Chingusai - Korean Gay Men's Human Rights Group
Address: 302 Myodong Building, 183 Myo-dong, Jongro-gu, Seoul, Korea 110-370
Phone: 82-2-745-7942; Fax: 82-2-744-7916; E-mail: chingusai@chingusai.net
Homepage: http://chingusai.net/e_page/e_index.html
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Will the South Korean Ministry of Justice Promote Discrimination with the
Anti-Discrimination Act?
It has been confirmed that, out of the diverse categories of personal attributes or minority
groups to be protected from discrimination in education, employment, and legal proceedings,
"sexual orientation, educational background, family type and status, medical history, national
origin, language, and criminal and arrest history" have been deleted from the Anti-
Discrimination Bill, whose impending legislation was recently announced by the Ministry of
Justice. In addition to already having deleted punitive compensation, a practical measure for
redressing discrimination recommended by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea,
the Ministry of Justice is now about to renounce the human rights of marginalized groups who
have long endured the most serious and harmful discrimination.
* Anti-Discrimination Act? Pro-Discrimination Act!
In one word, the reduced Anti-Discrimination Bill betrays a will not to prohibit discrimination
against those who are directly affected by the deletion of the 7 categories. In other words,
the Ministry of Justice is choosing to shut its eyes to actually existing discrimination?i. e., it is
permissible to discriminate, it does not constitute discrimination to engage in outright
discrimination, as long as the victims are not addressed in the bill. The Ministry of Justice,
an institution that must be as strict and fair as possible, is about to create a law that is
self-contradictory and purely nonsensical!
Now, if and once this distorted bill is passed, any LGBT person who is dismissed from work
simply because of his or her sexual orientation will have no legal recourse whatsoever. Nor will
he or she be able to protest against exclusion from promotion simply because he or she is
not married. Even putting an individual at a disadvantage simply because of his or her lack of
a college diploma despite ample vocational skills will not be considered unjust. The advice of
the Ministry of Justice that those affected by the deletion of the 7 categories from the Anti-
Discrimination Bill should resort to the National Human Rights Commission Act is patently
absurd and specious, for the latter lacks both legal binding force and effective measures to
redress and to compensate for actual discrimination. Why, then, should the Ministry of Justice
be taking the trouble to create a separate Anti-Discrimination Act, which in fact does possess
legal binding power? Is not the ultimate motive behind the reduction and distortion of the Anti-
Discrimination Bill a blatant disregard for natural human rights and a promotion of
discrimination?
* Expose the True Masters of the Ministry of Justice!
Just how could such a thing have happened? What exactly made possible this distortion and
reduction of equality and fairness? The Ministry of Justice offers the excuse that "public"
opposition to the Anti-Discrimination Bill was far too intense. However, we know exactly who
that "public" is. We are only too aware that in a secular country whose Constitution guarantees
the separation of the state and all religions and guarantees the pursuit of economic profit
within the bounds of all citizens’ basic rights, the Ministry of Justice has succumbed to the
religious logic of conservative Protestants, who increasingly seek to encroach on the law,
government, and politics, and to conglomerates, which increasingly sway and even create
"public" opinion with the sheer power afforded by money.
The Ministry of Justice, then, must now confess. It must openly reveal the fact that its masters
have never been the people and that it has never been a protector of justice and civil rights.
We can only say that the true masters of the Ministry of Justice are the rich and powerful such
as government ministers and members of the National Assembly and that the Ministry of
Justice considers only them to be the "people" of this nation.
* The Ministry of Justice Is an Organ That Should Persuade Those Who Mislead
Public Opinion!
In the end, the Ministry of Justice has been persuaded by those who mislead "public" opinion?
conservative Protestants and capitalists. In other words, an organ whose duty it is to persuade
such people of the wrongfulness of their views and of the significance and constitutionality of
the Anti-Discrimination Bill has been persuaded instead. Does the South Korean government
amount only to this? Is the Participatory Government a government open to "participation" by all
as long as they have power and money even if they lack reason?
To those who wrongfully dub the Anti-Discrimination Bill the "Anti-Gay Discrimination Act" and
condemn unconventional sexualities, the Ministry of Justice has a duty to teach the accurate
name and true meaning of the bill. To the general public, it has a responsibility to explain that,
regrettably, the reduced bill is too weak, now and in the future, to punish those who cast
hurtful and hateful slurs at LGBT people and other minorities. To those who speciously cite
the freedom of expression as their justification for deriding and discriminating against queer
folks and other marginalized groups, it has an obligation to make clear that there is no such
thing as a right to insult and inflict violence on any human being. It is simply deplorable and
alarming that the Ministry of Justice has forgotten and discarded all of its responsibilities and,
instead, turned into a sycophant of the rich and powerful.
* Ministry of Justice? Ministry of Injustice!
The very fact that the Ministry of Justice has sought to push the Anti-Discrimination Bill in its
current, distorted state proves just how much indifferent to justice and human rights this
government organ truly is. The English rendition of its name "MOJ" (Ministry of Justice) should
be changed into "MOI" (Ministry of Injustice).
Unsurprisingly, the promise that the Ministry of Justice made last year to establish a Human
Rights Bureau to promote human rights has turned out to be an empty one, for it is the Human
Rights Division within the Human Rights Bureau that has led the distortion of the Anti-
Discrimination Bill to the Pro-Distortion Bill. We now realize that the Human Rights Bureau was
established to betray individuals and organizations truly committed to human rights after
reassuring them with mere lip service to human rights. It was established to project an image
of South Korea as a country truly committed to human rights worldwide but, in truth and in
terms of domestic politics, to develop policy that disregards human rights.
* The Ministry of Justice Must Create a Bill That Can Truly Prohibit
Discrimination!
It is not yet too late. If the Participatory Government and the Ministry of Justice are truly
endeavoring to guarantee and protect human rights and to realize justice in South Korea, they
must reinsert the deleted categories in the now reduced Anti-Discrimination Bill. In addition,
they must clearly stipulate practicable and effective measures to redress and to compensate
for discrimination. If they continue to disregard the demands of numerous civil rights groups
and LGBT rights groups against discrimination and for human rights, the current administration
and the Ministry of Justice alike will have to face strong resistance not only from those directly
affected by the deleted categories such as sexual minorities but also from the entire civil
society.
We demand once more. The Ministry of Justice must create an anti-discrimination law that
can actually redress and stop discrimination. Moreover, it must actively persuade the public
of the real and urgent need for specific laws such as anti-disability discrimination acts that
will protect each marginalized group. We earnestly and strongly hope that the Ministry will live
up to its role and image as the leader of justice in South Korean society.
