'Korean Women Lawyers Association' Selected for Seoul Gender Equality Award Grand Prize

Contributions to Eradicating Sexual Violence, Protecting Victims' Human Rights, Improving Gender Equality Awareness, and Promoting Cultural Change

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Cheol-young] Seoul City announced on the 30th that it has finally selected the ‘Korean Women Lawyers Association’ as the grand prize winner of this year’s ‘Seoul Gender Equality Award’ for their legal support and contribution to the enactment and revision of laws for women and children/youth victims of sexual violence.

Seoul City evaluated that the ‘Korean Women Lawyers Association’ stood out in protecting the rights and interests of victims through active legal support for victims of digital sexual violence and made significant efforts to improve legal systems. Their contributions ranged from the enactment of the Child Abuse Punishment Act in 2014, amendments to the Sexual Violence Prevention Act, the revision of the Information and Communications Network Act known as the ‘Nth Room Prevention Act,’ to the amendment of the Child Support Enforcement Act, which stipulates criminal punishment, real-name disclosure, and travel bans for non-payment of child support, thereby contributing to the realization of a gender-equal society.

From July 23 to August 6, Seoul City received nominations for candidates for the Seoul Gender Equality Award and, through a public evaluation committee composed of external experts, finally selected six individual and group awardees. The awards include one grand prize, two excellence awards, and three merit awards.

The excellence awards went to the Seoul Metropolitan Nurses Association (group) and the Seoul Northeast Women’s Minwoo Association (group). The Seoul Metropolitan Nurses Association was recognized for its efforts to realize a gender-equal society by operating the New Start Nursing Center to support the reemployment of nurses with career interruptions and improving the treatment of nurses working on the COVID-19 frontlines.

Next, the Seoul Northeast Women’s Minwoo Association was awarded for contributing to the realization and cultural spread of a gender-equal society through various activities such as investigating sexual harassment in caregivers’ workplaces, eradicating sexual violence in schools, producing and distributing gender-equal fairy tale books, and training child and youth gender equality education activists in the community.

The merit awards were given to the Broadcast Writers Union (group), Chorok Sangsang (group), and Lee Hee-jung (individual). Since its establishment in 2017 to improve the treatment of broadcast writers, the Broadcast Writers Union has worked to improve conditions by investigating and publicizing the status of maternity protection and labor environments for broadcast writers and has contributed to the realization of a gender-equal society by advocating for the rights of female non-regular workers in the media industry.

Chorok Sangsang was recognized for actively participating in gender equality policies of autonomous districts through policy proposal activities and raising public awareness of various gender equality issues in local communities through gender equality education and campaigns for residents. Lee Hee-jung, team leader of the Namu Women’s Human Rights Counseling Center, has been supporting victims of domestic and sexual violence and protecting human rights since 2010. In particular, she was awarded for her active work in supporting victims and establishing support systems as part of the ‘Visiting Support Companion’ (a digital sexual crime victim support project), contributing to the eradication of digital sexual crimes and the realization of a gender-equal society.

The Seoul Gender Equality Award ceremony will be held on the 1st of next month, during Gender Equality Week, at 2 p.m. in Meeting Room 1 on the 8th floor of Seoul City Hall. On this day, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon will personally present plaques to the awardees.

Kim Seon-soon, Director of the Seoul City Women and Family Policy Office, said, “This year’s Seoul Gender Equality Award recipients have been dedicated to realizing a gender-equal society in various fields, and I expect they will be a strong force in implementing more diverse gender equality policies in the future.” She added, “Seoul City will also continue its efforts to create a gender-equal society where everyone can be happy.”

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