NHRCK Welcomes Supreme Court Ruling Banning Punishment for Consensual Same-Sex Relations Among Soldiers

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Human Rights Commission has expressed its support for the Supreme Court ruling that "consensual sexual relations between same-sex soldiers in private spaces should not be punished under the Military Criminal Act."

On the 22nd, the Human Rights Commission issued a statement under the name of Chairman Song Doo-hwan, saying, "We welcome the Supreme Court ruling" and "We hope this will serve as an opportunity to align the guarantee of sexual self-determination rights in the Republic of Korea with international human rights standards." The day before, the Supreme Court overturned the original ruling that found two male professional soldiers guilty of indecent acts under the Military Criminal Act for having sexual relations outside of work hours at off-base accommodations, and sent the case back to the High Military Court. The two were accused of consensual sexual acts at a single soldiers' dormitory outside of work hours around 2016.

The Human Rights Commission had previously submitted an opinion in 2010 stating that the indecent acts clause in the Military Criminal Act "violates the principle of proportionality set forth in the Constitution, infringes on the equality rights, sexual self-determination rights, and privacy and freedom of soldiers who are homosexual, and contradicts the principle of legality." Furthermore, in the 2016 Third National Human Rights Policy Basic Plan recommendations, the Commission identified the abolition of this clause as a key initiative for protecting the rights of sexual minorities, consistently advocating for its repeal.

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