The National Human Rights Commission Act, enacted in 2001, holds that the inviolable basic human rights everyone has must be protected and that human worth and dignity must be realized by raising the level of human rights, with the aim of establishing a basic democratic order.

The Act also defines human rights as 'the dignity, worth, liberty and rights of human beings guaranteed by the Constitution and laws or recognized by international human rights treaties that Korea has joined or ratified and by customary international law,' giving human rights a constitutional guarantee.

The term basic rights was first set out in the Constitutional Court Act, enacted in 1988, which provides that 'any person whose basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution are infringed by the exercise or non-exercise of public power, excluding court rulings, may file a constitutional complaint with the Constitutional Court.'

6-1. Protocol Instituting a Conciliation and Good Offices Commission to be Responsible for Seeking the Settlement of any Disputes which may Arise between States Parties to the Convention against Discrimination in Education

10. Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment

Refugees are people who leave for another country or region to escape persecution, disaster or war arising from differences in religion, race or political ideas. Under international law, a refugee is 'a national or stateless person who, owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of religion, race, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of residence or nationality and is unable or unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country.' A refugee must not be expelled or returned in any manner to the frontiers of territories where his life or freedom would be threatened on account of race, religion, membership of a particular social group or political opinion.

After joining the refugee conventions in 1992, the Korean government did not recognize a single refugee until 2000, and recognized its first refugee only in 2001. Korea's refugee screening is strict: from 1994 to October 2015, there were only 13,888 refugee applicants in Korea, of whom only about 11 obtained refugee status, just 0.16% of the total. Even so, Korea is said to grant humanitarian stay to many who are not recognized as refugees. Refugee recognition is said to have improved gradually, but compared with the reality that refugee applicants in Korea have exceeded 1,000, refugee policy can be called poor. And unlike recognized refugees, people on humanitarian stay are not guaranteed benefits such as health insurance and social security. Korea's refugee screening is said to fall far short in the expertise, objectivity and transparency of the UN or related organizations, and in staffing relative to the country's size and the expertise required. Humanitarian support policies for refugees and stateless people in Korea are needed.

Women's policy refers to a field that proposes women's policies and studies the advancement of women's rights. Its broad goal is the development of women's policy for realizing a gender-equal society. Women's policy works on enacting laws and institutionalizing social participation related to protecting women's human rights, gender equality and economic activity. Its goals focus on achieving substantive gender mainstreaming in law, supporting capacity building and jobs for vulnerable women and diverse families in step with government programs and rapid social change, and social integration through spreading awareness of gender equality and establishing women's human rights. The government has consistently presented policy tasks and goals on promoting gender equality through the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, the basic direction of women's policy, women's welfare and wider social participation. It has announced that a comprehensive plan for women's policy is drawn up and carried out every five years under the Framework Act on Women's Development.

Child pornography refers to live-action media depicting a person under 13 as a sexual object.

Note: Korea joined the Refugee Convention and Protocol on December 3, 1992, and enacted a separate Refugee Act on February 10, 2012, in force from July 1, 2013. The paper's figure of 'about 11 recognized out of 13,888 applicants (0.16%)' does not add up and its source could not be confirmed, so check the Ministry of Justice's latest statistics. The paper describes child sexual exploitation material as involving people 'under 13,' but the Act on the Protection of Children and Youth against Sex Offenses defines children and youth as people under 19. The Framework Act on Women's Development cited in the paper was replaced by the Framework Act on Gender Equality from July 1, 2015.