Human Rights Commission: "High School Sexual Grievance Committee Must Guarantee Legal Counsel Assistance for the Accused"

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has recommended that respondents in sexual grievance committee investigations at high schools should be allowed to receive assistance from legal counsel.

On the 8th, the NHRCK announced that on the 26th of last month, it recommended the principal of OO High School to conduct job training for sexual grievance counselors and establish measures to prevent recurrence, ensuring that the rights of respondents to defense, including the right to legal counsel during the sexual grievance committee investigation process, are guaranteed.

The victim is a teacher at the school who was reported on or around April 7th last year for sexual misconduct involving six students, leading to an investigation and deliberation by the sexual grievance committee. However, the school did not provide specific details of the report, so the respondents had no way of knowing the exact nature of the sexual harassment allegations. Furthermore, during the committee meeting attended with a lawyer, the school did not allow the lawyer to speak. Consequently, the victim’s lawyer filed a complaint with the NHRCK.

The school explained, "The reporters wished to remain anonymous due to concerns about secondary harm," and "We referred to the manual published by the Korean Institute for Gender Equality Promotion and Education, as well as advice from the education office and external experts, and therefore did not disclose the reporters’ identities to the victim." Additionally, the school stated, "The manual says that lawyers or representatives and trusted persons may attend, but trusted persons do not have the right to testify," and "We informed in advance that lawyers would not have speaking rights, and the victim was able to testify independently with the lawyer’s assistance."

However, the NHRCK stated, "The right to legal assistance should be recognized regardless of whether the victim can testify independently," and "The restriction on the right to testify specified in the work manual applies only to trusted persons and cannot be interpreted as limiting the lawyer’s right to testify." Regarding the nondisclosure of information such as the report details, the commission explained, "The victim was well aware of the report contents," and "It is judged that the victim received sufficient information to guarantee the right to defense during the investigation and deliberation process of the sexual grievance case."

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