimony made by the child is
accepted or
not is at the judge’s discretion. A person under 16, however,
cannot testify under oath under the Criminal Procedure Act.
The information in
the ability to give testimony in court and under oath are the same as in the
initial report (para. 32).
40. The minimum age for a driving licence for
a car is 18, while a person aged 16 or over may ride a light
motorcycle.
41. The Juvenile Protection Act deems a person under 19 as a
“youth”. The articles from 7 to 23 of the Act forbid the
sale of harmful media products such as audio or visual programmes, performances,
information and communications, publications and
advertisements. Also,
article 24 and article 26 of the Act prohibit the sale of liquor,
narcotics, cigars/cigarettes, drugs, hashish
and other harmful chemical
materials to persons under 18 years of age, and forbids their employment and
presence in morally harmful
restaurants and shops.
III. GENERAL PRINCIPLES
A. Non-discrimination (art. 2)
42. The Constitution
prohibits any form of discrimination against a child by securing the universal
equality of all citizens and by forbidding privilege
aided by social status,
irrational discrimination, and the involvement system. The concrete contents
are found in paragraph 37 of
the initial report.
43. Children born out
of wedlock may receive social disadvantages owing to the emphasis on the social
custom of monogamy and legal
marriage originating from Confucianism. However,
the government of the Republic of Korea endeavours to treat such children
equally
to those born in legal marriages in terms of status and property,
valuing every individual as equal. The Civil Code (art. 1000)
does not
discriminate against the child born out of wedlock in most cases including the
order of the succession to a property. However,
in deciding the order of
succession to the headship of a family, the child born during marriage has
priority among lineal descendants
(art. 985, para. 1). There exists the
case that a child born out of wedlock may not be listed in the family register
without the
consent of the legal wife.
44. The Republic of Korea is
composed of only one race, and therefore does not have any conflict or
discrimination on account of race.
Although son preference is still found in
the ideas of people, sex discrimination is not conspicuous in the sectors of
politics,
culture and education. The sex ratio of newborns between boys and
girls in 1995 was 110 to 100, and hence the Government has made
efforts to solve
the imbalances in the sex ratio. The Medical Service Act was revised in 1987 to
prohibit screening for the sex
of the foetus, punishable by cancelling the
licence of those doctors violating the law. Its revision in 1994
strengthened the punishment to imprisonment of up to three years
or a fine up to
10 million won for violators. The Korea Doctors’ Association held a
campaign for its doctors against illegal
foetal sex screening and selective
induced abortion. In 1987, the Government enacted the Sexual Equality
Employment Act and adopted
the women employment allocation system to prohibit
discrimination against women in the workplace.
B. Best interest of the child (art. 3)
45. Korea’s policy concerning children is
based on parents bearing the main responsibility for their children’s
well-being
and upbringing, as parents are the most important people for
children’s development. Parents must have national and community
support
for their parenting. Children must be entitled to protection from inappropriate
care and abuse, even from their parents.
46. The principle of
“the best interest of the child” is explicitly upheld in the Child
Welfare Act (art. 3, para. 2).
The Government and local authorities operate
welfare facilities for those children in need of institutional protection, and
provide
jobs, education and health care for those in low-income
households.
47. The Juvenile Protection Act (art. 3, para. 5) states that
parents and guardians as well as society, Government and local authorities
have
a responsibility to keep young people from various unhealthy
environments.
48. The principle of the best interest of the child is
considered primary in the establishment of children-related welfare policies.
Institutions and programmes prioritize rescuing children and women first in the
advent of disasters, discounting fees and charges
for children, creating safety
zones around schools for the security of children, and restricting immoral and
harmful restaurants
and hotels, all to help build a solid educational
environment.
C. The right to life, survival, and development (art. 6)
49. The Constitution of the Republic of Korea
(art. 10) ensures children’s dignity and fundamental human rights by
legislating that “all citizens
shall be assured dignity and value as human
beings and have the right to pursue happiness. It is the duty of the State to
confirm
and guarantee the fundamental and inviolable human rights of
individuals”.
50. The Child Welfare Act (art. 1) is the basis for
establishing and implementing welfare policies for children, with the aim of the
“happy and healthy birth and growth of children”.
51. In
Korea, the main cause of death in children under one year old is congenital
deformity, and accidents after the age of one.
Specifically, traffic accidents
ranked the first for ages from 1 to 19. Therefore, the safety
zones around schools should be strengthened
for the security of
children.
Table 2
Ranking of causes of death among children,
1977
Age
|
First
|
Second
|
Third
|
Fourth
|
Fifth
|
0
|
Congenital deformity
|
Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period
|
Sudden infant
death syndrome |
Heart disease
|
Traffic
accidents |
|
593
|
248
|
143
|
64
|
60
|
1-9
|
Traffic
accidents |
Accidental
drowning |
Congenital
deformity |
Falls
|
Leukaemia
|
|
926
|
257
|
215
|
135
|
112
|
10-19
|
Traffic
accidents |
Suicide
|
Accidental
drowning |
Leukaemia
|
Heart disease
|
|
1 567
|
489
|
372
|
157
|
153
|
Source: NSO, 1997 report on Causes of Death, 1998.
52. In
the courtroom, the Government emphasizes protection through correction rather
than punishment through sentencing. Under the
Juvenile Act (art. 59), a
juvenile sentenced to the death penalty, penal servitude or life imprisonment
for a crime committed before
18 years of age shall have the sentence reduced to
15 years of penal servitude. The Act on Special Cases concerning the Punishment
of Specific Violent Crimes (art. 4) guarantees the right to life of a child by
stipulating that in the case where a juvenile under
18 years of age is liable to
the death penalty or life imprisonment for a specific violent crime, he shall be
sentenced to limited
imprisonment for 20 years.
53. The Juvenile
Protection Act (art. 1) identifies the proper development of young people by
enforcing “the protection of young
people from various harmful social
environments and ensuring the healthy growth of each person”.
D. Respect for the views of the child (art. 12)
54. The parents or guardians have the right and
duty to protect and educate the child. The Civil Act (art. 924) pronounces
forfeiture
of parental authority for significant reasons such as abuse or
misconduct by the parents or guardians. See paragraph 46 of the initial
report
concerning petition procedures concerning parental authority.
55. Under
the Civil Act (art. 920), when the parental authority is representing the
property and business interests of the child,
the consent of the child shall be
obtained. See paragraph 46 of the initial report concerning parental authority
and property rights.
56. Under the Regulation on Family Litigation (art. 100), the opinion of the
child should be reflected in deciding his/her care and
guardianship when the
parents are divorced. The Act on Special Cases concerning the Promotion and
Procedure of Adoption (art. 6,
para. 2) states that a child may not be adopted
without his/her own consent and the opinion of the child is needed in cases of
adoption
when a child is aged 15 or over.
IV. CIVIL RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
A. Name and nationality (art. 7)
57. Concerning the
registration and the surname of a child, the Civil Code (art. 781,
paras. 13) provides that a child shall take
his/her father’s surname
and lineage, and be enrolled in the father’s family registry. In the case
of a child whose
father is not recognized, his/her mother’s surname and
lineage are taken, and he/she is enrolled in the mother’s family
registry.
However, a child whose father and mother are not ascertainable may, with the
approval of the court, establish a new surname
and origin of surname, and
establish a new family. With the revision of the Civil Act in December 1997
(art. 781, para. 1), a new
clause, “a child whose father is a foreigner
shall take the mother’s surname and lineage and be enrolled in the
mother’s
registry”, was included to provide for the acquisition of
nationality and registry enrolment of such a child.
58. As explained in
paragraph 51 of the initial report, as the acquisition of Korean nationality
follows the patriarchal lineage,
a child whose father is Korean can obtain the
nationality of the Republic of Korea. However, in the case of a child born of a
Korean
mother and a father whose country follows the birthplace principle in
determining nationality, there was a possibility that the child
would have no
nationality. To prevent this, the Korean Government adopted both the
patriarchal and matriarchal lineages by revising
article 2, paragraph 1, of the
Nationality Act in December 1997, and a child born with either a Korean father
or a Korean mother
can now acquire Korean nationality.
59. The process of
registering and submitting birth report for a newborn child is specifically
stated in paragraphs 49 and 50 of the
initial report. But under the newly
revised Family Register Act (art. 49, para. 2), registering the birth of a child
whose mother
or father is a foreigner should be done with a description of the
mother/father’s surname and nationality.
60. The birth reporting is
done by submitting the birth registration report to the appropriate
administrative office. The descriptive
items to be included in the birth report
are the same as in paragraph 50 of the initial report. The birth certificate of
the doctor
or midwife who participated in the delivery should be attached to the
birth registration report.
B. Preservation of identity (art. 8)
61. All citizens of the Republic of Korea take
part in the family registration system. The registration procedure is
specifically
described in paragraph 52 of the initial report.
62. The forfeiture of Korean nationality is stated specifically in paragraph
53 of the initial report. The Nationality Act (art.
8, art. 12, para. 7) states
that if an alien who has obtained Korean citizenship has not lost the
nationality of his original country
within six months, the obtained Korean
citizenship shall be lost, without exception. Therefore, a child with a foreign
nationality
that recognized dual nationality could not acquire Korean
nationality. Under the Nationality Act revised in December 1997, an exception
was made to allow children to acquire Korean citizenship in such cases, thereby
satisfying the purpose of article 8 of the Convention.
63. The
Nationality Act (art. 8, para. 2 and art. 14, para. 2) stated that a minor child
of a person who acquires citizenship in the
Republic of Korea shall become a
citizen of the Republic of Korea together with his/her parent. However, the
revision of the Nationality
Act deleted these two articles and compulsory
nationality change for the child that had not considered his/her
intentions.
64. A child born out of wedlock may be acknowledged by
his/her biological father or mother. A child born out of wedlock is deemed
to
have been born during the marriage by the subsequent marriage of the father and
mother. A child, any of his/her lineal descendants
or the legal representative
of any of them may bring legal action against his/her father or mother to be
acknowledged. Also, an
action to force acknowledgement may be brought against
the prosecutor within one year from the day on which the death of the father
or
mother becomes known.
C. Freedom of expression (art. 13)
65. Children’s freedom of expression and
freedom to gather information are fully guaranteed under the Constitution.
However, the freedom of expression has some limitations because of the current
Korean military situation posed by North Korea.
As a rule, however, freedom of
expression is protected as much as possible.
66. The freedom of
expression is not absolutely unrestricted, unlike the intrinsic freedom of
thought, but can be restricted under
certain social conditions. The
Constitution clearly states that there are specific duties and responsibilities
pursuant to the exercise of this right, that neither speech nor
the press shall
violate the honour or rights of other persons or undermine public morals or
social ethics, and that if speech or
the press violate the honour or rights of
other persons, claims may be made for damages.
67. The Constitution
stipulates that freedom of expression may be restricted by law only when
necessary for national security, the maintenance of public
order or public
welfare. The restriction of freedom of expression by the Constitution is
specifically mentioned in paragraphs 58 and 59 of the initial
report.
D. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion (art. 14)
68. The Constitution states that freedom of
expression may be restricted by law only when necessary for national security,
the maintenance of public order
or public welfare. The restrictions on freedom
of expression are specifically stated in paragraph 59 of the initial
report.
69. As specifically stated in paragraphs 60 and 62 of the initial
report, the right of the child to freedom of thought, conscience
and religion is
guaranteed through the relevant provisions of the Constitution.
70. The
Civil Act provides that a person endowed with parental authority has the right
and duty to protect and educate his/her child,
and guarantees that a parent or
legal guardian has the freedom to provide the child with a religious and moral
education. It is
not deemed natural, however, in the Republic of Korea that the
belief of a parent shall be that of the child. Even if students attend
schools
established by religious organizations, they may have their own religion. All
adults and children choose their religion
at their own discretion and of their
own free will.
E. Freedom of association and of peaceful assembly (art. 15)
71. Under the Constitution all citizens are
guaranteed the freedom and the rights of assembly and association, with the same
guarantees made to the children.
Freedom of association and freedom of assembly
may be restricted by law, subject to the same conditions which apply to freedom
of
expression. However, even when such a restriction is imposed, no essential
freedom or right may be violated. The specific details
are in paragraphs 64 and
65 of the initial report.
F. Protection of privacy (art. 16)
72. The Constitution (arts. 16 and 17)
guarantees freedom of residence, the right to privacy and secrecy of
communication. The person whose honour, rights
or privacy is undermined or
violated by the print media, has the right to appeal to the court under the
Constitution (art. 21). The specific details about protecting the privacy of
individuals are in paragraphs 66 and 67 of the initial report.
Articles 68, 71
and 10 of the Juvenile Act regulate the protection of privacy in the case of
juveniles. This Act restricts media
coverage about juveniles, including the
publication or broadcast of information or photographs indicating name, age,
occupation and
appearance by which the protected person can be identified. The
agencies involved in juvenile protection cases cannot respond to
any inquiry,
except from official sources.
G. Access to appropriate information (art. 17)
73. As stated in paragraph 68 of the initial
report, the structure of broadcasting in Korea has been changed from a solely
public
system to a mixture of public and private ownership and operation in
order to satisfy people’s increasing information needs.
The Broadcasting
Act was enacted in 1987. As of 1997, there were 70 television stations in
Korea, including 7 nationwide television
stations, 5 religious
television stations, 1 transportation television station, 1 educational
television station, and other local
television stations. There
are 5 television stations and 19 radio broadcasting stations in the
Seoul metropolitan area. As of May
1997, a total of 1,870,000
households watched cable TV, which was started in 1995. Special
fouraerial TV stations broadcast more
than one hour of children’s
programmes daily and three cable TV stations broadcast
children’s programmes exclusively.
74. In 1996, about 158 million books were published by 12,458 publishing
companies. The Korean Government buys and distributes good
books to encourage
young people to read good books and to support publishers. The National Library
and the Sajik Library have an
openstack system for the convenience of
children.
75. Under the Juvenile Protection Act (arts. 8, 14) and the
Registration of Publishing Companies and Printing Offices Act (art. 5,
para. 2),
the Publication Ethics Commission screens potential “youth-harmful
publications”, labels harmful works and
has a separate distribution system
to protect young people from detrimental publications. The publishing companies
and printing
houses which violate this, face penalties ranging from fines to
cancellation of their registration.
76. The Broadcasting Inquiry Council
exercises public responsibility and objectivity with regard to broadcasting and
promotes the
quality of television and radio programmes. The Performance Ethics
Commission oversees performances, movies, tapes and videos, and
the Publication
Ethics Commission investigates all kinds of publications. Any movie, television
or radio programme with offensive
language or potentially harmful to children,
such as corrupting stories, slang and excessively brutal scenes, is prohibited.
Currently,
the age restriction is marked on all TV programmes: “18”
signifies that youths aged under 18 are prohibited from watching
the programme
and “13” means that youths aged under 13 should only watch with
their parents.
77. All domestic or imported movies are classified by the
Korea Performance and Art Promotion Commission. All movies are classified
into
four grades based on the age groups that can watch the film. Movies rated as
“general” are acceptable for people
of all age groups; the other
categories are “persons over 13 years old”, “persons over 16
years old” and
“restricted” (persons aged 18 or over only).
All discs and video products, publicity and advertisement materials are
monitored by the Commission. Measures to prevent young people from being
exposed to obscene materials on computers or the Internet
should be
devised.
78. In order for children to access appropriate and healthy
information, under the Child Welfare Act (art. 18), punishment is imposed
on
those who induce a child to see harmful shows, movies or similar public
performance, or who publish books, publications, advertisements
or other
materials that might seriously hurt children’s moral character, or who
sell, distribute, offer, exchange, display,
narrate orally or broadcast them to
children or make another person do so.
H. The right not to be subjected to torture or other cruel,
inhuman or
degrading treatment or punishment (art. 37 (a))
79. Under the
Constitution (art. 12, para. 2), torture and cruel punishment are prohibited.
The Criminal Code (art. 125) states that anyone who uses violence
and/or
brutality during an inquiry is subject to five years’ confinement or up to
10 years’ forfeiture of occupational
status. When a confession is
determined to have been made against a defendant’s will by means of
torture, violence, intimidation,
unduly prolonged arrest, deceit, etc., such a
confession shall not be admitted as evidence in court nor shall punishment be
meted
out on the basis of such a confession. By forbidding confessions obtained
by torture to be admitted as evidence, obtaining legal
evidence by means of such
acts is prevented. As specifically stated in paragraph 75 of the initial
report, the Criminal Procedure
Act defines proper examination and judgement
procedures. In 1995, the Republic of Korea joined the Convention against
Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the
Government will not allow torture or other cruel or inhuman treatment
by the
State.
80. The Juvenile Act (art. 59) and the Act on Special Cases
concerning the Punishment of Specific Violent Crimes (art. 4) prohibit
the death
penalty for a child of less than 18 years of age and life sentences and penal
servitude for life for juvenile offenders
under 18 years of age.
V. FAMILY ENVIRONMENT AND ALTERNATIVE CARE
A. Parental guidance and responsibilities (arts. 5 and 18, para. 2)
81. The Civil Act of
the Republic of Korea (art. 909, para. 1) stipulates that “minors should
obey parental authority”,
which may be misunderstood to mean that it gives
parents the right to dominate their children. In 1999, the Ministry of Justice
amended the Civil Act to provide that “parents have parental authority
over minors”, to make it clear that the essence
of parental authority is
not control over their children, but protection and concern for children. The
amended Civil Act (art. 912,
para. 2) reflected the shift from the parental
authority system to concern for children; it also explicitly stipulated the
principle
of the best interest of the child contained in the Convention, by
including the new clause that “parental authority should
place priority on
the welfare of the child”.
82. The welfare of the child is the
paramount consideration when arrangements are being made for the care of
children following the
divorce or separation of the parents. The amended Civil
Act will provide, in a new article 909, paragraph 5, that the Family Court
will
designate parental authority in case of an appeal following the dissolution of a
marriage or divorce. The Family Court is actively
involved in the guardianship
of the child and prioritizes the protection of the child.
83. Among the
support measures for childcare is the Labour Standards Act, which
ensures 60 days of paid maternity leave and paid nursing
time, and the
Sexual Equality Employment Act, which guarantees one year of childcare leave, as
stated specifically in paragraph 79
of the initial report.
84. The
Republic of Korea has passed and enforced laws ensuring that the State assists
parents in carrying out their responsibilities
and raising a child. These are
the Mother and Fatherless Child Health Act, the Child Welfare Act, the Infant
Care Act and the Protection
of Minimum Living Standards Act. The concrete
purposes of each Act is stated in paragraph 80 of the initial report.
B. Separation from parents (art. 9)
85. If a father or mother abuses the parental
authority or is guilty of gross misconduct, or there exist any other important
reasons
for terminating parental rights, the court may adjudge the termination
of parental power. The specific reasons and procedure for
the termination of
parental power is in paragraph 81 of the initial report.
86. As stated in
paragraph 82 of the initial report, the Civil Act guarantees both parents the
right to maintain a relationship with
the child when the parents are divorced or
separated, by providing a father or mother with visitation rights when a child
is being
brought up by the other parent. The Family Court, when deemed
necessary for the welfare of a child and at the request of the child
concerned,
may limit or terminate a parent’s visitations rights; that is, limitation
or termination of visits is allowed when
a child does not want them, in the
interests of the welfare of the child. However, the child’s right to
visit and maintain
a relationship with the parent is not currently
guaranteed.
87. The Convention states that in case of the death of a
child during confinement, imprisonment, or detention, the prison must
immediately
provide full disclosure of all information related to the death of
the child. The Criminal Procedure Act stipulated that a written
notice of
arrest must be sent immediately at the time of arrest stating the reason for the
arrest. The amended Act, which came into
effect in January 1997, states that
the reason for suspecting the arrested person must also be given.
88. A
child aged 15 or over may express his/her consent to being adopted. When
parents are divorced or legally separated and they
disagree on custody, the
opinion of the child who is more than 15 years old is taken into consideration
under the Act on Special
Cases concerning the Promotion and Procedure of
Adoption (art. 6, para. 2).
C. Family reunification (art. 10)
89. As stated in paragraph 85 of the initial
report, freedom of residence, moving within the country, emigration and travel
to a foreign
country are guaranteed by the Constitution.
90. An alien
with a valid passport and visa is allowed to enter Korea, except for those who
may be prohibited from entering pursuant
to the Immigration Control Act (art.
11), such as patients with an epidemic disease, carriers of unlawful firearms,
mentally disabled
persons, and those who are deemed to be detrimental to the
social order or good morals. For aliens residing in Korea, their departure
is
guaranteed except for persons suspected of committing a serious crime, persons
in arrears with their tax payments, etc. Therefore,
except for those who fall
under the Immigration Control Act (art. 29), there is no restriction on the
entry or departure of children
and parents, as provided under the
Convention.
91. The Republic of Korea revised in 1993 and enforced in
1994 the Immigration Control Act, which reinforces the protection of refugees.
The Act (art. 16, para. 2; art. 64, para. 3 and art. 76, paras. 2-7) allows
permission to enter the country for 90 days for those
requesting refuge status,
prohibits the expulsion of refugees to countries where they may face persecution
(art. 33, para. 1) and
establishes a new procedure for granting refugee status.
If a person requesting asylum is a child under the age of 17, or is unable
to do
so himself/herself due to sickness or other event, a substitute request can be
allowed. Accredited refugees can leave and
return to the country with the issue
of a certificate for refugees’ travel, which aims to provide support for
the special protection
of children as refugees and their parents for the reunion
of families. Thus far, however, there has been no case of a person under
the
age of 17 requesting refugee status.
D. Recovery of maintenance for the child (art. 27, para. 4)
92. The Child Welfare Act (art. 28) regulates
the methods of recovering childcare costs. Provinces and counties can collect
the costs
for protecting children from the children or their guardians.
E. Children deprived of a family environment (art. 20)
93. Children must be born and brought up with
their family. Having a family environment is a child’s right and is
essential
for their healthy upbringing and development. However, when a
child cannot have such an environment, or remaining in the parents’
home
is detrimental to the child’s development, a childcare
institution may be a necessary substitute. In 1998, 5,112 children
were
placed in special care facilities or welfare institutions, accounting for 55
per cent of the total of 9,292 needy children.
94. The number of
residential facilities for children, established to protect orphans resulting
from the Korean War, has decreased
since the 1970s. Residential care has been
accepted as an alternative form of care for children in need. One reason
residential
care has been heavily used to care for needy children is because
suitable alternative care arrangements have not been developed.
To develop a
broad range of alternative care environments is one of the urgent challenges
Korea is facing to improve the welfare
of its children in need.
Table 3
Status of needy children and placement,
1990-1993
Total
|
Children
|
Placement
|
||||
Abandoned
|
Lost
|
Residential care
|
Foster care
|
Adoption
|
||
1990
|
5 721
|
4 213
|
1 508
|
3 734
|
1 134
|
853
|
1991
|
5 095
|
3 630
|
1 465
|
3 414
|
999
|
682
|
1992
|
5 020
|
3 294
|
1 726
|
3 122
|
1 212
|
686
|
1993
|
4 451
|
3 234
|
1 217
|
2 940
|
943
|
568
|
95. Foster family care as an alternative to institutional care was
introduced in 1985. NGOs have made efforts to develop foster care,
such as by
providing training for foster parents. Because of the reasons explained in
paragraph 50 of the initial report, foster
family care is still uncommon but the
Government and NGOs continue to make great efforts. In an effort to change the
primary form
of welfare institution from dormitory homes to small groups, the
Government has started pilot group home projects, and as of 1998
there were 10
group homes operating.
F. Adoption (art. 21)
96. The procedure for domestic and intercountry
adoption as provided by the Civil Act and the Special Adoption Act is as
explained
in the initial report (art. 91). According to the Civil Code, in the
case of domestic adoptions, the adoption process is completed
with a legal
report after an agreement between the children’s guardians and the
adopting parents, even though the
Convention permits adoptions to be conducted only by the Government. Many
efforts to change this anomaly have been made by NGOs and
universities, but it
will take some time to reach the standards of the Convention.
Table 4
Adoption trends, 1958-1993
Total
|
Domestic
adoptions |
Intercountry
adoptions |
Ratio of domestic
adoption (%) |
|
1958-1960
|
2 700
|
168
|
2 532
|
6.2
|
1961-1970
|
11 481
|
4 206
|
7 275
|
36.6
|
1971-1980
|
63 551
|
15 304
|
48 247
|
24.1
|
1981-1985
|
50 502
|
15 424
|
35 078
|
30.5
|
1986-1990
|
41 322
|
11 079
|
30 243
|
26.8
|
1991
|
3 438
|
1 241
|
2 197
|
36.1
|
1992
|
3 235
|
1 190
|
2 045
|
36.8
|
1993
|
3 444
|
1 154
|
2 290
|
33.5
|
Total
|
179 673
|
49 766
|
129 907
|
27.7
|
97. The recent domestic and intercountry adoption trends show that the
number of adoptions is decreasing. It is expected that if
there is no further
sharp decline, about 1,000 children will be adopted within Korea and about 2,000
children to foreign countries
every year. The ratio of intercountry adoptions
to domestic adoptions has decreased over time. Intercountry adoption was 2.8
times
higher than domestic adoption in 1975, 3.3 times in 1987 and 1.9 times in
1993. In 1993, 1,154 children were placed for adoption
in domestic families,
and 2,290 children to families abroad. The main adopting countries were the
United States, Sweden, Denmark,
Norway, the Netherlands, Australia, Belgium,
France and Luxemburg, 79 per cent of the children were adopted by people in
the United
States.
Table 5
Distribution of intercountry adoptions, 1993
No. of adoptees
|
|
United States of America
|
1 807
|
Sweden
|
60
|
Denmark
|
139
|
Norway
|
104
|
Netherlands
|
4
|
Australia
|
69
|
Belgium
|
1
|
France
|
85
|
Luxemburg
|
21
|
Total
|
2 290
|
98. Domestic adoption is carried out by 5 authorized non-profit agencies
and 25 childguidance clinics in various cities, counties
and
districts. Since 1997, to stimulate domestic adoption, the Government has
provided tax incentives in the form of a childcare
allowance and a medical
allowance to families adopting a disabled child.
99. Intercountry
adoption services, which were started to aid orphans and multiracial
children born during the Korean War, are provided
by four authorized
non-profit organizations. Even though intercountry adoption has a procedure
similar to that for domestic adoption,
special attention and assistance to
the adoptee and adopting parents and post-placement services are required
because of the differences
in ethnic backgrounds, cultures and languages between
the adopted child and the adopting parents. The post-placement services are
explained in the initial report (para. 94).
100. About 98 per cent
of all children who were given up for adoption in 1998 were born out of wedlock.
Poverty, death of the parents
and divorce are the other main reasons for giving
a child up for adoption.
101. Under the Child Welfare Act, Korea forbids
people rendering assistance in making connections for an adoption to derive
improper
financial gain from the adoption proceedings. The Government
strengthened the penalty for illegal adoption in the revision of the
Special
Adoption Act in 1999.
G. Illicit transfer and non-return (art. 11)
102. A person who kidnaps a child by force or
enticement is punishable by penal servitude. The details are explained in
paragraph
97 of the initial report.
H. Abuse and neglect (art. 19), including physical and
psychological recovery
and social reintegration (art. 39)
103. In order to
protect children from violence, cruelty, exploitation, etc., the Criminal Act
(art. 287) provides that a person who
kidnaps a minor by force or enticement
shall be punished by penal servitude for not more than 10 years. The Act on the
Aggravated
Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes (art. 5, para. 2) provides that a
person who kidnaps a child with intent to obtain pecuniary
or proprietary gain
or with intent to kill the child shall be punished by penal servitude for life
or punishment including the death
penalty, respectively.
104. In 1997,
the Government promulgated the Special Act for the Punishment of Domestic
Violence which has been in effect since July
1998. This Act is intended not
only to punish offenders, but also to separate and treat the child victims,
taking into consideration
the serious impact of repeated and chronic domestic
violence on the formation of the child’s personality.
105. The
Government has actively strengthened the legal instruments to induce
professional intervention in cases of child abuse and
abandonment. The Child
Welfare Act (art. 3) provides that all citizens, the State and local government
are responsible for the protection
and sound upbringing of children. The Act
(art. 18) prohibits various acts such as violence, cruelty and the
exploitation of children, and violations are punished severely (art. 34).
The Act is being revised to include the obligation to report
on child abuse,
treating the perpetrator of child abuse, establishing a professional child
protection agency, establishing a hot
line and other measures.
106. The
Special Act for the Punishment of Domestic Violence strengthens the protection
of children victimized by domestic violence
and explores corrective programmes
to prevent the repetition of domestic violence. For this, the Act prohibits the
perpetrator from
having access to the victim, restricts the parental rights of
the perpetrator, insists that he/she work with social services and
receive
education, and regulates probation, preventive custody, treatment, counselling,
etc. in addition to punishing the perpetrator
of domestic
violence.
107. Child abuse is included in domestic violence by the
Special Act for Punishment of Domestic Violence, and hence anybody can report
cases of abuse (art. 4, para. 1). The personnel in the agencies for the
education and protection of children and the agencies for
the treatment of
children have a duty to report suspected child abuse (art. 4, paras. 2 and
3).
108. The victims can make an accusation of child abuse through a
relative or legal representative (Act, art. 6, paras. 1 and 2).
In case the
victim has no legal representative or relative, the public prosecutor can
designate a person to make the accusation in
accordance with the wishes of the
person concerned (art. 6, para. 3).
109. The most common form of child
abuse in Korea is abandonment, which has increased during the recent economic
recession. Those
children are placed in protection facilities and receive the
necessary services from the Government.
110. The Children’s Rights
Protection Centre, the voluntary agency responsible for the prevention of abuse
and the discovery
and treatment of abused children, was established in 1985
within the Child Guidance Centre in Seoul. The Area Agency on Child Abuse
and
Neglect was organized as a substructure of the Korean Association for the
Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect in 1989. In
addition, in 1990 the
Parents’ Cooperation for Realizing Humane Education created the
“Horuragi (Whistle) Hotline”
as a part of the campaign to banish
violence from schools. In addition, from 1996 the Korea Neighbourly Love
Association has operated
16 child abuse reporting centres and from 1999 the
Korea Child Protection Foundation established a 24hour child abuse
reporting and
counselling line and has operated a temporary protection facility
for the child victims.
I. Periodic review of placement (art. 25)
111. According to the Enforcement Ordinance of
the Child Welfare Act, “child welfare facilities” refer to child
guidance
clinics, childcare institutions, child emergency protection facilities,
child vocational guidance centres, juvenile reformatories,
self-support
facilities for those discharged from childcare institutions, foster-care
facilities for adoption, and facilities for
emotionally disturbed children.
In December 1998, 17,820 children were cared for in
the 272 residential care facilities, an average
of 66 children per
facility for all kinds of facilities, and 85 children per alternative
facility.
112. The number of childcare institutions and children cared
for in such facilities has decreased together with the decrease of abandoned
and
lost children. The Government expects that less than 1 per cent of needy
children will be cared for in residential facilities
in the future. However, as
a result of the economic recession since the end of 1997, the number of children
temporarily given up
for care or abandoned has increased and hence the number of
children cared for in the institutions will also likely
increase.
113. The mayor, provincial governor and ward head are
responsible for the periodic inspection of the childcare institutions under
their management and their programmes, and for auditing their budgets.
Table 6
Children in residential care, by type of
institution, 1993
No. of institutions
|
No. of children
|
Average number of children/institution
|
|
Institution for infants
|
38
|
2 260
|
59
|
Institution for children
|
218
|
16 914
|
78
|
Vocational guidance
|
8
|
346
|
43
|
Juvenile reformatory
|
7
|
545
|
78
|
Self-support assistance
|
7
|
129
|
18
|
Total
|
278
|
20 194
|
73
|
Table 7
Institutional trends for infants
and children,
1975-1980
No. of institutions
|
No. of children
|
|
1975
|
350
|
32 996
|
1980
|
287
|
23 357
|
1985
|
271
|
24 430
|
1990
|
261
|
22 535
|
1991
|
259
|
21 333
|
1992
|
257
|
20 286
|
1993
|
256
|
19 174
|
VI. BASIC HEALTH AND WELFARE
A. Survival and development (art. 6, para. 2)
114. With the rapid
economic development of the 1970s and 1980s, the health status of Korean
children has steadily improved. The
general rise in prosperity - with better
housing, improved hygienic conditions and increased awareness of diet and
nutrition - has
been a powerful contributory factor to this improvement.
Korea’s infant mortality rate has been reduced from 17.3 per 1,000
live
births in 1980 to 12.8 in 1992 and 7.7 in 1996. The maternal mortality rate was
0.02 per cent in 1995 and 1996 and it continues
to decrease. The
institutional delivery rate was 99.7 per cent in 1997, and the number of
women receiving prenatal care was 99.6
per cent in
1997.
115. The Mother and Child Health (MCH) programme under the Mother
and Child Health Act covers the registration and management of pregnant
women, the infant health-care programme, and the disability prevention
programme, including mass screening for birth defects of metabolism
and
neuroblastoma. In 1998, there were 245 public health centres
including 17 medical centres, 1,329 local branches of public health
centres and 2,039 health clinics. The Planned Parenthood Federation of
Korea also operated MCH centres.
116. The principal aim of child health
care is to reduce mortality, morbidity and disability in children by providing
free pre- and
post-natal care. Since 1987 the Government has issued the
“Maternal and Child Health Care Handbook”. Health supervision
involves regular health checks for all newborns when they are 6 months old and
18 months old. Mass screening for metabolism and
neuroblastoma birth defects
has been expanded from just children in low-income families to all newborns
starting in 1997. About
50,000 newborns are examined every year in maternal
health centres. Free vaccinations (or with a nominal fee) for children up to
age 5 include BCG, DPT, polio, MMR, etc.
Table 8
Proportion of immunized Korean children, 0-1 year old, 1994
117. The rate of breastfeeding, in spite of its importance, has
decreased. The rate of breastfeeding decreased from 48.1 per cent
in 1988
to 14.1 per cent in 1997. The Korean Committee for UNICEF conducts a baby
friendly hospital initiative to enhance breastfeeding.
From 1994, the
Government included the hospital management fees in medical insurance benefits
for inpatients using the “baby-mother
room”. The Government also
recommends the participation of medical and civil organizations in establishing
and expanding baby-mother
rooms at hospitals and clinics.
118. The main
cause of hospital morbidity among children is diseases of the respiratory
system, such as pneumonia and bronchitis;
in 1995, the two-week morbidity rate
was 34.2 per cent for ages 0-4, 19.7 per cent for ages 5-9,
and 8.8 per cent for ages 10-19.
119. The percentage of babies with
disabilities is 0.6 per cent.
120. The number of deaths from traffic
accidents among children aged under 14 years of age was 592 in 1998, accounting
for 6.5 per
cent of all traffic deaths. This rate has gradually
decreased.
Table 9
Number of deaths of children from traffic accidents,
1990-1998
Under 14
|
15-20
|
Total
|
|
1990
|
1 537 (12.5)
|
584 (4.7)
|
12 325
|
1991
|
1 566 (11.7)
|
834 (6.2)
|
13 429
|
1992
|
1 180 (10.1)
|
794 (6.8)
|
11 640
|
1993
|
998 (9.6)
|
650 (6.2)
|
10 402
|
1994
|
890 (8.8)
|
656 (6.6)
|
10 087
|
1995
|
809 (7.8)
|
805 (7.8)
|
10 323
|
1996
|
932 (7.4)
|
941 (7.4)
|
12 653
|
1997
|
753 (6.5)
|
988 (8.5)
|
11 603
|
1998
|
592 (6.5)
|
696 (7.7)
|
9 057
|
Source: Police Administration Office,
1999.
Note: Figure in brackets is
per cent.
121. Traffic safety education amounting to 21-23 hours per
year, appropriate for the grade level and local conditions, is woven through
all
sorts of educational activities, including curricula, special activities and
guidance, in kindergartens and primary, middle and
high schools. In doing so,
one person was designated for traffic education. “The Traffic Safety
Promotion Corporation”
made and provided various materials including
traffic education textbooks, video materials, etc. for schools and provided
training
for the members of the “Green Mothers’ Association”.
In order to protect children from traffic accidents, the
Government established
a “Child Protection Zone” within a 300-metre radius of all schools,
with additional traffic safety
facilities and special traffic
restrictions.
122. The School HealthCare Act enacted in 1967 was designed
to increase the effectiveness of school education by improving students’
and teachers’ health. The Government has made efforts to improve student
welfare through the expansion of the health facilities
and by improving
sanitation conditions, conducting physical examinations, preventing diseases and
hiring health personnel, etc. in
schools. The school free lunch programme is
one such effort, started by the Government in 1992 and expanded to all
elementary schools
from 1998; this programme covered 3.8 million students in
5,688 elementary schools nationwide. The programme will be expanded in
2001 to
the high school level.
123. The Government has enacted the Youth
Protection Act to protect young people from detrimental environments. In
article 28 of
the Act, the Youth Protection Committee, in consultation with the
Ministry of Health and Welfare, is to use national hospitals, public
hospitals
and other hospitals under the Medical Law as treatment and rehabilitation
facilities for young people victimized by drug
abuse.
124. Medical insurance presently covers the whole population, after being
introduced in 1977, expanded to rural areas in 1988 and
to urban areas in 1989.
In accordance with the National Medical Insurance Act, the regional medical
insurance companies and civil
servants’ and teachers’ medical
insurance programmes were integrated in 1998; such integration will continue in
2000
to include the workshop medical insurance. Also in accordance with the
Act, the medical services will focus on disease prevention.
125. The
functions of medical institutions are explained in paragraph 124 of the initial
report but from 1998 the areas to be covered
by the medical service delivery
system were widened.
126. In 1996, the number of paediatric specialists
was 2,902, accounting for 8.4 per cent of all specialists; annually about
200 paediatric
specialists are added. The medical system in Korea is centred on
non-governmental clinics and hospitals. The number of paediatric
clinics
performing primary diagnosis and treatment was 1,642; 282 hospitals had
paediatric facilities out of a total of 495; and
275 general hospitals had
paediatric facilities out of 276.
127. According to the National Health
and Attitude Survey conducted in 1995, the morbidity rate over two weeks
was 48.3 per cent up
to the age of 4, 34.8 per cent for
ages 59 and 21.7 per cent for ages 10-19. The outpatient rate
was 41.1 per cent up to the age
of 4, 25.6 per cent for ages
5-9 and 13.5 per cent for ages 10-19. Thus, the morbidity rate and the
outpatient rates over two weeks
were high up to the age of 4. The annual
chronic morbidity rate for all children up to 19 years old was 13.8
per cent.
Table 10
Two-week morbidity rate and outpatient rate,
1995
128. The Child Welfare Act (art. 14) provides that those people who have
a duty to protect and supervise a child must make the best
efforts to maintain
and improve the child’s health.
B. Disabled children (art. 23)
129. There were about 50,000 disabled children
in Korea, accounting for 0.39 per cent of the total number of children as
of the end
of 1997. They suffer from disabilities such as physical
disabilities, hearing impairments, vision impairments and mental retardation.
The Disabled Welfare Act provides that the Government and the local autonomous
entities are responsible for their security of life
and improving their welfare.
Most disabled children live with their families in their own homes but children
with serious disabilities
are placed in disabled welfare institutions. As of
the end of 1997, the number of disabled children who were placed in
the 180 institutions
around Korea was 6,235, accounting for 12.4
per cent of the total number of disabled children. Most disabled welfare
institutions
are for infants and only three institutions are for children and
adults.
Table 11
Incidence of disabilities among children, by age,
sex and type of disability
|
Physical
|
Visual
|
Hearing
|
Speech
|
Mental
retardation |
Under 5
|
0.34
|
0.01
|
0.10
|
0.35
|
0.56
|
6-11
|
1.20
|
0.06
|
0.51
|
0.80
|
2.21
|
12-14
|
1.54
|
0.14
|
0.26
|
0.57
|
2.01
|
15-17
|
2.59
|
0.51
|
0.46
|
0.36
|
2.10
|
Total
|
1.25
|
0.14
|
0.32
|
0.53
|
1.64
|
130. The legislation that ensures equal social participation by the
disabled is the Welfare Act for the Disabled; the Act for the
Promotion of the
Convenience and Security of the Elderly, Pregnant Women and the Disabled; the
Employment Promotion Act for the Disabled;
and the Special Education Act. The
1988 Seoul Para Olympics provided an opportunity to promote the welfare of the
disabled. A comprehensive welfare plan, which
includes provision for the
prevention of disabilities, medical security, rehabilitative equipment, the
expansion of educational opportunities,
etc. was prepared and is implemented by
the Committee on Welfare for the Disabled under the President. In 1996, the
Committee for
the Welfare of the Disabled was established as a Government
coordinating body for deliberation and decision-making on disabled welfare
policies. The Committee consists of the Prime Minister as the Chairman, the
Cabinet ministers and specialists in the welfare of
the disabled. The Committee
established and enforced the Five-Year Plan for the Development of Welfare for
the Disabled by 2000,
which included welfare, employment and special
education.
131. Since 1988, there has been a registration system for the
disabled to help ensure economic support for them; it includes provisions
for a
supplementary living allowance, auxiliary instruments and education costs, and
for a reduction of various taxes and fees.
In order to provide an opportunity
for professional training for the self-reliance of the disabled, enterprises
with 300 employees
or more are required to employ disabled persons equal to 2
per cent of their total workforce and to encourage the employment of the
disabled; financial support is provided for those employers who exceed this
target. Also, to facilitate the employment of the disabled,
professional
guidance and training, employment placement, guidance for adaptation to working
environments, etc. are provided. The
Government provides support for the
establishment and operation of professional rehabilitation facilities with the
aim of accommodating
the employment and physical rehabilitation of the seriously
disabled who have more difficulty finding employment in normal work places.
A
total of 4,347 seriously disabled persons are working in these facilities, and
the products they make are sold in joint markets
for products by the disabled in
seven places nationwide. To better understand the disabled, a “Day of the
Disabled”
ceremony and national art exhibition are
held.
132. Medical rehabilitation services for the disabled are provided
in 15 rehabilitation clinics and hospitals. These are financed
from the central
government funds (30 per cent), local government funds (50 per cent)
and with independent funding (20 per cent).
The National Rehabilitation
Medical Centre was established in 1994 with 200 beds. Community-based services
offer medical rehabilitation,
education and vocational training for the
disabled. There are 38 general welfare centres, at the provincial level, and 16
welfare
centres for certain types of disability. In order to promote the social
participation of families with disabled members and the
protection of the
disabled, there are daytime care facilities and rehabilitation service centres
that provide home medical services
and counselling.
133. The Korea Heart
Foundation, established in 1984, is a specialized voluntary organization. It
has arranged operations for children
of low-income families with heart disease
or deformed hearts. By the end of 1997, 13,974 children had been supported for
operations,
with the participation of 52 medical institutions, including 12,832
children suffering from congenital and acquired heart diseases,
391 children
with facial deformities, 239 children needing kidney transplants, 150 children
needing bone marrow transplants and 361
with other diseases. The Korea Child
Protection Foundation, in cooperation with five hospitals, has provided
treatment of impaired
children with congenital heart diseases from poor
families.
C. Social security and childcare services and facilities
(arts. 26 and 18, para. 3)
134. The State has a
duty to promote social security and social welfare, as provided in the
Constitution. According to the Livelihood Protection Act, children under age 18
who have no one to support them or who live with guardians who
cannot support
them are given priority for inclusion in the Livelihood Protection Programmes.
Support for these children was explained
in the initial report (para. 127).
Since 1996, the equality of education was improved and the Programme expanded to
include students
in academic high schools as well as students in middle and
vocational high schools. As of the end of 1997, the number of children
covered
by the Programme was 237,148, which constituted 24.4 per cent of all
beneficiaries (971,519) and 1.9 per cent of the entire
child
population. As explained in paragraph 127 of the initial report, the
governmental support for the promotion of self-reliance
of female-headed
families was expanded to father-child families as well.
Table 12
Number of children and other persons under
the
Livelihood Protection Programme, 1997
No. of persons (B)
|
Ratio (A/B)
|
Total children (C)
|
Ratio (A/C)
|
|
237 148
|
97 119
|
24.4
|
12 760 577
|
1.9
|
135. With rapid economic growth, modernization and urbanization since the
1970s, the size of households has decreased and the rate
of women’s,
especially mothers’, employment has increased; and hence the problem of
day-care service for children needs
to be solved at the
national level
rather than at an ad hoc, individual level as in the previous year. In Korea,
the day-care service programme was implemented
under the Infant and Pre-school
Child Care Act of 1991. This programme, including both childcare and
education, is governed by the
Ministry of Health and Welfare. The Government
supports the salary of teachers and the operating costs
of public day nursery service facilities and of educational materials and
equipment, and subsidizes the enrolment fees for low-income
families using
private day-care service facilities. Since 1998, there has been a reduction in
the tax included in the tuition for
day-care facilities. Central and local
day-care service information centres were established in the day-care service
support system
to provide materials related to childcare and counselling. Free
day-care services for children under 5 was expanded and subsidized
day care for
children under 5 from lowincome families and under the Livelihood Protection
Programme will be expanded with the support
of governmental funds for
low-income families.
136. In order to respond actively to the growing
demands for day-care services and to support women’s economic
participation,
the Government implemented the Three-Year Plan for the
Expansion of Day-care Facilities with the aim of expanding existing facilities
by investing 1.3 trillion won from 1995 to 1997; as a result, the
number of facilities increased from 5,490 in 1993 to 15,375 in
1997,
with 520,959 infants and children receiving day care. As of March 1999,
587,685 infants and children received day-care service
in 18,097 facilities.
The utilization rate of the facilities was about 90 per cent, which is
judged to meet the demands for the
day-care services; in the future, improving
the quality of the day-care service will be a focus.
Table 13
Number of day nursery centres by type and total
enrolment
|
1990
|
1995
|
1996
|
1997
|
National and public
|
360
|
1 029
|
1 079
|
1 158
|
Private
|
39
|
4 125
|
6 037
|
8 172
|
Workplace
|
20
|
87
|
117
|
158
|
House
|
1 500
|
3 844
|
4 865
|
5 877
|
Total
|
1 919
|
9 085
|
12 098
|
15 375
|
No. of children
|
48 000
|
293 747
|
403 001
|
520 959
|
Budget (bil. won)
|
191
|
830
|
1 098
|
1 330
|
137. Since most parents do not prefer their children to be with disabled
children, disabled children generally do not have an opportunity
to receive
day-care nursery services like other children. To solve this problem, the
Government plans to establish 100 facilities
by 2003. As of the end of 1998,
1,414 children received day-care services at 41 facilities. In order to improve
the quality of
the day-care services, the Government will evaluate day-care
service and develop and provide a variety of programmes.
D. Standard of living (art. 27, paras. 1-3)
138. In principle, the family has primarily
responsibility for their own standard of living and the society and nation are
secondarily
responsible for the welfare of the members of the family. In recent
years, universal rather than selective welfare has been emphasized.
139. There is a sponsorship programme to raise the standard of living of
needy children, in addition to public assistance. Since
1981, the Korea
Children’s Foundation, one of the specialized non-governmental child
welfare agencies, has been placed in charge
of the sponsorship programme to
promote voluntary participation from the non-governmental sector. Details of
this sponsorship programme
are included in paragraph 133 of the initial report.
As of 1998, 17,163 children - 75 per cent of 22,869 total children in
welfare
institutions and 92 per cent of the 13,627 children who are
child heads of families - have sponsorships with people in a variety
of social
classes.
Table 14
Sponsorship, 1998
|
Number
|
Sponsorship
|
Rate
|
Budget
|
Sponsors
|
Children in child welfare institutions
|
22 869
|
17 163
|
75
|
3 084 645 443
|
24 515
|
Child-headed families
|
13 627
|
12 459
|
92
|
5 718 733 598
|
23 171
|
Total
|
36 496
|
29 622
|
81
|
8 803 379 041
|
47 686
|
Source: Korea Welfare Foundation, Internal data,
1999.
140. The child-headed household project was started in 1985 to
prevent children in need from being institutionalized and to support
them living
in their communities; the details are contained in paragraph 134 of the initial
report. The number of child-headed families
has increased and there have been
efforts to improve their protection through expanding foster-family care and
group homes.
Table 15
Number of families headed by children and
their
attendance at school, 1985-1998
|
Households
|
No. of household members
|
|||||
Total
|
Not
enrolled
|
Primary
school |
Middle
school |
High
school |
Other
school |
||
1985
|
6 696
|
13 778
|
142
|
3 593
|
4 009
|
2 998
|
3 036
|
1990
|
6 696
|
13 778
|
142
|
3 593
|
4 009
|
2 998
|
3 036
|
1995
|
8 107
|
15 118
|
124
|
2 914
|
5 261
|
4 392
|
2 427
|
1998
|
8 407
|
13 627
|
150
|
2 428
|
4 515
|
5 141
|
1 393
|
Source: Ministry of Health and Welfare, Working Instructions,
each year.
E. Budget for health and welfare
141. For the past three years, the percentage
of the social development budget of the total Government budget increased
from 8.9 per
cent in 1997 to 9.1 per cent in 1998 and
to 10.8 per cent in 1999. The total Government budget was
80,137.8 billion won in 1999
and for social development it was 8,620.4
trillion won. The percentage of the budget allocated to the Ministry of
Health and Welfare
is 4.9 per cent (3,896.8 trillion won).
Table 16
Budget for social development and social
security
|
GDP
(A) |
General budget
(B) |
Social development budget
(C) |
Social security budget (D)
|
Ministry of Health and Welfare budget
(E) |
Percentage
|
||
C/B
|
D/B
|
E/B
|
||||||
1997
|
4 368 700
|
675 786
|
59 974
|
42 071
|
28 512
|
8.9
|
6.2
|
4.2
|
1998
|
4 501 410
|
755 829
|
69 058
|
45 761
|
31 127
|
9.1
|
6.1
|
4.1
|
1999
|
4 446 600
|
801 378
|
86 204
|
58 268
|
38 968
|
10.8
|
7.3
|
4.9
|
Source: Ministry of Health and Welfare, Working Instructions,
1999.
Note: Social development expenditure (C) comprises social
security, culture, sports, health, living environment improvement, housing
and
community social development. Social security expenditure (D) comprises medical
insurance, veterans, labour welfare, national
insurance and other social welfare
expenditures.
VII. EDUCATION, LEISURE AND CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
A. Education, including vocational training and guidance (art. 28)
142. The Constitution
(art. 31, paras. 1-3) regulates children’s rights regarding education and
the responsibility of society to provide free education.
The Elementary and
Secondary Education Act (art. 12, paras. 1 and 2) states that the Government and
the local autonomous entities must provide free education, take the necessary
actions to maintain the educational facilities, establish elementary and middle
schools and oversee their management.
143. In Korea, the education system
consists of six years of elementary school, three years of middle school, three
years of high
school and four years of university. This is the 6-3-3-4
linear education system. As of 1 April 1998, the total number of students
was
11,712,218 (the number of female students was 5,289,559, or 45.2 per cent
of the total), which is one fourth of the whole population.
The number of
teachers was 428,000 and the number of schools was 19,876. The administrative
system consists of the Ministry of
Education at the national level, 16
Educational Offices at the provincial level and 180 Educational Branch Offices
at the county
level.
Table 17
Number of schools, students and teachers by type,
1998
|
Classes
|
Students
|
Teachers
|
|
Kindergarten
Elementary School Middle School High School |
8 973
5 688 2 736 1 921 |
20 091
110 021 49 259 48 244 |
533 912
3 834 561 2 011 468 2 326 880 |
26 721
140 121 96 016 105 945 |
Source: Ministry of Education, The Educational
Statistics Yearbook,1998.
144. The number of students per class, as
of April 1998, was 34.8 students for elementary school, 40.8 for middle school
and 48.2
for high school (49.0 for academic high school and 47.1 for
vocational high school), all less than the previous years.
Table 18
Number of students per class, by type,
1995-1998
|
Elementary school
|
Middle school
|
High school
|
|
1995
|
28.4
|
36.4
|
48.2
|
47.9
|
1997
|
28.2
|
35.1
|
43.6
|
49.2
|
1998
|
26.5
|
34.8
|
40.8
|
48.2
|
Source: Ministry of Education, The Educational Statistics
Yearbook, each year.
145. An indicator of the quality and state of
education, the number of students per teacher in 1998 was 27.3 for
elementary school,
20.9 for middle school, 22.6 for academic high school, and
20.9 for vocational high school. In the same year, the ratio of the actual
number of teachers to the legally required number of teachers in public schools
was 96.2 per cent for elementary school, 85.3 per
cent for middle school, and
88.8 per cent for high school. The Educational Official Law (arts. 37 and 42)
mandates that to ensure
the high quality of teaching, the teachers in
elementary, middle and high schools must be trained in education and research
institutes
in Korea and overseas.
1. School
(a) Elementary school
146. The free and
compulsory education in elementary schools, which started in 1950, is almost
completely in place nationwide. The
only exceptions were for those children
suffering from disease or who were unable to be enrolled for other reasons
(Elementary and
Secondary Education Act, art. 14 and its Enforcement Decree,
art. 28).
147. The purpose of elementary school education is to provide the basic
education needed for everyday life (Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, art.
38). The law mandates that all children aged 6 to 12 must be enrolled in
elementary school, and that children aged 5 can be
enrolled if there is room for
them (Elementary and Secondary Education Act, art. 13).
148. Article 19,
paragraph 1, of the Enforcement Decree of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act allows those children who reside abroad or who are foreigners to receive the
same education as Korean children. The enrolment and
progress of these children
are explained in paragraph 140 of the initial report.
(b) Middle school
149. The Framework Act on Education (art. 8)
states that graduates of elementary school have the right to receive a middle
school
education. Since a very large budget is needed for free middle school
education, the government budget for free education, was able
to provide such
education in isolated islands and remote villages from 1985, and in rural areas
only from 1992. As of 1 April 1999,
the advancement rate of elementary school
graduates to middle schools was 99.9 per cent.
Table 19
Free and compulsory middle school education in
remote areas, 1988-1996
|
1989
|
1990
|
1991
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
1996
|
|
Students (thousand)
|
228
|
209
|
190
|
147
|
289
|
418
|
505
|
478
|
481
|
Source: Ministry of Education, The Educational Statistics
Yearbook, each year.
150. The purpose of middle school education is
to advance the child’s education. Social studies put an emphasis on
understanding
the worldwide problems of disease, poverty, drainage, hunger,
overpopulation, environment degradation, pollution, etc.
(c) High school
151. The graduates of middle schools advance to
general or vocational high schools, according to their preference. As of 1998,
the
advancement rate of middle school graduates to high schools was 99.4 per
cent and the proportion of vocational high school students
to the total number
of high school students was 40.6 per cent.
152. The purpose of the high
school education is to provide general education and professional education on
the basis of the middle
school curriculum. Through ethics, Korean, Chinese,
mathematics, sociology, science, physical education, military training, music,
painting, home economics, foreign languages and special activities, students are
educated with an emphasis on broadening their understanding
of the relationships
between countries and the interdependence of the peoples of the world,
reflecting the need to understand the
international order.
(d) College and beyond
153. As of 1998, the advancement rate of high
school graduates to colleges or other advanced education was 60.1 per cent.
In 1998,
the number of students attending one of the nation’s
346 colleges was 2,950,826 (of whom 1,109,185 were women). In order to
respond to the knowledge and information era of the twenty-first century and
strengthen the national competitiveness of the higher
level of education, the
Korean Government works at encouraging diversification and specialization at
universities, strengthening
the autonomy of universities, extending education
and research conditions and broadening the opportunities provided by higher
education.
Table 20
Advancement rate to next level of schooling
|
Elementary to middle school
|
Middle to high school
|
High school to college
|
1980
|
95.8
|
84.5
|
23.7
|
1985
|
99.2
|
90.7
|
36.4
|
1990
|
99.8
|
95.7
|
33.2
|
1995
|
99.9
|
98.5
|
51.4
|
1998
|
99.9
|
99.4
|
64.1
|
Source: Ministry of Education, The Educational Statistics
Yearbook, each year.
154. The long-term, low-interest education loan
to ensure all students will have opportunities for higher education is covered
in
paragraph 144 of the initial report.
(e) Kindergartens
155. Kindergartens are established to provide
children under the age of three with education and an appropriate learning
environment
(Elementary and Secondary Education Act, arts. 35 and
36). The number of children in kindergartens increased from 69,380 in 1993
to 529,265 in 1995, and again to 568,096
in 1997. But there was a decline
to 534,166 in 1999. The enrolment rate of children aged 5 in kindergarten
increased from 17.3
per cent in 1981 to 42.7 per cent in 1990 and to 45.0
per cent in 1997, but decreased to 42.4 per cent in 1999.
Table 21
Enrolment rate of children under the age of 5 in
kindergartens, 1981-1999
Source: Ministry of Education, The Educational Statistics
Yearbook, each year.
(f) Special schools
156. According to the Elementary and Secondary
Education Act (arts. 55-59), schools for disabled children are classified into
special schools and special classes. Education for disabled children
is
supported by the Act on the Promotion of Education for the Handicapped and its
Enforcement Decree and its Regulations. Special
education includes special
schools, special classes, dispatch of teachers to classes, hospitals and welfare
institutions and visiting
homes for education according to the regional
conditions. Special education equivalent to elementary and middle education is
compulsory
and special education for high school and kindergarten is gratis.
Entrance fees, tuition and the cost of textbooks are free and
the costs of
transportation and room and board are either subsidized or totally free.
Private special schools are provided with
the same level of support as
public special schools. The budget allocated for special education
was 301.8 billion won in 1999, accounting
for 1.7 per cent of the total
budget for education.
Table 22
Number of special schools, students and teachers,
1995-1999
|
Classes
|
Students
|
Teachers
|
|
1995
|
108
|
2 062
|
21 607
|
3 461
|
1996
|
109
|
2 109
|
21 860
|
3 613
|
1997
|
114
|
2 264
|
22 569
|
3 930
|
1998
|
118
|
2 415
|
23 487
|
4 106
|
1999
|
123
|
2 479
|
24 091
|
4 244
|
Source: Ministry of Education, The Educational Statistics
Yearbook, each year.
157. The Ministry of Education estimates that
225,000 children needed special education, representing approximately 2.44 per
cent
of the total number of schoolchildren in 1999. As of April 1999, the
number of special schools for seriously disabled children was
123
with 24,091 children, of which 12 were for visually disabled, 15 for
hearing disabled, 73 for mentally retarded or disabled,
17 for physically
disabled and 6 for psychologically disabled children. The number of
special classes for the slightly disabled
was 3,764, accounting
for 26,178 children, about 22.6 per cent of all children; 77.4 per
cent of children needing special education
were enrolled in general
schools.
Table 23
Special education, 1999
No. school
|
No. classes
|
No. students
|
|
Visually disabled
|
12
|
169
|
1 370
|
Hearing disabled
|
15
|
325
|
2 685
|
Mentally retarded
|
73
|
1 509
|
15 338
|
Physically handicapped
|
17
|
338
|
3 223
|
Psychologically disabled
|
6
|
138
|
1 474
|
Total
|
123
|
2 479
|
24 071
|
Special classes in general schools
|
2 990
|
3 764
|
26 178
|
Source: Ministry of Education, The Educational Statistics
Yearbook, 1999.
158. In order to expand special education programmes
to cover all disabled children, the Government plans to construct 14 special
schools and increase the number of special classes by 1,215 from 1999 to
2003. In an effort to ensure the high quality of special
education, the
Government has placed a school inspector in each of the nine provincial
education offices and plans to improve the
education offices at both the
provincial and county levels. The Government opened the National Special
Education Institute in 1994,
which aimed to improve education in the special
schools through research on teaching methods and materials according to the
degree
of disability, the development of education materials, the training of
special school teachers, etc.
(g) Private schools
159. Private schools account for 33.2 per cent
of the total number of schools in Korea and the number of students enrolled in
private
schools accounts for 36.8 per cent of the student body. For college
students, the proportion of private schools and their students
total 75.7 per
cent and 73.1 per cent, respectively. The Government supports private
schools at the middle school level.
Table 24
Private schools
|
Private schools (%)
|
Total students
|
Private students (%)
|
|
Kindergarten
|
8 973
|
4 518 (50.3)
|
533 912
|
401 326 (75.1)
|
Elementary
|
5 688
|
76 (1.3)
|
3 834 561
|
54 563 (1.4)
|
Middle
|
2 736
|
685 (25.0)
|
2 011 468
|
465 493 (23.1)
|
High
|
1 921
|
922 (47.9)
|
2 326 880
|
1 320 819 (56.7)
|
College
|
158
|
143 (90.5)
|
801 681
|
771 970 (96.3)
|
University
|
185
|
140 (75.7)
|
1 645 247
|
1 202 527 (73.1)
|
Others
|
215
|
121 (56.3)
|
394 372
|
41 110 (10.4)
|
Total
|
19 876
|
6 605 (33.2)
|
11 548 121
|
4 257 808 (36.8)
|
Source: Ministry of Education, The Educational Statistics
Yearbook, 1998.
(h) Vocational schools
160. High schools are classified into academic
high schools and vocational high schools. Vocational education starts from high
school
after grade 9. Vocational high schools are divided into
agricultural high schools, commercial high schools, manufacturing high schools,
fishery and oceanographic high schools, domestic affairs high schools industrial
high schools and complex high schools, according
to the content of their
programmes. With the changes in industry, vocational education programmes
have also changed. Commercial
high schools account for 32 per cent of all
vocational schools, manufacturing high schools account for 25.9 per cent,
complex high
schools for 25.9 per cent and agricultural and fishery high schools
for 4.5 per cent. Although vocational high schools are classified
in public and
private, the central Government supports most of the financing needed for the
operation of all those schools.
161. In order for programmes to respond
to the needs of industry and improve the students’ capacity to work, since
1993 there
has been a “2 plus 1” system of cooperative education in
manufacturing high schools. This system consists of two years
(grades 10 and
11) of theoretical education and one year (grade 12) of practical education in
industrial establishments. A total
of 9,110 students, 1,928 establishments
and 45 schools participated in this system in 1998.
162. Students in
vocational high schools, just like those in academic high schools, are allowed
to enter higher education. Most graduates
of vocational high schools apply for
vocational skill certificates; those with certificates either work or enter
higher education
to study further in the field of their acquired certificates.
In recent years, changes in industry and the growing demand for higher
education
have resulted in an increase in the proportion of students in vocational high
schools who enter higher education. Accordingly,
the Government has adopted
policies connecting vocational high schools and colleges in order to facilitate
the enrolment of vocational
students in higher education.
163. Vocational
education is provided for those students in academic high schools who do not
wish to go on to higher education. Students
in academic high schools are
allowed to receive technical education from nearby manufacturing vocational high
schools or public and
private vocational training agencies for one year after
grade 11; around 19,009 students participated in this programme in 1998.
Table 25
Vocational high schools, 1998
|
Academic high schools (B)
|
Vocational high schools (C)
|
|||||||
Total
|
Agriculture
|
Manufacturing
|
Commerce
|
Fishery
|
Complex
|
C/A (%)
|
|||
Schools
|
1 921
|
1 149
|
772
|
26
|
200
|
247
|
9
|
290
|
40.2
|
Students
|
2 326 880
|
1 399 394
|
927 486
|
20 838
(2.2%) |
316 828 (34.2%)
|
342 644 (36.9%)
|
6 983 (0.8%)
|
240 193 (25.9%)
|
39.9
|
Teachers
|
105 945
|
61 680
|
44 265
|
1 364
|
14 924
|
14 969
|
440
|
12 568
|
41.8
|
Source: Ministry of Education, The Educational Statistics
Yearbook, 1998.
Table 26
Advancement rate of graduates of vocational high
schools
to higher education, 1995-1997
|
Advanced
|
Graduated
|
Advancement rate
|
1995
|
49 699
|
259 133
|
19.2
|
1996
|
60 373
|
274 696
|
22.0
|
1997
|
79 961
|
273 912
|
29.2
|
Source: Ministry of Education, Yearbook of
Education, each year.
164. The vocational training system is designed
to meet industry’s demand for personnel, since the regular education
curriculum
cannot. This system was introduced by the Vocational Training Act,
enacted in 1967, and was expanded to the current Framework Act
on Vocational
Training in 1976. Since the Act on the Promotion of Workers’ Vocational
Training was enacted in 1997, demand-centred
vocational training has been
stressed.
165. This vocational training system is to improve the
social and economic status of those adolescents who do not go on to higher
education, by helping them gain useful skills. The number of adolescents
who do not go on to college or university amounts to
about
300,000 per annum, and most of them do not have the
appropriate skills to hold a skilled job. Taking this into consideration,
the
Government provides job training for those aged 14 or over who desire
job training, and mandates that costs be paid by job training
suppliers. The
Government also mediates jobs through local employment agencies for those who
complete job training.
166. Training is conducted in a type of
“life training” system that divides the training into encouraging,
improving,
transferring, and retraining so as to continually develop and improve
abilities to perform all kinds of work. Job training is divided
by subject:
public job training had 49,257 trainees, job training within a company had
173,686 trainees and accredited job training
had 22,101 trainees in
1997.
167. Professional counsellors in the non-governmental sector with
experience in vocational guidance, employment placement and other
relevant
fields are placed in local employment offices, manpower banks, etc. where
professional aptitude tests, interest tests, and
professional counselling are
conducted for adolescents. Specifically, ex-teachers from elementary, middle
and high schools with
experience in academic and career counselling, experts
with counselling experience and former officials who worked in the labour
field
are assigned as honourary job counsellors from March to June and from September
to November annually, so that they can provide
adolescent job-seekers with
professional aptitude tests, interest tests, professional counselling,
vocational information and education
about having the right professional
attitudes.
(i) Other education systems
168. The education system for working
adolescents who cannot enter regular school, includes open high schools,
the industrial high
schools and middle schools and special classes for working
adolescents (Elementary and Secondary Education Act, art. 52). In 1998, there
were 13,543 students in open high schools and 5,216 students in four
industrial high schools.
169. In addition, those who pass a
qualification examination, or those who complete the curriculum at social
welfare institutions
according to the Juvenile Reformatory Act, are equally
qualified as those who graduate from regular schools. This contributes to
expanding the educational opportunities for
people (Elementary and Secondary
Education Act, arts. 96-98; Juvenile Reformatory Act, art.
29).
170. Under the Juvenile Reformatory Act those juvenile delinquents
who lost their educational opportunity to acquire educational certificates
may study, in order to discourage
recidivism. For this purpose, a studying
programme for detention homes was established, and those who complete it have
the same
qualifications as those gained in regular schools (Juvenile Reformatory
Act, art. 29, para. 1; its Enforcement Decree, art. 91). Additionally,
vocational training detention homes are established to provide
training for
adolescents without dependents, in need of employment, etc. The number of
trainees in the vocational training for adolescents
in detention homes was 803
in 1996 (Ministry of Justices, unpublished data).
2. Budget
171. The Korean Government invests in education
because it is a universal right, as defined in the Constitution. The education
investment and budget are as in the initial report.
172. During the past
20 years, the ratio of public education expenditure to GNP has been rather
stable. In 1998, the expenditure
for public education, including the budgets of
both the Ministry of Education and local autonomous entities, was 37.084
trillion
won, accounting for 8.2 per cent of GNP.
Table 27
The education budget
|
GNP (A)
|
Gov. budget (B)
|
Ministry budget (C)
|
Local education budget (D)
|
Compulsory education expenditure (E)
|
Percentage (%)
|
||
C/A
|
C/B
|
E/C
|
||||||
1990
|
171 468
|
27 464
|
5 595
|
4 837
|
2 642
|
3.3
|
20.4
|
47.2
|
1993
|
256 685
|
41 936
|
9 880
|
8 684
|
4 301
|
3.7
|
23.6
|
43.5
|
1998
|
450 141
|
77 738
|
18 128
|
18 956
|
12 861
|
4.0
|
23.3
|
70.9
|
Source: Ministry of Education, Yearbook of Education,
each year.
Note: GNP at current price level.
173. The
Government’s efforts to encourage school attendance and prevent
dropping-outs are explained in paragraphs 156 and 157
of the initial
report.
174. In an era of internationalization and openness, the
Government considers internationalizing education to be an important goal
and
hence makes an effort to promote cooperation with foreign Governments,
international organizations and foreign educational agencies.
Specifically, the
Government participates actively in international cooperative activities on the
basis of bilateral cultural agreements,
and in educational exchange cooperative
activities with international organizations including UNESCO, the Organisation
for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD), Asia-Pacific Economic
Cooperation (APEC) and others. The Government hosted the second UNESCO
World
Vocational Technology Education Conference and Exhibition on International
Vocational Technology Education in April 1999, and
contributed to an
international agreement on a new vocational technology educational system for
the twenty-first century.
B. Aims of education (art. 29)
175. The Framework Act on Education (art. 2)
states that under the humanitarian ideal, education aims to accommodate the
personality
of the person, provide people with the capacity to earn a living,
and help people to be active and aware democratic citizens so that
they may live
their lives, develop democracy, and be prosperous. This education ideal is a
comprehensive declaration that includes
individual, social, national and
international ethics.
176. The ideal citizen to which the Korean
educational system aspires is a person:
Who develop his/her personality
to become a perfect person;
Who display creativity;
Who pioneer
new paths on the basis of wide culture;
Who creates new values on the
basis of understanding our culture;
Who contribute to developing the
community as a democratic citizen.
C. Leisure, recreation and cultural activities (art. 31)
177. Since children’s play is an
important constituent of life, the Government, in accordance with the Child
Welfare Act (art.
10), provides children with safe facilities and environments
where they can play without exposure to dangers.
178. The Ministry of
Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Education develop and implement a
variety of programmes for leisure and
cultural activities in order to respond to
an extremely rigorous educational system and immature mass culture, and thereby
establish
a strong and proper youth culture. The Government plans to establish
a National Youth Training Centre
and a YouthCentred Park for improving sensitivity and character, improve 769
youth training facilities including regional youth homes,
develop and provide
systematic programmes to improve training activities for solid leisure and
cultural activities for youth during
19982000. The training facilities for
these activities have gradually expanded.
Table 28
Number of youth training facilities,
1990-1997
|
1991
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
1996
|
1997
|
|
Total
|
205
|
223
|
214
|
284
|
287
|
370
|
432
|
470
|
Living areas
|
67
|
68
|
72
|
112
|
132
|
174
|
189
|
194
|
Natural area
|
122
|
137
|
133
|
166
|
148
|
180
|
219
|
241
|
Youth hostels
|
16
|
18
|
9
|
6
|
7
|
16
|
24
|
25
|
Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Youth Training
Facilities, each year.
179. In order to systematically develop young
people’s literacy and artistic activities, the Government has supported a
training
programme for literature and art teachers since 1992. In 1996,
996 persons participated in this programme. Cultural schools were
established
to provide cultural lectures to young people. In 1996, 110,000 persons
participated in about 400 lectures in 167 schools.
In addition, the
Government has managed a culture and art demonstration school to support young
people’s literacy and artistic
activities, and has made efforts on behalf
of activities such as concerts and theatre festivals since 1992.
Table 29
Culture and art demonstration project schools,
1992-1996
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
1996
|
||
No. of schools
|
150
|
30
|
30
|
30
|
30
|
30
|
|
Support budget (10 000 won)
|
45 900
|
9 000
|
9 000
|
9 000
|
9 000
|
9 900
|
|
Exhibitions:
|
Participants
|
165 143
|
47 448
|
35 857
|
33 187
|
21 143
|
27 508
|
|
Judges
|
306 819
|
69 831
|
66 563
|
71 743
|
59 332
|
39 350
|
Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Youth White
Papers, each year.
180. In Korea, the budget for libraries was 231.4
billion won in 1997, 5.0 billion won for elementary schools, 565.9 million won
for
middle schools, and 4.7 billion won for high schools. Specifically, the
Government has made efforts to expand the spaces for reading
through managing
small-sized libraries for children and young people in areas where people in
overpopulated areas have a difficult
time using public libraries.
Table 30
Mobile and small libraries, 1991-1997
|
|
1992
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
1996
|
1997
|
Cum. No.
|
|
Mobile
|
No.
|
8
|
8
|
8
|
8
|
8
|
9
|
9
|
58
|
Support budget
(mill. won) |
160
|
160
|
160
|
160
|
160
|
225
|
225
|
1 250
|
|
Small
|
No.
|
80
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
100
|
-
|
100
|
580
|
Support budget
(mill. won) |
200
|
200
|
200
|
200
|
200
|
-
|
200
|
1 200
|
Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Youth White
Papers, each year.
181. The Government has made various efforts to
provide cultural activities for children. In 1997, the number of cultural
facilities,
including libraries, museums, and others, was 13,512.
Table 31
National culture spaces, 1997
|
No.
|
||
Libraries
|
National Library of Korea
|
1
|
|
Public libraries
|
350
|
||
University libraries
|
378
|
||
School libraries
|
9 117
|
||
Professional/special libraries
|
418
|
||
National Assembly library
|
1
|
||
Total
|
10 265
|
||
Museums
|
Registered museums:
|
Museum
|
77
|
|
Gallery
|
31
|
|
|
Subtotal
|
108
|
|
National museums:
|
Museum
|
23
|
|
|
Gallery
|
1
|
|
|
Subtotal
|
24
|
|
University museums:
|
Museum
|
80
|
|
|
Gallery
|
1
|
|
|
Subtotal
|
81
|
|
Total
|
213
|
||
Other cultural
facilities |
Performance facilities
|
1 012
|
|
Exhibition facilities
|
606
|
||
Local culture and welfare facilities
|
1 150
|
||
Exhibition facilities for dissemination
|
249
|
||
Total
|
3 034
|
||
Total
|
13 512
|
Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Youth White
Papers, 1997.
VIII. SPECIAL PROTECTION MEASURES
A. Children in conflict with the law (art. 40)
1. Juvenile delinquency (art. 40)
182. The
legal bases for the supervision of juvenile delinquents are the Criminal Act and
the Juvenile Act. Since juvenile delinquents
are in the process of growing up
and have a high possibility of being rehabilitated, education is emphasized over
punishment. The
Juvenile Act provides that young offenders are treated with a
different procedure from adult offenders. However, the young offenders
whose
crimes are too serious to be rehabilitated are subject to the provisions of the
Criminal Act, but those who have the possibility
of being rehabilitated are
subject to educational measures. The system for rehabilitation and guidance of
the young include suspension
of the indictment (including on condition of
guidance), probation, suspension of sentence, treatment in juvenile homes, and
others.
183. The Constitution (art. 13, para. 1) provides that no citizen
may be prosecuted for an act which does not constitute a crime at the time it
was committed;
thus, the retroactive application of punishment is prohibited.
The Criminal Act (art. 1) provides that when a law is changed after
the
commission of a crime and the act thereby no longer constitutes a crime, or the
punishment therefor becomes less severe, the
new law shall be applied; and that
when a law is changed after the sentence for a crime committed under the law has
become final,
such act no longer constituting a crime, the execution of the
punishment shall be remitted.
184. The Constitution (art. 27, para. 4)
provides that a person is presumed innocent until a determination of guilt has
been confirmed. As detailed in
the initial report (art. 166), these rules are
also provided in the Code of Criminal Procedure.
185. The Constitution (art.
12, para. 5) provides that no one may be arrested or detained without being told
the reason and allowed to exercise the right
to be assisted by counsel, and that
the reason for, time and place of arrest or detention must be conveyed, without
delay, to the
family of a person arrested or detained. These principles in the
Constitution are detailed in the Code of Criminal Procedure, as explained in
paragraph 167 of the initial report.
186. Regarding the defendant’s
right to receive defence counsel free of charge, the Constitution (art. 12,
para. 4) provides that when a criminal defendant is unable to secure counsel by
his own efforts, the State shall assign
counsel. The system for assigning
counsel by the State under the Criminal Procedure Act was explained in paragraph
168 of the initial
report.
187. In Korea, the Government, through the
Legal Aid Act, supports legal aid activities for the poor or people who do not
know the law, and who thereby might be legally disadvantaged in
their legal
defence. According to the Legal Aid Act, farmers and fishermen, people under
Livelihood Protection, veterans and their families, child-headed households,
workers with a
monthly income under 1.3 million won, and small-scale merchants
are all provided with free defence counsel for civil cases and family
disputes,
public trials, and cases transmitted to the Juvenile Department. In 1997, the
number of free defence counsels by the Legal Aid Act amounted to
1,948.
188. The Juvenile Act (art. 17) provides the basis for legal support
for juveniles in criminal cases by stipulating that juveniles
or their guardians
may, with the approval of the Juvenile Department, appoint an assistant; the
guardian or the attorney may be appointed
as an assistant without the approval
of the Juvenile Department.
189. The Constitution provides that
confessions extracted against the defendant’s will or by unduly prolonged
arrest shall not be admitted as evidence
in court. The details were explained
in paragraph 170 of the initial report.
190. The Constitution provides
that no citizen shall be tortured or compelled to testify against him/herself in
criminal cases. If a confession is determined
to have been made against the
defendant’s will through such means as torture, violence, intimidation, or
unduly prolonged arrest,
such confession shall not be admitted as evidence nor
shall punishment be meted out on the basis of such a confession. The Criminal
Procedure Act prescribes these details in the Constitution, as explained in
paragraph 171 of the initial report.
191. In criminal cases, the accused
submits his/her evidence or opinion about the court’s examination of the
evidence. The
details are explained in paragraphs 172 and 173 of the initial
report.
192. When the presiding judge recognizes that a witness cannot
make a sufficient statement in the presence of the accused, the judge
may order
the accused to withdraw from the court (Criminal Procedure Act, art. 297). Even
in such cases, the accused may make inquiries
related to the matters
examined, and in the event that the testimony of a witness contains unexpected
and/or serious statements disadvantageous
to the accused, the court shall give
notice of the contents of such statements to the accused (art. 164). The
Criminal Procedure
Act (art. 310, para. 2) provides strict rules for
the admissibility of evidence, with the exception of special cases, and the
accused’s
right of cross-examination is sufficiently
guaranteed.
193. The accused may apply for an appeal, re-appeal and
immediate appeal, to reopen the case and for extraordinary appeal. The details
are explained in paragraph 174 of the initial report. However, according to the
Constitution (art. 110, para. 4) and the Military Court Act (art. 534), in
military trials, only appeals are allowed.
194. In case a child not
versed in the Korean language or with a hearing or visual impairment is required
to make a statement, a translator
is provided by the court. The details are
explained in paragraph 175 of the initial report.
195. As declared
in the Convention, to ensure the privacy of juveniles involved in legal
proceedings, the Juvenile Act provides that
the trial shall not be public and
those details or persons by which the juvenile under protection or trial may be
identified shall
not be made public by newspaper or broadcast media. The
details are explained in paragraph 176 of the initial report.
196. The Criminal Procedure Act (art. 9) provides that a minor offender, who
has not attained 14 years of age is not subject to criminal
punishment.
The Juvenile Act (art. 4, para. 1) provides that juveniles over the
age of 12 but less than 14 have committed acts which
are contrary to the
criminal laws and decrees are tried as protection cases by the Juvenile
Department.
197. The Juvenile Act (art. 32) provides that the juvenile
delinquents in juvenile protection cases shall: (a) have the guidance
of their
guardians; (b) have protective guidance from juvenile guidance counsellors; (c)
have guidance from juvenile protection institutions;
(d) be committed to
hospitals, reformatories, etc.; (e) be subject to the Juvenile Reformatory Act,
which provides for guidance procedures rather than penal punishment. In case of
protective guidance by juvenile guidance counsellors,
an order for public
service or education may be issued at the same time, which contributes to the
juvenile’s active rehabilitation.
198. The Juvenile Act provides
that investigations shall be conducted not only into the misdeeds of the
juvenile concerned, but also
on the environment of the juvenile. The trial
should take into consideration the opinion of educators, social workers,
psychiatrists,
psychologists and other experts so that the motives of the
juvenile criminals are understood and effective and practical correction
measures can be developed. The details are explained in paragraph 179 of the
initial report.
199. For educating and improving juvenile delinquents,
juvenile reformatories are managed using school curricula, vocational training
and short-term and special treatment. Juvenile delinquents are accommodated
taking into account their age, educational level, aptitudes,
prospects, degree
of difficulty in reform, etc. and thus are effectively removed from malign
influences. In the reformatory schools,
pursuant to the Education Act, regular
primary, middle and high school curricula are taught and the entrance and
transfer to regular schools is encouraged. At
the vocational training
reformatories, pursuant to the Rudimentary Vocational Training Education Act,
public vocational training is provided; 700 inmates annually attain technical
licences in 17 different fields including automobile
maintenance. In shortterm
treatment reformatories, the duration of stay of the juvenile delinquent is less
than six months and hence,
through various improvement programmes for early
protection and timely improvement, daily lessons are continually taught.
Juveniles
who have committed serious crimes such as murder, robbery, rape, or
organized crime are accommodated at special reformatories where
special
education, such as physical training, is offered. In order to develop
cooperative attitudes, special activities are provided
10 hours weekly in
selected possible areas such as arts and letters, physical education, labour
service and other subjects.
200. Those provisionally discharged are
placed under intensive supervised probation for 6 to 12 months
and given guidance for jobs,
forming relationship and entering school, and thus
are actively supported for social adaptation and integration. Also, there are
efforts to prevent relapse by the discharged by providing ex post facto
instruction.
2. Children deprived of their liberty (art. 37, paras. 2, 3, 4)
201. The structure of laws for securing
personal liberty and safety was explained in paragraphs 182184 of the
initial report. Pursuant
to the constitutional principle of due process and the
obligation to present warrants (art. 12, paras. 1 and 3), the Criminal Procedure
Act stipulates the requirements for arrest (art. 70), the issuance of warrants
(art. 73), the methods of detention (art. 75), the
manner of executing an arrest
(art. 85), the request by the prosecutor for the issuance of a warrant (art.
201), etc. The Republic
of Korea has prepared a systematic procedure for
thoroughly guaranteeing personal liberty and safety in the Criminal Procedure
Act,
revised 29 December 1995 and in effect as of 1 January
1997.
202. The Criminal Procedure Act provides restrictions on warrants
for the arrest of criminals. But since there are no regulations
for the short
detention of suspects in certain circumstances, the investigating
agency’s investigation took the form of “voluntary
accompaniment”, after which it could request the issuance of a warrant for
arrest. This procedure was denounced at being an
infringement of human
rights. Consequently, the Police Duty Execution Act was revised
on 8 March 1991 to restrict the requirements,
procedure and time limit
for a “voluntary accompaniment”. However, problems continued to
arise and hence the revised
Criminal Procedure Act provided new conditions for
the issuance of a warrant for arrest.
203. Under the revised Code of
Criminal Procedure, when there are reasonable grounds to suspect a person of
committing a criminal
act and that he may escape, the prosecutor may arrest the
suspect under a warrant issued by a district court at the request of the
prosecutor, or the judicial police may ask the prosecutor to request a judge to
issue an arrest warrant. These provisions eliminate
the need for arrest by
“voluntary accompaniment” (Criminal Procedure Act,
art. 200, para. 2).
204. The public prosecutor or judicial
police official may arrest a suspect with an arrest warrant issued by a judge at
the request
of the prosecutor (Criminal Procedure Act, art. 201). However, a
public prosecutor or judicial official may arrest suspects without
a warrant if
there is good reason to suspect that the person has committed a crime punishable
with the death penalty, penal servitude
or imprisonment of three years or more,
if there are reasonable grounds to suspect that the suspect may destroy evidence
or may flee
or has fled, if it is impossible to obtain a warrant from a judge
due to urgent need (ibid., art. 200, para. 3), or if the suspect
is a flagrant
offender. Even in such cases, if the prosecutor or judicial police official
fails to obtain a warrant within 48 hours
from a district court judge, the
suspect shall be released immediately
(ibid., art. 200, para. 4).
205. An arrest warrant
for a juvenile suspect shall not be issued unless absolutely necessary (Juvenile
Reformatory Act, art. 55, para. 1). When necessary, the arrest of a juvenile
shall be by a warrant issued by a judge at the request of a prosecutor.
When a
district juvenile department makes a decision to transfer an arrested juvenile,
the director of the institution where he
is placed shall bring him to the
juvenile department of the city/county court within 24 hours, and to a
city/county court without
a juvenile department within 48 hours of being so
directed by the prosecutor (Juvenile Reformatory Act, art. 52, para.
1).
206. A judge of the juvenile department of the court may send an
arrested juvenile for three months to a preventive facility, such
as the
Juvenile Classification Investigation House or a hospital when the case needs to
be investigated and tried. If the juvenile
needs to continue to be protected,
this period can be prolonged only once for another three months (Juvenile
Reformatory Act, art. 18). The “guardian treatment” shall not
affect his future (art. 32, para. 5).
207. The Juvenile Reformatory Act
(art. 8) provides that male and females, and persons under 16, and persons
over 16 should be accommodated separately so as to limit
adverse influences.
Newly committed juvenile delinquents are housed separately from other juvenile
delinquents and after a 10-day
surveillance period for classification, the
Juvenile Delinquent Treatment Deliberation Committee determines and classifies
their
accommodation, duration of treatment, education courses, etc. in detail,
on the basis of the results of the investigation and the
screening (Enforcement
Decree of the Juvenile Reformatory Act, arts. 4, 11, 14, 15).
208. There
are 12 juvenile reformatories nationwide, classified by their function into
those for academic education, for occupational
education, for females, for
serious and habitual juvenile delinquents, and for the combined purposes of
academic and occupational
education. Based on the juvenile delinquent’s
sex, age, experience, existence of confederates, characteristics of their crime,
duration of treatment and education, the juvenile delinquent is accommodated in
a separate facility or accommodated separately within
the same facility as
others (Juvenile Reformatory Act, arts. 4 and 8 and its Enforcement Decree,
arts. 3, 11, 16).
209. For contact with the family, interviews are
permitted at fixed times and places unless such interviews would cause
disruption
in the protection and reformative education of the juvenile under
custody. Correspondence is allowed, but after viewing the letters,
if it is
found that the contents may be disruptive to the reformatory education, the
exchange of correspondence may be restricted
(Juvenile Reformatory Act, art. 18
and its Enforcement Decree, arts. 48-51). If it is necessary for the
reformatory education, the juvenile is allowed out
on special occasions or
tragedies in the lineal family. The provision enables the juvenile to improve
relations with the family
and adjust to society (Juvenile Reformatory Act, art.
19 and its Enforcement Decree, arts. 52, 53).
210. The Constitution
provides that all persons who are arrested or detained shall have the right to
request the court to review the legality of the arrest
or detention (art. 12).
The Criminal Procedure Act (art. 214), pursuant to the Constitution, provides
that a suspect who is confined pursuant to a warrant of confinement may submit a
petition to an appropriate court to examine
the legality of the confinement with
respect to all crimes. Where the accused is a minor, the court may appoint a
counsel ex officio
and accordingly, the provision stipulates special protection
for juveniles whose capability for legal care is relatively weak (Criminal
Procedure Act, art. 33).
211. In the past five years, the number of
incidents of juvenile delinquency has increased. In 1997, juvenile
delinquency accounted
for 7.6 per cent of the total number of crimes;
about 36.8 per cent of the juvenile delinquencies were prosecuted, 38.1 per
cent
of that number
were suspended, and 13.8 per cent were transferred to the juvenile department
of a court. The rate of prosecution for adult crimes
was 53.7 per cent
greater than for juvenile crimes, whereas the suspended prosecution rate for
adult crimes was only 7.3 per cent,
which indicates that juvenile crimes tended
to be treated more with guidance than with penal measures.
Table 32
Incidence of juvenile delinquency,
1993-1997
|
1993
|
1994
|
1995
|
1996
|
1997
|
Total crimes
|
1 738 952
|
1 660 973
|
1 804 405
|
2 018 296
|
2 117 759
|
Crimes committed by juveniles
|
110 604
|
108 342
|
124 244
|
146 986
|
164 182
|
Proportion
|
6.4
|
6.5
|
6.9
|
7.3
|
7.6
|
Rate of prosecution
|
40.3
|
37.7
|
36.8
|
35.4
|
36.8
|
Source: Ministry of Culture and Tourism, Youth White
Papers, each year.
3. Prohibition of death sentence and life
imprisonment
of children (art. 37, para. 1)
212. The prohibition
of capital punishment and life imprisonment for juveniles is mentioned elsewhere
in this report.
4. Support for the return to society (art. 39)
213. When a young person is released into
society from a rehabilitation centre or juvenile reformatory where he/she
received correction,
postrelease services are provided to promote reintegrating
the youth into the community so that the person can be selfsupportive,
without
misadaptation to the society and recidivism. These services are carried out by
the Korea Rehabilitation Protection Cooperation
under the Ministry of Justice,
which has headquarters at the national level, 12 local centres at the provincial
level and 56 branches
in prisons and juvenile reformatories nationwide. In
addition, there is the Society for the Support of Rehabilitation, most of whose
members are businessmen in small to mediumsized companies. The Society provides
rehabilitation services such as vocational guidance,
help with job search,
medical care, financial assistance, including provisions for housing and food,
support for transportation,
vocational training, employment, and other
selfreliance support activities.
214. Nongovernmental organizations
working with children have centres for protecting children’s rights and
reporting violations.
The Korea Child Abuse Prevention Association has local
centres for reporting child abuse and a telephone hotline, etc. The Korea
Child
Protection Foundation expanded its child counselling phone line to a 24hour
hotline. From January 1999, the Foundation also
began operating temporary
shelters.
215. Social treatment for child abuse and child abandonment in Korea is in
its initial stages and active intervention for treatment
and prevention has not
been encouraged. This is because there is no legal foundation yet. Therefore,
the Government is currently
preparing reports on child abuse; it has carried out
research projects on laws to prevent child abuse and will support counselling
to
strengthen the Child Abuse Prevention Association’s social
activities.
B. Children in situations of exploitation
1. Economic exploitation (art. 32)
216. To protect
schoolaged children, it is provided that no child below 15 shall be employed at
any job except for those who have
obtained an employment authorization
certificate from the Ministry of Labour (Labour Standards Act, art. 62).
Jobs for which an
employment authorization certificate may not be given are
waiters in restaurants or bars, incineration jobs, slaughtering, operating
elevators and others detrimental to health (Labour Standards Act, art. 62
and its Enforcement Decree, art. 33) and underground work
(Labour Standards
Act, art. 70), like at smelting furnaces (Labour Standards Act,
art. 63 and its Enforcement Decree, art. 37).
217. The Korean
Government ratified the Convention concerning Minimum Age for Admission to
Employment (ILO Convention No. 138) on
28 January 1999 on the
recommendation of the Committee, and the Convention will come into effect
on 28 January 2000.
218. In order to prevent minors from
being employed in harmful workplaces, including where drinking and
prostitution take place,
the regulations for prohibiting the employment of
minors under the age of 18 was added to the Employment Security Act
(art. 21) and
its Enforcement Decree (art. 26) in April 1999. Through
annual inspections of such premises the offenders are pursued and arrested.
The
Youth Protection Act (art. 24) designates those places that are prohibited
from employing youths and imposes on violators a
maximum punishment of
three years’ imprisonment and fines of up to 20 million won, and
additional fines of 10 million won per
youth employed
illegally.
219. In April 1997, 15,177 children aged under 18 were
economically active (5,064 males and 10,113 females) accounting for
0.2 per
cent of the workforce; 78.0 per cent of child
labour, or 11,836 children, were employed in the manufacturing
industry.
220. Working hours are severely restricted for working minors.
Although the working day for adult labourers is eight hours, not including
rest
time, and cannot exceed 44 hours per week, for minors it is seven hours per day
and 42 hours per week. Prolongation of working
hours is possible by agreement
between employer and employee, but even in such cases, overtime cannot exceed 12
hours per week for
adult labourers, and 1 hour per day and 6 hours per week for
minors.
221. In order to prevent the economic exploitation of children, their
employment contracts and minimum age are protected; neither
parents nor
guardians have the authority to make an employment contract on behalf of a
minor. If it is deemed disadvantageous to
a minor employee, the parents,
guardian or the Ministry of Labour may terminate an employment contract (Labour
Standards Act, art.
65).
222. The minimum wage applies for
establishments with 10 employees or fewer. Even if a minor worker has worked
less than six months,
the child shall be paid nine tenths of the minimum wage
for adults and the previous level of wages shall not be cut to the minimum
wage
(Minimum Wages Act, art. 5 and its Enforcement Decree, art. 3). A
contracted wage below the minimum wage is invalid. As of
September 1998, the
adult minimum wage was 1,525 won per day and 12,200 won per
week.
223. In order to protect child workers’ rights, chapter 12 of
the Labour Standards Act prescribes punishments for each violation.
When a
minor is employed in work prohibited by law (art. 63) and when the minor is
employed in “underground” work (art.
70), the violators shall
be punished by imprisonment for up to three years, and a fine of 20 million won.
When children under the
age 15 are employed without an employment authorization
certificate (art. 62) or when the legal working hours, the prohibition
against
working at night, and working out of legal hours are violated (arts.
6769), a fine of 5 million won is imposed on the violators.
No legal employment
authorization certificate for the minor worker (art. 64) or an illegal
employment contract (art. 65) is punishable
by imprisonment of up to two
years or a fine of 10 million won.
224. In order to monitor the
above provisions to protect children, the Government maintains 46 local
employment offices to guide and
supervise the work of establishments with five
or more employees per office for the special protection of minors. In 1997,
3,300
child labourers in 779 establishments were inspected and 207 cases were
identified and corrected. However, as the Labour Standard
Act is applicable for
establishments with five or more employees, there is no provision for the
maximum number of working hours of
child labourers in establishments with less
than five employees, and hence no statistics on the number of child labourers in
these
establishments.
2. Drug abuse (art. 33)
225. In order to protect children from
becoming drug abusers, the Psychotropic Drugs Control Act designates the drugs
seriously detrimental
to the body as psychotropic drugs and provides that
persons who sell, purchase, manufacture, consume, or disseminate psychotropic
drugs to minors shall be punished by penal servitude for life or for not less
than five years (Psychotropic Drugs Control Act, art.
42). The Youth
Protection Act (art. 26) also provides that the selling, borrowing or
disseminating not only of psychotropic drugs
but also of cigarettes, alcohol,
etc. or hallucinatory drugs to minors are prohibited and a statement of that
prohibition shall be
written on the package.
226. The Hemp Control Act provides that persons who purchase and sell hemp
without authorization for dealing in hemp be punished by
penal servitude for
life or for not less than five years (Narcotics Act, art. 60). The
Cannabis Control Act provides that persons
who cultivate cannabis for sale
without legal authorization for dealing shall be punished by penal servitude for
not more than one
year (art. 19).
227. The treatment and
rehabilitation of drug addicts are accomplished through 17 national or public
hospitals and 5 private hospitals
which are authorized as specialized hospitals
for drug abusers. For the specialized and efficient treatment of drug addicts,
a National
Drug Rehabilitation Centre with 200 beds is being constructed. While
the number of drug addicts is decreasing, harmful chemical
addictions such as
inhaling glue and gas are causing new problems. According to the survey on drug
addiction among youth conducted
in 1992, 45,000 to 88,000 adolescent
addicts are estimated to be in need of treatment. The chemical addicts may be
treated in psychiatric
facilities. Chemical addiction is, however, not covered
in the national health insurance.
3. Sexual exploitation and abuse (art. 34)
228. In order to protect children from sexual
exploitation and abuse, the Criminal Act provides that a person who induces a
minor
to engage in sexual intercourse shall be punished by penal servitude for
not more than three years or a fine not exceeding 15 million
won
(art. 242). The other protections, which are explained in details in the
initial report (paras. 202205), include the prohibition
of prostitution by
the Prevention of Prostitution, etc., Act and the prohibition of prostitution
and obscene acts by the Act on the
Regulation of Amusement Business Affecting
Public Morals. By the Criminal Act (art. 244), a person who, for the
purpose of sale,
manufactures, possesses, imports or exports obscene goods,
shall be punished by penal servitude for not more than one year or a fine
not
exceeding 5 million won.
229. The Prevention of Prostitution,
etc., Act forbids prostitution, inducements or coercion of prostitution,
exhortation to be a
partner in prostitution, or the provision of a place for
such acts. Violators shall be punished by penal servitude for not more
than
three years (arts. 46, 1416).
230. The Act on the Regulation of Amusement
Business Affecting Public Morals provides that a person who provokes
prostitution or obscene
acts or who brokers or provides such acts shall be
punished by penal servitude for not more than three years or by a fine not
exceeding
20 million won.
231. The Child Welfare Act
provides that a person who has children perform obscene acts or induces
them to do obscene acts shall
be punished by penal servitude for not more
than 10 years or by a fine not exceeding 50 million won (arts. 18,
34).
4. Other forms of exploitation (art. 36)
232. In order to achieve the sound and happy
development of children, the Child Welfare Act (art. 18) prohibits acts
that place a
disabled and deformed child open to public inspection; acts to
induce a child to beg; acts to have a child under 14 do acrobatics
with the
object of public recreation or entertainment; acts to have a child under 14
engaged in a bar or other entertainment business;
acts to have a child perform
obscene acts; acts to show a child entertainments, such as movies, which are
detrimental to children;
acts to have a child play amusements; and acts to abuse
children under guardianship or protection. Violators shall be punished by
penal
servitude for not more than 10 years or by a fine not exceeding
5 million won (art. 34). Under the Youth Protection Act, which
came into force in July 1999, a person who uses adolescents in sexually corrupt
acts shall be punished by penal servitude for not
more than 10 years; a person
who has adolescents induce guests shall be punished by penal servitude for not
more than three years
or by a fine not exceeding 20 million won; and a person
who abuses adolescents shall be punished by penal servitude for not more
than
five years.
IX. IMPLEMENTATION OF THE RECOMMENDATIONS OF
THE
COMMITTEE CONTAINED IN ITS CONCLUDING
OBSERVATIONS
(CRC/C/15/Add.51)
Paragraph 19 (reservation)
233. The
three reservations to the Convention made by the Government concern the right to
maintain contact with both parents (art.
9, para. 3), the authorities
authorized to arrange adoptions (art. 21 (a)), and ensuring the right of
appeal in trials involving
children (art. 40,
para. 2 (b) (v)). The arrangement of adoptions by authorized
agencies is partly for needy children, but in general
children can be adopted
without the permission of authorities. The Republic of Korea will continue to
make efforts to maximize respect
for this provision of the
Convention.
234. In order to harmonize the Convention and municipal law
and fully realize the rights of children, concentrated legal, systematic
and
administrative efforts are needed. Government and nongovernmental
organizations, in collaboration, need to make continual efforts
to revise laws
and systems, establish and implement policies, perform public relations, and
encourage civil movements to that end.
Paragraph 20 (campaigns against persisting discrimination)
235. The Korean Committee for UNICEF,
established in 1993, published “The Child has Human Rights” in
collaboration with
the Union of Civil Participation and disseminated the
publications to schools and related agencies, and undertook an educational
programme for parents as a form of publicity for children’s rights. In
addition, the Committee held a symposium with a focus
on publicizing the
contents of the Convention.
236. In order to eliminate problems of
imbalance in the sex ratio at birth, the Government revised the Medical Law in
1987 to prohibit
the sex screening of the foetus, and providing for the
revocation of the licences of violators. Under the revised Medical Law of
1994,
violators shall be punished by penal servitude for up to three years or by a
fine of 10 million won. The medical personnel
themselves agreed not
to practise nonethnical sex screening of the foetus and selective, induced
abortion. In order to improve the
public perception of the disabled, a
“Day of the Disabled” is celebrated on 20 April every year and the
National Comprehensive
Art and
Literature Festival for the Disabled is held. In 1998, the movement
“Knowing the disabled in the right way”, to promote
assistance for
the selfsupport of the disabled, was included in the FiveYear Plan for Youth
Rearing.
237. The Government requested that the Korea Neighbourly Love
Association make a video film on the prevention of child abuse, which
was to be
distributed to children’s homes, primary schools, etc. In May 1999,
12,000 copies of the publication on the prevention
of child abuse were
distributed to medical personnel, teachers, governmental officials and
professional counsellors.
Paragraph 21 (training)
238. As a member of the International Save the
Children Alliance, the nonprofit nongovernmental organization Korea Save the
Children
has carried out publicity and educational activities on
children’s rights by making the video on child rights and by providing
training opportunities on the Convention for persons involved in childrelated
activities through holding seminars on children’s
rights.
239. Currently, the contents of the Convention are included in a
textbook for primary grade 5. Efforts will be made to increase the
content
and include practice strategies on the rights of the child in the seventh
revision of the textbook in 2000.
Paragraph 22 (national legislation)
240. The draft revision of Child Welfare Act,
which is pending in the National Assembly, reflects the basic principles and
contents
of the Convention such as prohibition of discrimination against
children, the best interests of the child, respect for the child’s
views,
etc.
241. The Labour Standards Act, which was revised in March 1997,
increased the minimum age for employment from 13 to 15, which resolved
the
discrepancy between the compulsory education age and the minimum age for
work.
242. Because of the social practices with respect to monogamy and
legitimate marriage, influenced by the Confucian tradition, illegitimate
children have suffered a disadvantaged position in society in comparison to
legitimate children. However, the Government takes the
position that
illegitimate children and legitimate children should receive equal treatment
under the law. The Civil Act (art. 1000)
does not discriminate between
illegitimate children and legitimate children in most cases, including
inheritance, but provides that
legitimate children have priority over the
illegitimate children in succeeding to the position of head of the house (Civil
Act, art.
985, para. 1). However, there is a judicial precedent that
illegitimate children cannot be registered in the family register without
the
legal wife’s consent.
243. The Korea Institute for Health and
Social Affairs, which is funded by the Government, has carried out research on
the adoption
system, the result of which will be used as a basis for preparing
the draft revision of the Act on Special Cases concerning the Promotion
and
Protection of Adoption.
Paragraph 23 (coordination and monitoring)
244. The Government is establishing the
National Commission on Human Rights; according to the proposal for its
establishment, the
Commission will be composed of three small committees, of
which one will monitor child rightsrelated affairs.
245. The coordination
and monitoring of childrelated policies have been shared among various
departments and nongovernmental organizations.
The Child Rights Coordination
Committee is composed of representatives of the Ministry of Health and Welfare,
the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs and Trade, the Ministry of Education, the
Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Labour, academic circles, nongovernmental
organizations, etc. Its function is to review and coordinate the country
report.
Paragraph 24 (data collection)
246. The Korea Child Rights Society, organized
in 1996, aims to protect the rights of Korean children and contributes by
performing
research and practical activities. The Society is developing the
indicators in relation to the rights of the child.
Paragraph 25 (economic, social and cultural rights)
247. The Government pays for the livelihood
protection, educational protection, medical protection, and additional grants
for school
supplies, meals, etc. for the sound development of children. The
Government also makes an effort to ensure that children are born
healthy and
reared in a sound and healthy manner. For example, the systems and programmes
which give high priority to children include
giving priority to the rescue of
women and children in disasters, discounts in purchasing and entrance fees for
children, establishment
of road safety zones near schools for children’s
safety, prohibition of workplaces detrimental to children’s educational
environment, etc. In addition, in distributing its support to the poor the
Government has made an effort to give priority to children.
Paragraph 26 (participation)
248. The Korean Government accepts and makes
efforts to implement the recommendations of the Committee. The Government
established
the FiveYear Plan for Youth Rearing in July 1998, which
includes development and implementation of homeschool cooperation programmes
for
increasing youths’ participation. Activities include making out family
instructions, making a family newspaper, etc.
The Government also makes efforts
to provide circumstances in which young people participate and give their
opinions in the decisionmaking
process within schools through the autonomous
organizations and the youth committees in the community. The Government also
makes
efforts to expand young peoples’ participation in the youth support
committee, the local youth committee and the consultative
committees with
respect to various youthrelated policies.
Paragraph 27 (assistance to the families)
249. In order to provide support for the sound
rearing of children where the husband and wife both work, the Government
invested a
total of 1.3 trillion won from 1995 to 1997 to increase the number of
daycare centres from 5,490 in 1993 to 15,375 in 1997, enabling
520,959 children to receive daycare services. With the quantitative
improvement made, the improvement of the quality of daycare
centres is now being
addressed. The Government plans to solve the daycare issues of the disabled by
establishing about 100 daycare
centres for the disabled by 2003. In order to
improve the quality of the service, the Government makes efforts to carry out
evaluations
of the daycare centres and develop and disseminate various daycare
programmes.
250. The Government has carried out support programmes
against child abandonment and for childheaded families, which include
counselling,
payment of education costs, loans for housing and vocational
training.
Paragraph 28 (child abuse and domestic violence)
251. The Government takes an active position
visàvis professional intervention in and strengthening of the legal
framework
against child abuse and child abandonment. Under the Child Welfare
Act (art. 18), actions constituting prohibited child abuse and
exploitation
are specified, and violators shall be punished in accordance with
article 34. The draft revision of the Child Welfare
Act includes the
obligation to report child abuse, treatment for abusers, establishment of
professional protection agencies, establishment
of a hotline, etc.
Specifically, medical personnel, teachers, child welfare counsellors, etc. are
required to report cases of child
abuse.
252. In order effectively to
protect children from domestic violence, the Special Act on Punishment of
Perpetrators of Domestic Violent
Crimes was enacted on 31 December 1997 and came
into effect on 1 July 1998. The Act (art. 40) provides for the treatment,
together
with punishment, of the perpetrator of domestic violence, including
restriction of access to the victims, restriction of parental
authority,
probation, preventive custody, orders to receive treatment and counselling,
etc., by which the Act strengthens the protection
of children from domestic
violence and child abuse and provides the fundamental treatment for the
correction or prevention of recurrence
of domestic violence.
Paragraph 29 (education policy)
253. In order to overcome the idea that
education is only to pass entrance examinations, the Government takes a variety
of actions
so that education policy reflects the purposes of education as
reflected in the Convention.
254. According to the directions of the
educational reform announced by the Minister of Education in March 1998,
the new education
policy would be directed towards, first, the enhancement of
creative learning and the diversification of education; second, a reduction
in
the
cost of private education; third, an improvement in the working conditions of
the personnel involved in education and rational personnel
management; and
fourth, the education of a labour force whose skills, personality, creativity
and abilities are appropriate for the
era of globalization and
internationalization.
Paragraph 30 (child labour)
255. By the revision of the Labour Standards
Act in March 1997, the minimum age of employment (15) provided by ILO Convention
No.
138 has been implemented.
256. Specifically, the Committee
recommended that the Government ratify ILO Convention No. 138, which it did
on 28 January 1999.
The Convention came into effect on
28 January 2000.
Paragraph 31 (juvenile justice system)
257. The Juvenile Act was revised in 1995 to
improve the legal rights of children deprived of their liberty. The revised Act
enables
the juvenile offenders whose correction results are good to request
conditional release through examination by the Probation Examination
Committee
and to receive vocational training according to the Act for the Promotion of
Workers’ Vocational Training. This
enables institutions other than the
juvenile reformatories to provide vocational training. It also enables the
juvenile reformatories
to have qualified teachers for vocational training (arts.
35 and 36).
258. The Juvenile Act (art. 12) provides that the
decision on punishing juvenile offenders shall take into consideration the
professional
diagnoses and the results of the juvenile detention classification
exercise. In case of temporary treatment of juvenile offenders,
the person
deciding the punishment shall be designated.
Paragraph 32 (dissemination of documentation)
259. The first report was published and
distributed to government agencies, NGOs, societies, researchers, etc. and the
second report
will be published and widely disseminated as well.
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