Civic Group: "Police Shared Photos of Naked Women During Prostitution Crackdown"...Human Rights Commission Complaint

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Gong Byung-sun] A civic group has filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) alleging that police officers, while cracking down on prostitution, took nude photos of women and shared the images in a group chat.

On the 12th, the Public Interest Human Rights Foundation Gonggam, the Sexual Workers' Liberation Action Red Light Solidarity Chacha, and others held a press conference in front of the NHRCK in Jung-gu, Seoul, to announce a statement titled "Condemning the Police's Nude Photography of Prostituted Women and Illegal Evidence Collection and Investigation Practices." Over 100 organizations and more than 1,000 people attended the press conference.

According to the groups, during a joint crackdown on prostitution last March, police officers took nude photos of prostituted women using their mobile phone cameras. Subsequently, the images were shared in a group chat room with members of the joint crackdown team. The groups stated, "Although the police claim the photos were taken as evidence during the crackdown, nude photos of prostituted women cannot serve as proof of prostitution activities," and added, "The storage and management of photos taken for evidence collection purposes is also a serious issue." It is known that a victim of the illegal filming expressed in a police statement, "Thinking that those photos might be circulating somewhere makes me unable to do anything and feel humiliated."

The groups also emphasized that the police's actions are illegal. They explained, "Taking nude photos of prostituted women is not only a forced investigation violating due process, conducted to coerce confessions or facilitate investigations, but also violates the principle of minimal infringement," and added, "It severely infringes on the prostituted women's personal rights, sexual self-determination rights, and personal information self-determination rights, constituting unconstitutional exercise of public authority and falls under the crime of filming using a camera, etc., as stipulated in Article 14, Paragraph 1 of the Special Act on Sexual Violence."

The groups demanded that the NHRCK issue appropriate recommendations. Their position is that the NHRCK should recommend that the Commissioner General of Police discipline the officers responsible for the matter, and that the Prosecutor General investigate whether there is a violation of Article 14 of the Sexual Violence Punishment Act and proceed with prosecution and other actions.

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