Human Rights Commission: "Rural Bachelor Marriage Promotion Project... Needs Review from a Gender Equality Perspective"

[Asia Economy Reporter Seongpil Cho] On the 7th, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea expressed the opinion that it is necessary to review the contents of the project from a gender equality perspective regarding a local government in Gyeongnam that promoted the 'Rural Bachelor Marriage Project' to increase the population.

Earlier, the Human Rights Commission received a complaint stating that the 'Rural Bachelor Marriage Project' specified in a cooperation letter sent by the local government to the representative of administrative agency A, which handles immigration civil affairs for the Ministry of Justice, constituted a discriminatory policy targeting Vietnamese female international students who did not enter the country for marriage purposes. The local government explained, "The administrative agency representative who proposed creating opportunities for meetings between rural bachelors and Vietnamese female students arbitrarily modified the contents of the cooperation letter without consultation and posted it online. After verifying the facts, we suspended the project review." The Human Rights Commission also dismissed the complaint, judging that it was difficult to see specific harm given that the cooperation letter was arbitrarily modified by the administrative agency representative and the post was deleted shortly after the issue was raised.

However, the Human Rights Commission viewed the local government's policy as stemming from patriarchal gender role stereotypes that perceive women as obligated to perform family internal unpaid labor such as childbirth, childcare, housework, and farming. Furthermore, regarding the assumption of Vietnamese female students as potential spouses for rural men, it was judged to include racial prejudice that Vietnamese women are suitable for performing gendered roles. The Human Rights Commission stated, "It is problematic for local governments to use migrant women as tools for population increase policies, and improvement is necessary."

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