Human rights

Human rights (인권/人權) are inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being. Human rights are thus conceived as universal (applicable everywhere) and egalitarian (the same for everyone).

Human rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national and international law. The doctrine of human rights in international practice, within international law, has been a cornerstone of public policy around the world.

Key words
human rights, humanitarian law (인도법/人道法), Enlightenment (계몽주의/啓蒙主義), Holocaust, Universal Declaration of Human Rights

History
The ancient world did not possess the concept of universal human rights. Ancient societies had "elaborate systems of duties . . . conceptions of justice, political legitimacy, and human flourishing that sought to realize human dignity, flourishing, or well-being entirely independent of human rights".

The modern concept of human rights developed during the early Modern period, alongside the European secularization of Judeo-Christian ethics. The true forerunner of human rights discourse was the concept of natural rights which appeared as part of the medieval Natural law tradition that became prominent during the Enlightenment with such philosophers as John Locke, Francis Hutcheson, and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, and featured prominently in the political discourse of the American Revolution and the French Revolution.

Many of the basic ideas that animated the human rights movement developed in the aftermath of the Second World War and the atrocities of the Holocaust, culminating in the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948.

National Human Rights Commission of Korea
In Korea, human rights such as habeas corpus (인신보호영장제도/人身保護令狀制度) and freedom of speech are protected and observed by the Constitution.

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK, 국가인권위원회) was established in 2001 as a national advocacy institution for human rights protection, and seems to enjoy independence. NHRCK is committed to the fulfillment of human rights in a broader sense, including dignity, value and freedom of every human being as stated below, and as signified in international human rights conventions and treaties to which Korea is a signatory.
 * Developing human rights policies through conducting human rights research and issuing policy recommendations
 * Investigating discrimination and human rights violation cases and providing access to remedies
 * Promoting human rights education and raising public awareness of human rights
 * Promoting and monitoring national implementation of international human rights treaties
 * Cooperating with government agencies, civil society organizations, UN human rights bodies and national human rights institutions(APF, ICC)
 * Other matters deemed necessary to protect and promote human rights.

Article 1 of the National Human Rights Commission Act defines the objective of the Commission as follows:
 * The purpose of this Act is to contribute to the embodiment of human dignity and worth as well as to the safeguard of the basic order of democracy, by establishing the National Human Rights Commission to ensure that inviolable, fundamental human rights of all individuals are protected and the standards of human rights are improved.

Ratification of International Human Rights Law
Korea is party of almost all of the international human rights treaties and international humanitarian treaties. Korea ratified most of the international humanitarian treaties during the 1960s and 1970s, and unlike many Asian countries, ratified the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

After Korea acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on Economic and Social Rights (ICESCR) in 1990, it began to accede or ratify many international human rights treaties that were either newly established or had not yet been joined by Korea. This was closely linked to the wave of democratization that swept throughout Korea in the 1990s.

Considering that Korea recently ratified the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), it would not be much to say that Korea is especially advanced in ratifying international human rights treaties like other developed states.

However, certain human rights treaties have not been ratified due to domestic circumstances: the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR has not yet been ratified because the public consensus over the death penalty has not yet reached a compromise. At present, rising concerns about the increasing number of unregistered migrant workers make it difficult to ratify the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (ICRMW).

In addition, ratifying the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (OPCAT) is reserved due to the concerns over the power and immunity of national preventive mechanisms2 and on-site visits conducted by the Sub-Committee Against Torture.

Human Rights in North Korea
See the Human rights in North Korea.