UPR Sexual Rights Database

National Report:
Para 59) The Government provides services to migrant women who are victims of domestic violence through the Emergency Support Centre for Migrant Women, founded in 2006. Since 2014, the services became available in 13 different languages. Since April 2014, through the Danuri Helpline, the Government provides a one-stop emergency counselling service on life in Korea and domestic violence report. The Shelter for Migrant Women provides safe protection to migrant women who are victims of domestic violence and their accompanying children and provides assistance for counselling, medical treatment, legal advice, and departure. The average number of persons protected at the centre increased from 17 in 2008 to 271 in 2016. Furthermore, special provisions are written into the Immigrant Act to permit extension of a migrant’s stay in the ROK if the person is a victim of domestic violence, sexual violence, human trafficking, or other forms of violence committed in the country and is in the process of seeking a trial, an investigation by an investigative agency, or other medical procedures, so as to enable the victims to resort to judicial proceedings with confidence.

UN Compilation:
Para 55) ... The Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination noted that migrant women who were subject to domestic and/or sexual violence often did not report such crimes due to fear of losing their legal resident status.

Stakeholder Summary:
Para 12) Female migrants holding E-6 visas (arts and entertainment) were reportedly facing high risk of being exposed to sexual exploitation.
Para 77) ... JS2 stated that female migrant workers frequently suffered from sexual harassment and violence.

National Report:
Para 55) The Government amended the Criminal Act to newly stipulate the crime of human trafficking in order to ratify the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children, Supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime. The amended Criminal Act expanded the purpose of kidnapping and abduction, along with the previously stipulated purpose of “engaging in an indecent act, sexual intercourse or marriage, or for gain” and “transportation of a person out of the Republic of Korea”, to include the purpose of “labour exploitation, sex trafficking, or the acquisition of organs”. The consequentially aggravated crimes of human trafficking were also more specified into bodily injury and murder and death, in line with the principle of liability. A person who recruits, transfers, or delivers another with the intent to commit human trafficking has become principal rather than accessory under the amended Criminal Act, as such acts are defined as distinct acts of crimes. The provision of universal jurisdiction has been introduced so as to punish foreign nationals in the territory of the Republic of Korea, who have committed the same crime outside the Republic of Korea. The Government presented the bill for the consent of the ratification of the Protocol on Trafficking in Persons, which passed National Assembly in 2015 and the instrument of ratification was deposited with the United Nations. The Protocol took effect in Korea on 5 December 2015.