By Kim Tae-jong
The entire nation has been venting a collective fury over the past several weeks following the release of a film based on a true story about sexual assaults against disabled students by teachers at a regional school.
From President Lee Myung-bak to regional police officers, policymakers and law enforcement officers, people are belatedly pledging to take countermeasures and take preventive steps.
The movie, titled “Dogani” or “The Crucible” in English, was released late last month, featuring sexual assaults against hearing-impaired children by teachers and school staff on students at Gwangju Inhwa School for years since 2000.
However, many members of human rights organizations who have worked for a long time to promote the welfare of the disabled say the current public backlash should lead to more profound solutions to tackle prevalent human rights violations against the disabled.
“What we saw in the movie is nothing unusual,” said Yang Baek-yong, an official at the Research Institute of Differently-able Persons’ Rights. “Various abusive and discriminative treatment as well as sexual assaults against the disabled take place everywhere all the time. People are just ignorant or don’t want to pay attention to this fact.”
Yang, who works as a human rights consultant for the disabled, hopes the movie will be a chance for people to become more aware of the violations of human rights of the disabled and make efforts to prevent them.
“What is necessary in the public uproar and growing media attention surrounding the film is a calm approach to more fundamentally tackle the problem,” he said.
Teachers at Inhwa School raped or sexually harassed students but were punished lightly, with some of them continuing to work at the school.
Gwangju City has decided to cancel the school operation license of the welfare foundation.
In response, experts say the punishment is far from sufficient.
Park Jang-woo, an official at the Human Rights Forum of Persons with Difficulties, expressed his concern that the “Dogani” phenomenon may end with punitive actions without leading to concrete preventive measures.
“I don’t want this phenomenon to boil up quickly and cool down fast without producing more practical measures,” said Park. “What we want is not just due punishment of people involved in the sexual assaults but also more profound solutions that can prevent such horrible things from happening again.”
He also requested politicians to come up with preventative measures, including amendments to relevant laws, so that violations of human rights against the disabled can be systematically prevented.
Other human rights activists for the disabled also called for the government to abolish special welfare institutions for the disabled, claiming such institutes themselves are discriminating.
“At such institutes, the disabled tend to be isolated within society,” said Kim Dae-sung, an official from Disabled People’s International. “Welfare institutes for the disabled themselves are a violation of human rights as they deprive them of a chance to live as part of the society by isolating them.”
If such institutes exist, problems in “Dogani” will be never solved as the disabled suffer from discriminative and abusive treatment without being properly taken care of, he said.
“The ideal solution is to help the disabled live with us. They should be given a chance to receive education with other people, get a job and lead a happy life, just like us, in our society.”