Human Rights
Stories about people who suffer from human rights violations, and those who fight to uphold human dignity
KÉ Interview: Meet a Man Who Farms Your Abalone
A satellite picture of Nohwado, an island off the southwest coast of South Korea, shows numerous farms in the surrounding waters. (Source: Naver Map) Satellite photos of Nohwado are striking. Rows upon rows of neatly arranged black rectangles fill the waters surrounding the island, as if the farmland continued out
KÉ Interview: Singing Against Homophobia
In the middle of Unnie Choir’s last number, Enan Ahn started to cry. She was one of the fifteen women singing “Into the New World,” a 2007 single by K-pop group Girls’ Generation. The lyrics were admittedly corny — “there’s no use in waiting for a miracle, it’
Military Prosecutors Seek Jail Sentence for Gay Soldier
South Korea’s military prosecutors are seeking a two-year prison sentence for “Lieutenant A,” a soldier accused of having anal intercourse with a colleague. A military court is due to pass sentence on May 24. Lieutenant A is thought to have been caught as part of the army’
Prospects for Human Rights: Amnesty International Korea Compares Presidential Candidates
On Apr. 19, Amnesty International Korea (AIK) released the results of a survey assessing the human rights-related manifesto pledges of South Korea’s five leading presidential candidates. The veteran international NGO’s local office grilled the camps of Moon Jae-in of the Minjoo Party, Ahn Cheol-soo of the
"Damunhwa" Is No Multiculturalism: A Congolese Refugee Reflects on Life in South Korea
Meet Yiombi Thona, one of South Korea’s highest-profile refugees. He came to South Korea in 2002 after fleeing his native Congo under fear of arrest. As a member of the Congo intelligence service, he had leaked documents revealing government corruption and was in turn accused of trying to lead
Fines Won’t Change Discrimination in Job Search
A fresh graduate from university, looking to land his or her first full-time job, has a number of steps to go through. Scouring job boards for openings, painstakingly editing and re-editing her resume, and, of course, going to a studio for a professional profile photo to attach to the application
South Korean Construction Industry Silent on Worker Abuse in Gulf States
Editor’s Note: As South Korean companies become globally competitive, more stories about how some of them may be disregarding international labor and human rights standards are surfacing. We share this statement from Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, an NGO which hopes to elicit a response
"Nobody Likes It": The Price of Researching North Korean Human Rights
This is probably not the best moment to talk about North Korean human rights, now that even Trump-related news has been getting competition: South Koreans have emphatically confirmed their own fundamental human rights by protesting en masse against President Park Geun-hye for five consecutive weeks. But then again, it
In Memory of Farmer Baek Nam-gi: Amnesty International Die-In Flash Mob Held
At 6:56 pm on the drizzly evening of Monday, Nov. 14, some 80 people stepped out in unison onto the pedestrian crossing at the Jongno District Office intersection in white raincoats and acted out the scene of falling to the ground. The white raincoats were reminiscent of those worn
Weekly Brief: Oct. 10th - 16th
Blacklist of artists surfaces The president’s office has blacklisted nearly 10,000 singers, authors, directors and other artists. The reason? They’ve either signed a petition criticizing the government’s response to the 2014 Sewol disaster or supported two opposition politicians, both of whom are likely to run
Weekly Brief: August 22nd - August 28th
Migrant fishermen vulnerable to abuse In news that everyone in South Korea should know but very few people hear about, the 22,000 migrant workers in South Korea’s fishing industry face rampant abuse, including unfair wages, exploitation, verbal abuse and physical abuse, in some cases amounting to forced labour
![[Full Text] UN Special Rapporteur's Conclusion on Rights in South Korea](https://storage.googleapis.com/cdn.media.bluedot.so/bluedot.koreaexpose/wordpress/2016/01/United_nations_flag.png)
[Full Text] UN Special Rapporteur's Conclusion on Rights in South Korea
Statement by United Nations Special Rapporteur Maina Kiai on the rights to freedom of peaceful assembly and of association at the conclusion of his visit to the Republic of Korea SEOUL (29 January 2016) – I would like to thank the Government of the Republic of Korea for inviting me to