The Seoul City Council has reportedly just abolished the UN Charter for the Rights of a Child.
On June 25, the Seoul City Council voted to abolish the Students Human Rights Ordinance in the city, with 111 members present, 76 in favor, 34 against, and 1 abstention. Mostly Conservative members voted in favor.
The requirements for passing a motion requesting reconsideration at the plenary session under the Local Autonomy Act are the attendance of a majority of registered members and the approval of at least two-thirds of the members present.
— Yonhap News
The Students Human Rights Law protected students from unjust discrimination, as it took existing laws, such as the Labor Standard Act and the Personal Identification Protection Act, modifying them to apply them to school children. It was also a domestic law to uphold the UN’s Charter for the Rights of Children. The right to form student councils, address grievances, etc., has been revoked. Previously, teachers couldn’t make assignments unrelated to education but they can now. Racial minorities, immigrants’ children, etc. can even now be barred from school field trips simply due to the alleged inability to speak a lot of Korean.
On May 16, Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education Superintendent Cho Hee Yeon requested that the city council reconsider the abolition of the Student Human Rights Ordinance. The request was not accepted.
In March 2023, Chairman of the Seoul City Council Kim Hyun Ki proposed the abolition ordinance in response to the Seoul Citizens’ Coalition to Abolish the Student Human Rights Ordinance. This included parents and religious groups who feared the protection of sexual minorities, LGBTQIA+ students, etc., under the law. They believed it would promote homosexuality in children.
Last December, when the city council tried to submit the abolition bill to the Board of Education, the Seoul Administrative Court accepted a civil group’s application to suspend execution, which put the brakes on it. However, the city council later pushed for the abolition again in the form of a member’s initiative in a special committee.
— Yonhap News
This is the 2nd location in which it has happened. Earlier this year, South Chungcheong Province abolished the law upholding the UN’s Convention on the Rights of the Child. Just today, Christian groups submitted 8,000 signatures to Gwangju City Council to abolish their ordinance.
— Austin Bashore (美녹색당 오스틴 배쇼어) (@BashoreForOhio) June 25, 2024
Yet, it’s not only LGBTQIA+ students punished. Even religious students do not have the freedom to wear their respective religious attire, carry Bibles to school, etc. There is nothing in place for which teachers must respect students’ identities or beliefs.
@bashore101 The students human rights law has been abolished in Seoul. This is the second location, after South Chungcheong, where it has been abolished. #foreignerinkorea#korea#southkorea#foreignersinkorea#lifeinkorea#teacherinkorea#workinkorea#🇰🇷#studyinkorea#liveinkorea#expatinkorea#equality#travelkorea#humanrights#children#그린스크린
♬ Aware – Adrián Berenguer
Seoul is now the second city to abolish its student human rights ordinance, following South Chungcheong Province.
