By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) will file a complaint with the Constitutional Court against the Lee Myung-bak administration's move to downsize it.
The agency's move came after the Ministry of Public and Government Administration, Thursday, decided to cut staff of the commission by 21 percent to streamline what it calls a ``bloated'' organization. The downsizing will be discussed during a Cabinet meeting on March 31. If it receives approval at the meeting and President Lee's signature, the plan will immediately be legally binding.
``The plan is full of faults,'' NHRC Chairman Ahn Kyong-whan told reporters after an emergency meeting to come up with countermeasures. ``The plan would seriously infringe on our independence and will eventually undermine the nation's human rights conditions. We will take all necessary legal steps to stop it.''
Ahn urged President Lee to stop the plan. The agency also decided to file a formal request for a meeting between Ahn and President Lee.
The Board of Audit and Inspection's (BAI) recent report calling the NHRC excessive in size has been cited as the main reason for the downsizing. Based on the report, the ministry initially considered halving the commission, but later came up with the plan to reduce the payroll by 21 percent.
However, the NHRC claims that it faces an increasing workload, with the number of complaints filed with it increasing every year. In 2006, it dealt with roughly 4,600 complaints and conducted 8,700 consultations, while this jumped to 6,200 and 11,200, respectively, in 2007.
The NHRC questioned the accuracy of the BAI report.
``The ministry only repeats that it has decided on the reorganization after analyzing the commission's structure, but is not disclosing details of the report or grounds for the downsizing,'' the NHRC said in a recent statement. ``The ministry should reveal both and prove the fairness of the report.''
International human rights institutes have also expressed concern about the plan.
The Asia Pacific Forum of National Human Rights Institutes ㅡ a regional network of 17 human rights institutions in the Asia Pacific region ㅡ called on the Korean government to reconsider the plan, claiming it would interfere with independence of the NHCR.