PSI has drawn attention to the situation
of trade unions in the Korea, and the surprising choice of the UN Human Rights
Council to elect Korea as its chair. Please find below a short summary of the
situation, and you can read a longer statement on the PSI website: http://ow.ly/Z4XUJ
Korean trade unions would appreciate your messages of
solidarity at this time.
The 31st session of the UN Human Rights Council
started on 29 February 2016. For a period of four weeks, the representatives of
its 47 member States, elected by the UN General Assembly, will deliberate on
the human rights violations in a number of countries and make their
recommendations.
This news would go almost unnoticed if it were not for
the fact that this year, the Human Rights Council will be chaired by South
Korea, a country that has recently seen a steep decline in its respect for
human and trade union rights.
While Choi Kyong-lim, Representative of the Permanent
Mission of the Republic of Korea to the United Nations Office and other
International Organizations in Geneva chairs the HRC sessions, 16 prominent
South Korean trade unionists including Han Sang-gyun, President of the Korean
Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU), and Cho Sung-deok, Vice-President of
Korean Public Services and Transportation Workers' Unions (KPTU), are in jail,
awaiting trial, simply for conducting trade union activities.
Police have also prosecuted hundreds of trade union
members and officers who participated in the 14 November 2015 demonstration in
Seoul, held in protest of regressive labour reforms that will lead to the
expansion of precarious work and the worsening of rights and working
conditions, especially in the public sector.
The UN Special Rapporteur on the rights to freedom of
peaceful assembly and of association, Mr. Maina Kiai, said, “organizers of
peaceful assemblies should not be held liable, under any circumstances, for the
criminal actions of others, as it appears to have happened in the cases of Mr.
Han Sang-gyun and Park Lae-goon.” (The latter is a member of the Coalition
4.16, which demands that an independent investigatory commission be set up for
the Sewol Ferry incident of 16 April 2014).
PSI General Secretary, Rosa Pavanelli, who will be
part of an international mission to the country in the coming weeks said,
“It is a tragedy that in the 21st Century
we are still witnessing such a brutal repression as the one orchestrated by the
Korean authorities against its people, for conducting lawful trade union
activities. A country that professes to be democratic cannot resort to
practices worthy of totalitarian regimes.”
Please contact the South Korean Embassy in your
country and demand the respect of human rights for all trade unionists in
Korea
Send a message of support to the Korean trade unions (kptu.intl@gmail.com who will pass messages on to other union
leaders).
Watch the PSI short video: South Korea's human rights hypocrisy
Public Services International is a global trade union
federation representing 20 million working women and men who deliver vital
public services in 150 countries. PSI champions human rights, advocates for
social justice and promotes universal access to quality public services. PSI
works with the United Nations system and in partnership with labour, civil
society and other organisations.
