Newsnomics AJAY ANGELINA reporter |

The 1st meeting of ‘Ministry of Justice Women and Children Policy Deliberation Committee 2024’ was held by the Ministry of Justice at the conference room of Justice Ministry in the Gwacheon Government Complex on Wednesday, March 27, 2024.

The executive body of ‘Women and Children Policy Deliberation Committee’ was established in October 2005 in order to establish women and children’s policies.

The Ministry of Justice has appointed 9 new members including victim public defenders and statement assistants for further policy establishments.

“We had extensive discussions on two agenda items: ‘Performance and improvement plan of the system’ and ‘Progress of enactment and revision of the ‘Stalking Punishment Act’ related to online stalking and future direction for improvement” said the Ministry of Justice.

According to the Ministry of Justice, 604 public defenders for victims and 180 testimony assistants are currently active for the support of victims, working through the Achievements and improvement plans for the victims since the introduction of the system in 2013. 

According to the Ministry of Justice, the scope of support, including damage, has expanded, and performance* has also increased accordingly for crime victims include sexual violence, child abuse, human trafficking, and crime victims of the disabled.

“We have discussed the ways to strengthen expertise by expanding the scope of support in the future and improve treatment in line with expertise” the Ministry said in a statement..

*There is a record of Victim public defender: 8,064 (2013) cases → 37,150 (2023) cases and Statement assistant: 386 (2014) cases → 4,231 (2023) cases.

In regard to the enactment and revision of the ‘Stalking Punishment Act’ related to online stalking and future improvement directions the Ministry of justice agreed with concerns that the existing temporary measures are insufficient to protect victims, so it is necessary to improve the system to reflect the characteristics of online stalking to effectively prevent recidivism and secondary damage and strengthen legal support for victims despite the revision of the law.

On September 2022, the stalking revenge murder case occurred at Sindang Station resulted in the revision of the “Stalking Punishment Act”in July 2023 to include new types of online stalking and abolition of the crime of impunity for dissent.

Park Seong-jae, Minister of Justice said, “the Ministry of Justice will continue to strictly investigate crimes against socially disadvantaged people for the sake of ‘fair and warm rule of law administration,’ and will do its best to strengthen protection and support for crime victims, by guaranteeing their rights in criminal procedures.”

“We will do our best to strengthen it,” he added.

The Ministry of Justice will continually strive to establish effective policies to further protect the socially vulnerable.