Home | Databases | WorldLII | Search | Feedback National Human Rights Commission of Korea - Complaint Summaries

Recommendation to Protect and Promote Human Rights of Student Athletes [2007] KRNHRC 30 (13 December 2007)

On December 13, 2007, the Commission recommended that the Minister of Education
and Human Resources Development, Minister of Culture and Tourism, Superintendents of
16 cities and provinces, and President of the Korea Sports Council should develop a policy
to protect and promote human rights of student athletes.
In regard to this, the Commission conducted an in-depth review on policies and
institutional framework to improve human rights conditions of student athletes. It held
policy discussion forums, expert policy consultation meetings, and meetings of human
rights policy-makers, based on the Survey of Human Rights Conditions of Student
Athletes. Commission's recommendations include:
(1) measures to prevent student athletes from missing school classes,
(2) improvement of training camp system for student athletes,
(3) introduction of the "Minimum Acceptable Academic Performance Level,"
(4) measures to prevent and eradicate violence against student athletes,
(5) significant improvement of the way the National and Youth Sports Competitions are held.

More specifically, the Commission recommended that standards for daily and weekly
hours of excercise should be developed to prevent student athletes from missing classes,
additional classes should be allocated to student athletes, and official guidelines on sports
competitions should be prepared to prevent sports competitions from being held on a
weekday and to promote sports competitions to be held on weekends or during vacations,
in order to address violations of rights to learning of student athletes, due to missing
classes. In addition, the Commission recommended that measures to abolish training
camps in primary schools should be developed, and training camps in middle and high
schools should be improved based on an on-site survey, in order to solve problems with
training camps for student athletes.

Furthermore, the Commission recommended that "a comprehensive measure to prevent
violence against student athletes and promote human rights of student athletes" should be
developed to improve the qualifications of coaches of student athletes, and that coaches
who commit serious violence and sexual abuses should be subject to legal actions or face
permanent disqualification, in order to prevent and eradicate verbal, physical, and sexual
abuses against student athletes.
Lastly, the Commission noted that school sports policy focusing on nurturing elite
sports players should be changed to address structural causes for violations of human rights
of student athletes. It recommended that the "Minimum Acceptable Academic Performance
Level" should be introduced to define standards for admission to higher schools,
registration of student athletes, and eligibility for competition application. Furthermore, the
Commission recommended that the way the National and Youth Sports Competitions are
held should be significantly improved, because the competitions force even primary school
students to excessively compete.

In 2008, the Commission plans to designate improvement of human rights in sports
including protection of human rights of student athletes as one of its major initiatives. It
will conduct a research on human rights violations in sports including violence and sexual
abuses, provide human rights education to student athletes, coaches, and parents, and
develop measures to improve human rights in sports from a long-term perspective.