[Statement] Welcoming the National Human Rights Commission’s Decision Confirming Employment Discrimination on the Basis of Race and Calling for a Comprehensive Anti-Discrimination Act
On December 26 of last year, the Discrimination Remedy Committee of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) ruled on a complaint filed by A, a recognized refugee, who alleged discrimination in the hiring process. The Committee confirmed that cancelling a job offer on the basis of race and skin color is clear discrimination.
A, who filed the complaint, came to Korea, applied for asylum, and had refugee status confirmed after a long and arduous process. But life in Korea as a recognized refugee was far from easy. With no information provided at all on how to access the social system, A looked for work and knocked on the doors of more than 100 workplaces, only to be turned away or even defrauded. At last A found a job in the laundry room of a large hotel in Seoul. After being told that the application had been accepted, and after receiving an orientation on the laundry room work, A received a sudden text message the very next day. It read: “The hotel laundry room manager does not like attention being focused on the laundry room because of Mr. A. I am sorry.”
After experiencing racial discrimination several times, including this case, A wanted to raise the issue of employment discrimination and seek legal remedy. However, A learned that because Korea has no anti-discrimination act, it is difficult to raise a legal challenge against the act of discrimination itself. A therefore filed a complaint with the NHRCK over the cancellation of employment in the laundry room of the large hotel, and also requested a policy recommendation calling for the enactment of an anti-discrimination act on race.
In response to A’s complaint, the NHRCK determined that the company’s refusal to hire A was “a discriminatory act violating the right to equality, which excluded a specific person from employment on the basis of race, skin color and the like without a reasonable reason.” Following this decision, the NHRCK also recommended that the company operating the hotel laundry room “confirm the complainant’s willingness to be re-employed and prepare and carry out measures that can resolve the disadvantage in hiring,” and “prepare measures to prevent recurrence so that no specific person is excluded from the hiring process on the basis of race, skin color and the like, and provide human rights education for its staff.”
In the same decision, however, the NHRCK dismissed the part of A’s complaint that called for the enactment of an anti-discrimination act on race, on the grounds that it concerns legislation by the National Assembly and therefore falls outside the NHRCK’s scope of investigation.
We welcome the NHRCK’s decision confirming that the cancellation of A’s employment was racial discrimination. However, we regret that the NHRCK simply dismissed the call for an anti-discrimination act without discussing its necessity or any policy recommendation that could be implemented. A great many people living in Korea, including migrants like A, experience discrimination for various reasons such as race, sex, age and educational background. The United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (2017) and the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (2018) have repeatedly urged the Korean government to enact a comprehensive anti-discrimination act, and have recommended that it establish measures against racial discrimination and against discrimination and hate speech spreading throughout society.
Nevertheless, it is deeply deplorable that the enactment of a comprehensive anti-discrimination act (one that defines and prohibits acts such as the above as discrimination) continues to be put off. Unless a comprehensive anti-discrimination act is enacted, the various forms of discrimination in our society will remain uncorrected and will produce more victims. A, who had to endure countless instances of discrimination in Korea, has also given up on settling in Korea despite the NHRCK’s recommendation, and has set out again on a journey with no end in sight.
Accordingly, the Korea Refugee Rights Network (KORIN) and the Solidarity for the Enactment of the Anti-Discrimination Act (차별금지법제정연대) urge the government and the National Assembly to enact a comprehensive anti-discrimination act as soon as possible, so that unjust discriminatory treatment no longer occurs.
Korea Refugee Rights Network (KORIN, 난민인권네트워크), Solidarity for the Enactment of the Anti-Discrimination Act (차별금지법제정연대)