On July 26, the UN Committee against Torture issued its Concluding Observations on the sixth periodic report of the Republic of Korea under the UN Convention against Torture. The Committee called on the Republic of Korea to provide remedies to victims of torture with disabilities affected by institutionalisation. In doing so, the Committee took an important step forward in recognising disability institutions as places of detention, reinforcing a similar position recently advanced by the Subcommittee on the Prevention of Torture when issuing its first ever General Comment. 

Prior to the Committee’s review, Validity joined South Korean NGOs to submit a shadow report to the Committee arguing that institutionalisation on the basis of disability should be recognised as amounting to torture per se. 

In the shadow report, titled “Institutionalisation on the Basis of Discrimination,” we highlighted that all forms of institutionalisation, including small group homes and the involuntary detention of persons with psychosocial and intellectual disabilities in psychiatric hospitals, constitutes “torture” due to it being a measure that is imposed on a discriminatory basis. The report also highlighted that the Republic of Korea has been using welfare budgets to expand and renovate small institutions such as group homes, reinforcing the institutionalisation of persons with disabilities and delaying their social inclusion, under the false guise of promoting “deinstitutionalisation”. 

Korean NGOs also submitted a separate report titled “The Right to Redress of the Victims of Past State Violence and Institutionalization,” highlighting that an official apology, truth-telling, punishment of those responsible, and adequate reparations for victims of institutionalisation are the rights of victims and the obligations of States parties to the CAT. 

Kyung-in Park, a survivor of institutionalisation from the Republic of Korea, said during an in-depth interview with the Committee’s Country Rapporteur:  

“I was transferred from a large residential institution to a group home that was called a ‘good institution,’ but I still suffered terrible abuse. When I disclosed this to the outside world, I was labelled a ‘problem child’ and discriminated against, and at the age of twenty, I was forcibly admitted to a psychiatric hospital (…) In the end, my soul was broken. Life in an institution is about holding yourself together every day (…) What we want is something simple. We want to be citizens and live a life of dignity.” 

The efforts of Korean NGOs and Validity appear to have resulted, by one of the first explicit acknowledgements by the Committee against Torture that survivors of disability institutionalisation must have the right to effective redress and a remedy. According to the Concluding Observations, the State party should:   

“Ensure, including by revising domestic legislation, that all victims of past State violence and institutionalization, including those from social care institutions, orphanages and other closed-type institutions, are provided effective redress and reparation, including compensation, satisfaction, and rehabilitative services, without being required to file formal complaints” (Concluding Observations, para 39 (a)).   

The Committee also emphasised the importance of unrestricted access and visits by the National Preventive Mechanism to “all places of deprivation of liberty,” including social care institutions. 

“(The State party should) Further strengthen the (National Human Rights) Commission’s monitoring mandate by granting it access to all places of detention, as well as the authority to carry out unannounced visits to all places of deprivation of liberty, including psychiatric, social care and other closed-type institutions, and to conduct confidential interviews with persons deprived of liberty without witnesses in private” (Concluding observations, para 15 (b)). 

In 2023, Validity submitted a written contribution to the UN Subcommittee on Prevention of Torture (SPT) highlighting the nature and gravity of all disability-specific forms of deprivation of liberty, including institutionalisation. As a result, on 4 July 2024, the SPT published its very first General Comment on Article 4 of the UN Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture (concerning the definition of ‘places of deprivation of liberty’), which closely considered disability-based institutionalisation and detention as defined by the Guidelines on Deinstitutionalization, including in Emergencies, issued by the Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities in 2022. In its General Comment, the SPT affirmed that any place, whether privately or publicly operated, should be recognised as a place of deprivation of liberty if people are temporarily or permanently deprived of their liberty by, or at the instigation or with the consent and/or acquiescence of public authorities. 

Woonyoung Kim, activist at the Korean Disability Forum and research intern at Validity, said:  

“Although the Committee has not directly labelled disability institutionalisation as ‘torture’ per se, given its very forward-thinking inclusion of institutions for persons with disabilities as places of deprivation of liberty, and its explicit call for the right to a remedy for victims of institutionalisation, it should now be accepted that disability-based institutionalisation can amount to ‘torture’ under the Convention against Torture.”  

Sándor Gurbai, Impact Manager of Validity added: 

“Validity is honoured to have contributed and joined the excellent joint submission written by our Korean colleagues. The extension of the redress framework to all persons living in institutions and survivors of institutionalisation by the CAT Committee is an important step that should be implemented by all States. This is a huge victory.