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Investigation and Remedies of Sexual Harassment [2005] KRNHRC 22 (1 September 2005)

Sexual harassment refers to cases involving sexual comments or actions by public
sector employers or employees using his/her position or pertaining to work and other
matters that causes feelings of sexual humiliation or degradation or results in unfair
employment treatment for the reason of refusing to respond to such sexual comments,
Investigation and Remedies of Discriminatory Practices 73
actions or other such demands.

Unlike Equal Opportunities for Women in the Workplace Act, which regulates
employment-related sexual harassment, the NHRC Act applies to incidents of sexual
harassment in not only the workplace but also to in the provision or use of goods,
facility, services or educational facility and in vocational training.
As such, limiting the scope of damage to "unfair employment treatment" is
inappropriate and seems to be a legislative error. This part of the law needs to be
amended at the earliest opportunity.

A certain Shin Doe, a transfer student in the Department of Chinese Language
Education at University filed a petition stating that an assistant professor, Hong
Doe, sexually harassed her and other female students on a consistent basis.
Professor Hong displayed unreasonable behavior by asking Shin who was studying at
the library at a late hour to see him and then staring at her arm and other parts and
saying that he would give her an F grade for his subject when the final examination had
not even began.

He also stated during a meeting at his office that his ex-girlfriend looked much prettier
than her. During one of the classes, he mentioned about a substitute taking the National
University Entrance Examination on behalf of him, a surrogate mother and his
infertility and stated that "university students nowadays are selling their eggs to earn
money and the price of the egg gets more expensive for well-educated and prettier
students. Shin (the petitioner)'s egg should be expensive." The petitioner felt humiliated
and embarrassed in the presence of other students.

The petitioner was humiliated by such comments, as Professor Hong showed an excessive
level of interest in her and seemed to regard her as a woman to whom he was attracted
rather than just a student. She filed a petition requesting that Professor Hong make a
public apology by putting a wall-poster on campus, and that the president of
University take a disciplinary action against Professor Hong, subject him to sexual
harassment prevention training, and come up with measures to guard against possible
recurrences.

Upon investigation, the Commission found that a college professor's mentioning of
sexual matters and making physical contact with his student using his status as a
professor amounted to causing severe sexual humiliation and embarrassment from a
woman's perspective. The Commission thus determined that Hong's actions constituted
sexual harassment as defined in the Commission Act.

In September 2005, the Commission recommended Hong Doe to take special human
rights training held by the Commission, and recommended the president of
University to take stringent measures to provide education on sexual harassment
prevention and establish and implement preventive measures against recurrence of
sexual harassment on campus. In response, Hong Doe took the sexual harassment
prevention class with the Commission and the president instituted a human rights
education program.