Human Rights Commission Recommends Applying 'Human Rights Management Reporting and Evaluation Guidelines' to Public Institutions and Others

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] The National Human Rights Commission of Korea announced on the 16th that it has recommended applying the reporting guidelines for human rights management operation and evaluation to 30 government ministries and 17 metropolitan local governments.

Previously, the Commission prepared the "Human Rights Management Reporting and Evaluation Guidelines" to assist public institutions in reporting the implementation of human rights management due diligence and to enhance the objectivity and reliability of evaluations. This measure was taken after analyzing the management performance evaluation manuals related to human rights management of over 1,600 public institutions in Korea, which revealed that each institution had different evaluation methods and ambiguous standards, raising concerns about reliability and validity. The 2020 "Survey on the Status of Human Rights Impact Assessments and Improvement Plans for Public Institutions and Public Enterprises" also influenced this decision, as it found that a significant number of institutions conducted human rights impact assessments only after the fact, and the implementation rate of human rights impact assessments for major projects was below 50%.

Internationally, it has already been emphasized that states have an obligation to ensure that public institutions realize their responsibility to respect human rights through human rights impact assessments and due diligence. Starting with France, major countries such as Germany have enacted "Due Diligence Laws" to legally institutionalize human rights management due diligence systems, according to the Commission. Domestically, although the Commission has recommended "Human Rights Management Guidelines and Checklists" and "Public Institution Human Rights Management Manuals," and most public institutions have established and operated human rights management systems, it is recognized that these alone have limitations in realizing human rights management.

The Commission stated, "We hope that this recommendation will serve as an opportunity for all public institutions to strengthen and smoothly implement human rights management systems, and furthermore, that the human rights impact assessment and due diligence systems for implementing the UN 'Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights' will eventually expand to private companies."

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