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CNN reported on Oct. 17 that the legal team of former president Park Geun-hye plans to submit allegations of human right abuse to the UN Human Rights Council concerning her treatment in jail. (Yonhap News)
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A draft report is being prepared for the UN Human Rights Council on the former president’s behalf
The international legal team working for Park Geun-hye, former president of South Korea, claims that Park is suffering human rights abuses in jail and announced that it will be bringing this issue to the attention of the UN Human Rights Council (OHCHR). This appears to be an attempt to generate sympathy for Park in the international community and to put pressure on Seoul leading up to the UN’s periodic review of South Korea’s human rights record next month. The Ministry of Justice rebutted the claim on Oct. 18, stating that “laws and regulations are being applied to Park Geun-hye without exception, and there are no human rights violations.” On Oct. 17, CNN reported that it had been given exclusive access to the draft of a report on Park’s human rights situation by the MH Group, Park’s international legal team. In the document, the MH Group said that Park “is living in [a] cell that's dirty, cold and constantly lit [even at night] so she cannot sleep,” according to CNN. “According to the draft document, Park is said to be suffering from a handful of chronic conditions and maladies including chronic lower back pain; osteoarthritis in her knee and shoulder joints; a rare disorder of the adrenal glands; and malnutrition,” CNN reported. "There is no evidence that she is receiving adequate care,” CNN quoted the draft as saying. The MH Group is planning to make the draft official and submit it to the OCHRC, the broadcaster reported. The legal team also said it was planning to raise the issue of Park’s health problems and the injustice of issuing another arrest warrant to coincide with the UN’s routine review of South Korea’s human rights record next month. The MH Group took out an advertisement in the South Korean conservative daily newspaper Chosun Ilbo on Sept. 27 in which it made the same arguments. Civic groups are criticizing Park for studiously ignoring the UN’s human rights recommendations during her time in office and then attempting to exploit those recommendations after being put on trial. During Park’s presidency, she made no response to human rights recommendations that various UN committees made to the South Korean government, including concerns about a crackdown on labor unions organized by government workers and the proposal to introduce an alternative service system for conscientious objectors, nor did she cooperate with UN human rights investigations. On Oct. 18, the Ministry of Justice’s corrections bureau responded to the MH Group’s claims by pointing out that, “in South Korea, there’s actually a controversy about how Park is receiving privileged treatment, and the claims that her human rights are being violated are groundless.” The Ministry also said there was “nothing wrong” with what CNN described in its report as Park “sleeping on the floor”: “Beds are the norm in the US, but in South Korea all detainees are supposed to sleep on mattresses on a heated floor.” The Ministry also holds that it provided Park with an additional mattress when she complained of back pain and allowed her to use medical instruments. Responding to the claims that the lights were left on at night, the Ministry explained that “one of the three lights in the cell is left on [even at night] to manage and protect inmates, and the light is kept low enough so that only movements can be observed.” Regardless of the treatment of Park the individual, it is true that not only the Seoul Detention Center, where Park is detained, but the majority of corrections facilities in the country are open to criticism for being too old and providing poor medical care. Over the past five years, a yearly average of more than 20 people have died while in detention. By Hong Seok-jae and Cho Seung-hyun, staff reporters and Yi Yong-in, Washington correspondent Please direct questions or comments to [english@hani.co.kr]
