Human Rights Commission: "Forcing University Students to Take Religious Courses Violates Freedom of Religion"

The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) has ruled that forcing students to take religious courses at universities constitutes a violation of religious freedom.

On the 24th, the NHRCK announced, "On the 17th of last month, we recommended to the president of University A to prepare measures such as adding alternative courses or assigning alternative tasks for religious courses to ensure that the religious freedom of affiliated students is not infringed."

The petitioner is a non-Christian department student at University A who filed a complaint, arguing that University A forces all students in non-Christian departments to take two types of religious courses and makes graduation impossible without completing them, which infringes on students' religious freedom.

The NHRCK's Committee on the Rights of the Child found an issue with one of the two religious courses. The NHRCK stated, "It is difficult to see that the course delivers universal facts and characteristics of various religions without bias toward a specific religion in its educational content and evaluation methods," adding, "It is not universal religious instruction but rather sectarian education aimed at propagating a particular religion."

The NHRCK further stated, "University A sets the completion of religious courses, which can be regarded as sectarian education, as a mandatory graduation requirement, yet does not recognize students' right to refuse nor provides any alternative courses or assignments," and declared, "This infringes on the passive religious freedom and the freedom of passive religious confession (freedom of non-belief) of non-religious students guaranteed by the Constitution and international human rights standards."