In September, the film ‘Silenced('Dogani' in Korean)’ released and sent shock waves through the nation.


  This movie has been reconstituted based on a true story of   hearing impaired, young students at Gwangju Inhwa School
who were raped by the principal in 2005. They were not only sexually abused but also physically. They were beaten, died of malnutrition, and involved in a forced labor.
However, the principle and other officials denied their charges and tried to cover their sins up by using their wealth and high social status, making judges and even victims be silenced.
So, the principle only paid the penalty and other teachers who also raped their students were sentenced to 1~2 years in prison. They all returned to the school as if nothing has happened to them and still teach students.

The film brought about a public rage and people started several campaigns and petition in an effort to urge the police to reinvestigate the case. 

Several weeks after the movie was released, the police booked 14 people who were involved in the case in 2005 and a new law ‘Dogani’ was enacted which was named after the movie in order to strengthen the punishment of crimes against disabled people especially young children.

However, what the movie showed is only part of the whole picture. It only showed a part of an abuse of human rights of people with disabilities in South Korea. Since July of 2008, in Kong-ju city, Chungcheong nam-do, a 14 year-old girl with intellectual disability has been sexually assaulted by neighbors for more than 2 years and the criminals were arrested in 2010. Other than this, there have been a lot of sexual crimes against disabled people who need protection from society.

The main reason why so many disabled people become the victims of crimes is due to the society’s negligence and a biased perspective people hold. People normally consider them to be weak and incompetent. This has led some people to commit crimes against people with disabilities.

There are a wide range of social organizations which have been established to protect their rights and uncover any crimes against them.
However, still, many disabled people are assaulted by others. Since July of 2008, in Kong-ju city, Chungcheong nam-do, a 14 year-old girl with intellectual disability has been sexually assaulted by neighbors for more than 2 years and the criminals were arrested in 2010.

Other than this, there have been a lot of sexual crimes against disabled people who need protection from society.

The film ’Silenced’ should be a starting point for people to continuously pay attention to any injustice towards people with disabilities.

 

 

 

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From Oct. 5th to 9th, a special film festival took place. Every year, ‘Fiwom presents a wide variety of movies that reveal women’s rights issues around the world. It was initially held by Korea Women’s Hotline in 2006 and its primary goal is to inform people of the severity of violation of women’s rights and encourage them to pay more attention to women who are suffering from the abuse of human rights in daily life.


There are a number of film festivals for women’s rights other than ‘Fiwom’ such as the International Women’s Film Festival, Women’s film festival in Incheon, and the Network of Asian Women’s Film Festivals (NAWFF), and Samsung International Women’s Film Festival. However, what is special about ‘Fiwom Festival’ was that it offered the audience a great opportunity to communicate with directors and talk about a lot of issues related women’s rights.

Although the scale of ‘Fiwom’ is not that magnificent, it’s a great event for people who have a deep interest in women’s rights. What’s more, even high school students were allowed to make an attempt to submit a movie about the themes the festival assigned and participate as a director. For instance, a young director named ‘Ji-whe Moon’ who is currently attending Korean Animation High School was one of the directors of the film festival.


In addition, 2011 Fiwom had more various international films than previous ones. More directors from different countries participated in and from honor killing in Iran to sexual harassment in the workplace, a broader range of women’s rights issues were included in films.

Several films were based on true stories and social issues.


Let me introduce one of them. The film called ’Paradise’ is about an orphan girl who enters into prostitution in order to make a living and raise her younger brother. This young girl represents a lot of today’s orphans and neglected children who do immoral things for money and get no protection from the society they live in. The fantasy and paradoxical symbols the director used are to remind the audience of hellish reality of orphans. This movie is a must-see since many teenagers do not pay much attention to them but mostly care much more about their grades or academic career.  This film and also other films about various social issues about youth probably motivate a lot of teenagers to pay more attention to those who are in need.


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On Christmas in 2008, two young girls, named Hae Jin Lee (11) and Woo Ye Seul were kidnapped in Anyang city and found dead respectively in a nearby hill and river. According to the police, the criminal was the victims’ neighbor and children were kidnapped when they were wandering around the neighborhood after 6 p. m. Hae Jin Lee’s father said in one interview that he attributes his daughter’s death to their negligence and lack of attention. He mentioned that due to the fact that both parents spend most of their time at work, Hae Jin was almost always left alone at home and this makes her to wander around the neighborhood after school.

 

After the murder, Anyang City has taken several precautions in order to protect young children from heinous crimes. However, the victims’ parents affirm that first and foremost, supporting children who are neglected due to various factors should be a top priority.   

 

Ministry of Health and Welfare has announced that there are 10.3 million neglected children in South Korea. The research conducted by National Child Protection Agency showed that there are 955 cases of childhood neglect from this April to June. The number of neglected children is increasing rapidly from year to year.

 

The main reason for childhood neglect is poverty. Children without parents are in a state of total neglect after school. They do not get proper education and nutrition because they can not afford with a government subsidy.  This impedes their improvement and takes a toll on their emotional state. Those with parents are not exceptions of childhood neglect. Working parents are less likely to provide their children with stable environment and often neglect them. As a result, these neglected children are susceptible to crimes. Without parents’ attention and care, children can be preys for the criminals anytime anywhere.

Not only neglected children can be the victims but also the criminals.

Children who are neglected because of their poverty-stricken family background are liable to go astray.

 


Children who suffer from poverty are more likely to commit crimes and be tempted into wrong ways as revealed in one research.

If children keep being neglected without parents’ love and moral disciplines, they will be the ones who commit crimes in the long run.  

Childhood neglect should no longer be disregarded in current society since it does act as an impetus for the crimes against children.

All those neglected children need is love from their parents or society. There should be no more victims like Hae Jin and Ye Seul.


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