Public Institution Violence Prevention Training Participation Rate 93.7%... 'Underperforming Institutions' 1.1%

The percentage of employees in public institutions who received prevention education on sexual harassment and sexual violence reached 93.7% last year, showing an annual increase. The rate of establishing measures to prevent the recurrence of sexual violence incidents also rose.

On the 17th, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family announced the results of the "2023 Public Institution Sexual Harassment, Sexual Violence, Sexual Exploitation, and Domestic Violence Prevention Education Performance" inspection. The survey covered 18,127 institutions including national agencies, local governments, education offices, public-related organizations, and schools. Public institutions are required to conduct violence prevention education annually and submit the results to the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family in accordance with the "Framework Act on Gender Equality" and the "Act on the Prevention of Sexual Violence," among others.

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The inspection results showed that the implementation rate of violence prevention education last year was 99.9%, with an employee participation rate of 93.7%. Notably, participation rates were also high among heads of institutions (99.8%) and senior officials (94.4%). Among institution employees, local governments had the lowest participation rate at 90.6%.

For university students, the education participation rate was relatively low at 58.2% compared to institution employees. To promote violence prevention education within universities, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family established a criterion in 2021 that classifies institutions as underperforming if the university student participation rate falls below 50%. In 2023, the ministry is distributing 15 types of university-tailored educational content, including topics such as digital sex crimes.

Last year, 197 institutions (1.1%) showed poor participation in education. Public-related organizations accounted for the largest number with 71, followed by schools (63), local governments (49), and national agencies (14). There were no heads of institutions who did not participate in sexual harassment prevention education.

Regarding the submission of measures to prevent the recurrence of sexual harassment and sexual violence incidents, 99.2% of institutions established and submitted such measures. Among these, 3,886 cases (75.4%) submitted measures within three months of the incident, while 1,229 cases (23.8%) submitted after three months. Through a legal amendment, since April, the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has been able to impose corrective orders and fines on institutions that fail to fulfill the obligation to submit recurrence prevention measures. A ministry official stated, "In the future, we plan to thoroughly manage not only whether the measures are submitted but also the content of the measures."

Shin Young-sook, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, said, "Since violence prevention education has been sufficiently established externally, we will enhance the effectiveness of the education and recurrence prevention systems going forward. Along with efforts to increase university student participation rates, we will do our best to inspect and support the prevention of new types of crimes such as deepfakes and ensure thorough protection measures for victims."

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