Gwangjin-gu Leads the Protection of Elderly Residents' Human Rights in Care Facilities

Dispatched 6 Human Rights Guardians to 19 Elderly Medical Welfare Facilities in the Region for Guidance and Inspection
Conducted Activities Including Consultations with Facility Heads, Staff, and Residents, and Requests for Correction of Human Rights Violations

Gwangjin-gu (District Mayor Kim Kyung-ho) is taking the lead in protecting the human rights of the elderly.

To prevent potential human rights violations in elderly care facilities, human rights guardians will be operating until November.

The elderly human rights guardians are honorary welfare guides established to protect the human rights of elderly residents and staff in elderly medical welfare facilities in accordance with the Elderly Welfare Act. In April, six human rights guardians were appointed and have been visiting a total of 19 locations, including 8 elderly care facilities and 11 elderly care communal living homes, to carry out human rights protection activities.

The guardians visit elderly medical welfare facilities monthly in pairs to conduct activities such as ▲ human rights monitoring and counseling for facility directors and staff ▲ reporting and recommending corrections for human rights violations ▲ verifying the implementation of human rights guidelines and education ▲ interviewing residents and listening to their concerns.

The guardians are familiar with human rights regulations and strive to improve the human rights environment. Their activities focus more on guidance and encouragement rather than detection and surveillance to induce voluntary attitude changes in the facilities. They carefully examine even small details such as ▲ whether privacy screens are installed during undressing ▲ structural factors causing human rights violations in the facility ▲ and human rights violations during service provision.

One human rights guardian affiliated with the Seoul Eastern Elderly Protection Agency said, “I feel rewarded when facility staff understand our human rights protection activities and accept our guidance, showing a willingness to actively change,” adding, “Everyone becomes elderly. It is not someone else’s issue. There is a need to improve social awareness regarding human rights protection activities in elderly care facilities.”

Kim Kyung-ho, Mayor of Gwangjin-gu, said, “We operate elderly human rights guardians to prevent elder abuse in elderly care facilities and to ensure a healthy and stable life. We look forward to the active activities of the human rights guardians and hope it will help change awareness about protecting the rights of the elderly,” and added, “We will continue to do our best to make Gwangjin-gu a place where all elderly people can live safely and happily.”

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