Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Human rights agency becoming toothless
By Lee Hyo-sik
The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) is coming under increasing criticism for its reluctance to investigate the illegal surveillance of politicians by the Prime Minister’s Office and other politically sensitive matters.
Critics argue that the commission has increasingly turned a blind eye to possible human rights violations by law enforcement authorities and other branches of the government. They said the state-run human rights advocacy agency has fallen into “a vegetative state” under the conservative Lee Myung-bak Administration.
On Monday, the commission held a general meeting to decide whether to probe the alleged illegal surveillance of Rep. Nam Kyung-pil and other governing Grand National Party (GNP) lawmakers by the Prime Minister’s Office.
But out of 11 permanent and non-permanent members, only five approved of the commission launching an independent investigation into the matter.
The remaining six members who are classified as conservative voted against it, saying they do not have enough information to fully comprehend the nature of the incident.
They also said they first needed to know if those allegedly monitored even want the commission to probe the matter.
Additionally, the NHRC decided not to proceed with an investigation into other politically sensitive matters.
The Constitutional Court is contemplating on whether the law governing political activities of government workers goes against the Constitution or not. The current law bans civil servants from expressing opinions toward particular politicians and political parties from 180 days before an election.
The commission had initially planned to ask the nation’s high court to find the law unconstitutional, citing that it violates the freedom of expression of government workers.
But it decided not to proceed with the move.
It also chose not to probe the alleged illegal surveillance of an executive at the nation’s labor umbrella group by the Prime Minister’s Office, saying the executive did not want it to investigate the allegation.