The Republic of Korea’s human rights record to be reviewed by Universal Periodic Review

GENEVA (6 November 2017) – The Republic of Korea’s human rights record will be examined by the UN Human Rights Council’s Universal Periodic Review (UPR) Working Group for the third time on Thursday, 9 November 2017 in a meeting that will be webcast live.

The Republic of Korea is one of the 14 States to be reviewed by the UPR Working Group during its upcoming session taking place from 6 to 17 November.  The Republic of Korea’s first and second UPR reviews took place in May 2008 and October 2012, respectively.

The documents on which the reviews are based are: 1) national report - information provided by the State under review; 2) information contained in the reports of independent human rights experts and groups, known as the Special Procedures, human rights treaty bodies, and other UN entities; 3) information provided by other stakeholders including national human rights institutions, regional organizations and civil society groups.

Among the issues raised in the above-mentioned documents are: the abolition of the death penalty; combatting hate speech and xenophobic discourse against non-citizens, racism and discrimination; addressing violence and abuse in the military and ensuring the right to conscientious objection; halting overcrowding, torture and suicide in penitentiary institutions; preventing censorship through misuse of defamation and national security laws; safeguarding the right to association, peaceful assembly and labour rights; addressing allegations of the excessive use of force; data and privacy protection measures; fostering gender equality in employment and decision-making; combatting gender-based violence, including domestic violence and marital rape; ending involuntary hospitalization and treatment of mental health patients; protecting migrant workers against inequality, exploitation and ill-treatment; and combatting old-age poverty.

The three reports serving as the basis for the review of the Republic of Korea on 9 November can be found here.

Location: Room 20, Palais des Nations, Geneva
Time and date: 14.30 – 18.00, Thursday, 9 November (Geneva time, GMT +1 hour)

The UPR is a unique process which involves a periodic review of the human rights records of all 193 UN Member States.  Since its first meeting was held in April 2008, all 193 UN member States have been reviewed twice within the first and second UPR cycles.  During the third UPR cycle, States are again expected to spell out steps they have taken to implement recommendations posed during their previous reviews which they committed to follow-up on, as well as to highlight recent human rights developments in the country.

The three country representatives serving as rapporteurs (“troika”) for the review of the Republic of Korea are: Mongolia, Hungary and Congo.

The webcast of the session will be at http://webtv.un.org

The list of speakers and all available statements to be delivered during the review of the Republic of Korea will be posted on the UPR Extranet at the following link.

The UPR Working Group is scheduled to adopt the recommendations made to the Republic of Korea at 17.00 on 14 November.  The State under review may wish to express its positions on recommendations posed to it during their review.  The recommendations will be shared with the media on this day in advance.   

ENDS

For more information and media requests, please contact Rolando Gómez at +41 (0) 22 917 9711 /  rgomez@ohchr.org , Sarah Lubbersen at +41 (0) 22 917 9689 / slubbersen@ohchr.org or Cédric Sapey at +41 (0) 22 917 9751 / csapey@ohchr.org

To learn more about the Universal Periodic Review, visit: www.ohchr.org/hrc/upr

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