"List of School Violence Committee Members Must Be Disclosed to Parties"... Human Rights Commission Recommends to Education Support Office

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has recommended that information about the School Violence Countermeasure Committee (Hakpokwi) members be provided to ensure that the parties' right to request disqualification is not infringed before the committee convenes.

On the 20th, the NHRCK announced that it recommended the A Office of Education to improve its procedures to guarantee the parties' right to request disqualification regarding the Hakpokwi.

Recently, a guardian of a school violence victim filed a complaint with the NHRCK, claiming that the A Office of Education refused to provide the list and information of the committee members before the Hakpokwi meeting. The complaint argued that the non-disclosure of information by the Office of Education infringed upon the right to request disqualification of the committee members.

The A Office of Education explained, "The Hakpokwi is, in principle, confidential according to the Act on the Prevention of School Violence, and since it is possible to identify whether a member is subject to disqualification by their face during attendance, we do not provide information about the members."

However, the NHRCK judged that considering the right to request disqualification is the only countermeasure available to the victimized party, there is a necessity to provide the list of members before the meeting. Furthermore, contrary to the Office of Education's claim, the Act on the Prevention of School Violence restricts non-disclosure of information only to external parties. This principle does not apply to the victimized party.

The NHRCK explained, "Not providing information about the members to the complainant before the Hakpokwi meeting violates the constitutional principle of due process," and added, "We determined that the complainant's right to request disqualification was infringed and recommended improving the handling of procedures and practices."

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