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Discrimination against Women's Right to Vote at General Meeting of Seoul YMCA [2004] KRNHRC 1 (1 January 2004)

A complaint was filed against the Seoul YMCA (Seoul Young Men's Christian
Association) in January 2003. The complainants demanded that female members also be
given the right to vote at the general assembly, which had been denied for the past one
hundred years. When the Seoul YMCA rejected the demand, the complainants filed the
complaint with the Commission.

After investigation, the Commission found that
(1) the `Seoul YMCA Charter' stipulates to vote in the general assembly, which serves a
legislative organ, a member must be `a person aged 20 or above who has a full membership
in the Christian Association and has participated in the activities of the Seoul YMCA
for more than two years', without any restrictions on gender; and
(2) all 43 regional YMCAs throughout Korea except the Seoul branch grant female members
the right to vote at the general assembly.

The Commission found that substantial changes have occurred in the one hundred years
since the YMCA was established in Seoul, even though the operation of the Seoul YMCA
has been dominated by men because women had little involvement in its social activities
one hundred years ago. The Commission also found that the claim of the Seoul YMCA
that it was established as a men's organization and it is a men's society, the `Seoul YMCA
Charter', which serves as grounds for prohibiting female members from voting at general
assembly, does not restrict any gender to membership to the general assembly, and that all
other 42 YMCA regional branches give women the right to vote. The Commission decided
that the Seoul YMCA's prohibition constituted gender discrimination.