Human Rights Commission Recommends "Stop Imposing Labor on Hospitalized Patients"... Hospital States "For Treatment Purposes"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Jo] The National Human Rights Commission announced on the 16th that a psychiatric medical institution partially accepted recommendations to improve human rights violations against patients in psychiatric hospitals.

Previously, in September last year, the Human Rights Commission recommended the head of a psychiatric medical institution in Gyeonggi-do not to make hospitalized patients perform hospital cleaning, meal distribution, or laundry, and to allow possession and use of mobile phones. They also recommended providing human rights education to staff to prevent similar cases from recurring.

The hospital responded to these recommendations by stating, "We will allow all hospitalized patients to possess and use mobile phones," and "We have conducted human rights education for our staff." However, they stated they would not accept the recommendation regarding labor imposed on patients, explaining that "the labor imposed on hospitalized patients was not hospital work assistance but instructions for rehabilitation treatment purposes."

Meanwhile, the head of the local government in charge accepted the Human Rights Commission's recommendation to "thoroughly guide and supervise this hospital and other psychiatric medical institutions in the jurisdiction to prevent similar human rights violations from recurring."

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