PRESS RELEASE
Asian Legal Resource Centre -- ALRC
ALRC-PL-32-2004

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Monday, 5th April 2004

For more information, please contact:
In Hong Kong, Sanjeewa Liyanage: + (852) - 2435-8961

Statement on 'Indefinite solitary confinement in the Republic of Korea' received by Commission on Human Rights

(Geneva, 5 April 2004) -- The written statement of the Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) on 'Indefinite solitary confinement in the Republic of Korea' (E/CN.4/2004/NGO/32) was distributed on the 31st March 2004 at the 60th Session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva.

The full text of the statement follows.

This year, ALRC submitted 30 written statements to the Commission, on topics as diverse as caste discrimination in Nepal, food scarcity in Myanmar, custodial deaths and torture in India, extrajudicial killings in Thailand, policing in Pakistan, the National Human Rights Commission of Sri Lanka, and impunity in Asia.

The complete list of statements, with full texts and links to the original versions, can be viewed on the ALRC website, at http://www.alrc.net/mainfile.php/60written/.

Asian Legal Resource Centre -- ALRC, Hong Kong

Indefinite solitary confinement in the Republic of Korea


1. On 1 May 2003, Mr Seoh, 37, committed suicide in a disciplinary segregation cell at Andong Penitentiary the day after he was handed 40 days in solitary confinement. Fifteen days earlier he had inflicted an injury on himself in an argument with a prison officer. However, prison officials segregated him knowing full well that he had a strong possibility of self-injury or suicide and did nothing to prevent it. Mr Seoh's case is one of many cases of inhumane treatment and punishment of prisoners in the Republic of Korea. The Asian Legal Resource Centre has already raised its concerns about the issue of indefinite solitary confinement in Korea in its previous submission to the Commission [E/CN.4/2003/NGO/89].

2. In June 2003, after Mr Seoh's death, the Minister of Justice of the Republic of Korea, Ms Kang Kum-sil, instructed prison officers to cease the practice of indefinite solitary confinement. The Ministry of Justice has followed up this measure by announcing a revised bill regarding the system of discipline and instruments of restraint in prisons on 23 December 2003. The new bill has outlawed consecutive solitary confinement and reduced the maximum period of solitary confinement from two months to one month, as well as having abolished the use of leather belts to bind the upper body of prisoners. While this was a good beginning, the new bill still includes several items violating the rights of prisoners.

3. Firstly, the new bill continues to prohibit inmates in disciplinary cells from going out for physical exercise, meeting family and friends, reading books and newspapers and writing letters or petitions. In its previous submission, the Asian Legal Resource Centre has stated that these conditions can result in substantial psychological damage, including paranoia, anxiety, depression, aggression and psychosis.

4. Secondly, the guidelines for determining the period of solitary confinement still remain ambiguous. For instance, while the guidelines state that prisoners may be put in solitary confinement for making a disturbance, or instigating other prisoners, there is no clear definition of 'disturbance' or 'instigation'.

5. Thirdly, the new bill allows the continued use of long chains and facemasks to discipline prisoners. The bill has also stated that the Discipline Committee meetings must be closed meetings, and has rejected human rights experts as Committee members, as well as the presence of the prisoner's family members at the meeting. This Discipline Committee reviews prisoner behaviour and has the authority to determine what kind of discipline or punishment should be meted out to individual prisoners. The current Committee, which consists of prison officers or other related officers who have direct correlation with prisoners, has been sorely questioned regarding its decision making process.

6. All these problems with the new bill are in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights as well as the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. Therefore, the bill must be followed by amendments to the Penal Administration Law, to bring it into line with Korea's international obligations.

7. In light of the above, the Asian Legal Resource Center recommends to the Commission, and in particular the Committee against Torture, to:

a. Urge the government of Korea to create an independent commission to examine and monitor prison reform.

b. Pressure the Korean Ministry of Justice to amend article 46 of the Penal Administration Law and other relevant legislation and take all other necessary and speedy steps to create legislation to ensure the human dignity of all prisoners. The use of solitary confinement should be limited to the most extreme circumstances and concrete and objective guidelines established for determining the period of solitary confinement.

c. Pressure the Ministry of Justice to abolish the use of chains and handcuffs as a punishment and
insist that the government of Korea educate all law enforcement personnel on the international standards for the treatment of prisoners.

d. Encourage the government of Korea to enact legislation that upholds the provisions of the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.