Assemblyman Yoon Young-deok: "Chonnam National University Human Rights Center Under Scrutiny for Neglecting Victims' Rights"

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters, Reporter Yoon Jamin] The inadequate response of the Human Rights Center at Chonnam National University is under scrutiny.

In particular, the failure to properly separate the perpetrator in a sexual assault case that should be judged from the victim's perspective, and the controversy over requesting disciplinary action against the victim on the grounds of false reporting, are also causing debate.

On the 20th, Yoon Young-duk, a member of the National Assembly (Democratic Party of Korea, Gwangju Dongnam-gap), stated that the Human Rights Center at Chonnam National University needs improvement as it only represents the perpetrator's position without judging from the victim's standpoint.

One of the controversial sexual harassment cases occurred in December 2018 during a drinking party among students of the Chonnam National University Law School.

The case was reported to the Human Rights Center in March last year, and although the president of Chonnam National University promised to "take protective measures for the victim," the perpetrator was assigned to the same classroom during the first and second semesters of 2019 and classes in 2020, with no separation measures taken during classes.

The professor who hosted the drinking party also publicly mentioned the Human Rights Center report during class and demanded the victim withdraw the report. When the case was reported in the media, the professor held a public forum and required the victim to attend.

Recently, the perpetrator has continued secondary harm to the victim by filing complaints and accusations of false accusation and defamation.

The Human Rights Center decided to "suspend disciplinary procedures as the case is under investigation," but there is no clause regarding suspension of disciplinary action during investigation in the regulations of the Chonnam National University Human Rights Center.

On the other hand, the government-published manual on disciplinary cases for public officials clearly states that "disciplinary action can be taken even if the case is under investigation or not recognized as guilty."

The sexual harassment incident that occurred at the karaoke room during the year-end party of the Chonnam National University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation in December last year also highlights the Human Rights Center’s lax investigation.

Although the situation was fully recorded on the karaoke CCTV, the Human Rights Center did not make active efforts to retrieve the original CCTV footage and initially conducted the investigation only with a 4x speed CCTV video recorded by the perpetrator on his mobile phone.

The Human Rights Center judged the victim's statement as false based on the 4x speed video and requested disciplinary action according to the regulations (Article 19 of the Chonnam National University Human Rights Center Regulations).

Accordingly, the Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation held a disciplinary committee and imposed a severe penalty to dismiss the victim. The victim secured the original karaoke CCTV footage and directly submitted it to the disciplinary committee of the Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation, but the dismissal decision was not changed.

Assemblyman Yoon Young-duk pointed out, "The standard for judging sexual violence should be examined from the victim's perspective. However, the Human Rights Center did not take active separation measures between the victim and perpetrator in the Law School sexual harassment case, and instead issued a decision demanding a public apology from professors who requested protective measures for the victim, claiming they damaged the school's honor."

He added, "In the Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation sexual harassment case, the Human Rights Center initially judged the victim's report as false based only on the 4x speed video submitted by the perpetrator, which was strong evidence supporting the victim's claim. Despite Supreme Court precedents stating that false report judgments should be made cautiously, the request for disciplinary action based on partial facts will make reporters respond passively when sexual violence by abuse of authority occurs in the future."

He also said, "I understand that the Ministry of Education's investigation into the Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation sexual harassment case has been completed. The Ministry of Education should promptly announce the results of the case and prepare comprehensive improvement measures for the increasing sexual violence cases in university society."

Meanwhile, the Law School sexual harassment case at Chonnam National University was recommended by the National Human Rights Commission to issue a warning to the university president, revise related regulations, and conduct sexual violence prevention education for Law School professors. The Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation sexual harassment case is currently under police investigation.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.