Lack of Trust in Military Sexual Grievance Response... Human Rights Commission to Hold Forum on Improvements
by Oh Jieun
Published 27 Apr.2026 12:00(KST)
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The National Human Rights Commission of Korea will hold a public forum to review the limitations of the military’s response system for sexual grievances and to discuss possible improvements.
On April 27, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea announced that it will host a forum titled “Discussion on Measures to Improve the Military Sexual Grievance Response System” at 2 p.m. on April 29 in the main auditorium of the Seoul YWCA building in Jung-gu, Seoul. In response to the death of a female military captain in 2013 due to sexual harassment, the military introduced the sexual grievance counselor system in 2015 and established a dedicated organization for preventing and responding to sexual violence in 2022, thereby strengthening its response system. However, despite improvements to the system, trust at the field level remains insufficient.
According to the commission’s 2024 survey on the human rights situation of female soldiers, 36.7% of respondents who experienced harassment, sexual harassment, or sexual violence reported it to colleagues, while 31.4% reported it to family or acquaintances. In contrast, only 22.9% used official channels such as military life counselors or sexual grievance counselors.
Among those who sought help from relevant agencies but were “not satisfied” with the response, 41.5% cited difficulty in independent response due to influence from the chain of command, while 28.0% pointed to inadequate problem-solving stemming from a lack of expertise.
As a follow-up, the commission conducted a fact-finding survey last year to assess the actual operation of the military’s sexual grievance response system. The results of this survey will be released at the upcoming forum. The research was conducted by the Ewha Womans University Industry-Academic Cooperation Foundation.
A representative of the commission stated, “Based on the results of the fact-finding survey, we plan to seek ways to improve the effectiveness of the military sexual grievance response system,” adding, “Anyone can attend without prior registration.”
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