Jo Hee-yeon Appeals to Seoul Metropolitan Council Against Petition to Repeal Student Human Rights Ordinance

Possibility of Submission to Seoul City Council Education Committee on the 12th
"Ordinance Must Remain to Respect Human Rights"

Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, expressed opposition to the ordinance to abolish the Student Human Rights Ordinance currently under discussion at the Seoul Metropolitan Council.

On the afternoon of the 11th, Superintendent Cho issued an appeal stating, "The demand to abolish the Student Human Rights Ordinance has already been judged by the courts and the Constitutional Court to lack reasonable legal, educational, and social grounds," and emphasized, "The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education holds the position that the Student Human Rights Ordinance must be maintained so that Seoul students respect the value of human rights and grow into democratic and global citizens."

Members of the Seoul Metropolitan Council affiliated with the People Power Party plan to submit the ordinance to abolish the Student Human Rights Ordinance at the Education Committee meeting scheduled for the 12th.

Superintendent Cho added, "If the purpose of the Student Human Rights Ordinance, which is to prevent discrimination in educational opportunities, is misunderstood as 'promoting homosexuality,' it would create a contradiction that would require abolishing other laws and ordinances related to human rights as well."

Cho Hee-yeon, Superintendent of the Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, is speaking at the first meeting of the four-party consultative body consisting of ruling and opposition parties, the government, and metropolitan and provincial superintendents of education, held at the National Assembly on the 17th to support legislation for the restoration and protection of teachers' rights. Photo by Kim Hyun-min kimhyun81@

He explained, "The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education is aware of the seriousness of the decline in teachers' authority," and stated, "However, the causes of the decline in teachers' authority are complex, and the issue can only be resolved by simultaneously guaranteeing student human rights and making efforts to newly establish teachers' rightful authority to teach."

He continued, "Abolishing the Student Human Rights Ordinance does not mean abolishing student human rights," and said, "Student human rights are a compass that guides the direction Seoul education should take. Rather than abolition, it is time for the Seoul education community to unite its will so that students can be guaranteed their human rights and grow into dignified citizens."