Discrimination on the Rise

An increasing number of racial, ethnic, and religious discrimination cases are being reported to the National Human Rights Commission. The NHRC said petitions filed every year against discrimination based on nationality, race, religion, and ethnicity have doubled over the past five years, from 32 in 2005 to 64 in 2010.

Between its establishment in November 2001 and May this year, the NHRC fielded 213 petitions against discrimination based on nationality, 103 based on religion, 50 based on race, 10 on ethnicity, and seven based on skin color.

"Discrimination against foreigners persists even though there are now 1.3 million foreigners living in Korea," an NHRC spokesman said. "Discrimination on the grounds of nationality, race, religion, ethnicity and skin color is a blatant violation of the right to equality."