Human rights commission launches mitary human rights team

National Human Rights Commission announced on Sep. 16 that ‘Military Human Right Team,’ a designated team to investigate, rescue and prevent human right violation in the military such as beating and other abusive acts, is launched and starts operation. This is the follow-up measure that comes after the ex officio investigation on 4 military camps including the 22nd and 24th divisions where the abusive treatment against soldiers was recently reported.

In the past, 16 staff of General Investigation Team investigated the military human right violation cases. Military specialized staff was included but they often deal with prosecution and police cases together. Out of them, 4 personnel are assigned to the military designated team to focus on human right improvement in the military. To identify issues of the military investigation process and military judicial system, the commission decides to include fact-finding programs for military human right violation to the next year’s budget as an effort to develop effective approaches for improvement.

More and more human right violation cases in the military have been reported since the commission was established in 2001. The number of reports on military human right violation went up from 58 in 2001 to 141 in 2013. Out of 82 cases received by Aug. 31, 30 cases have been received since June 21 when the shooting spree took place at GOP, accounting for 36.5% out of the total number of reports.

Source of the human right commission said, “Considering the characteristics of military camp, in which it is hard for a soldier to make a complaint to an external organization or to reveal the case to the outside, ex officio investigation will be strengthened. The team is committed to actively investigate military human right violation issues and provide solutions.”