대학 인권센터의 의의와 과제

Since 2012, human rights centers in universities have been established in Korea. In particular, in mid-2010, human rights abuse of graduate students became an object of public concerns and the human rights commission of Korea recommended universities to establish human rights centers in universities. Therefore we saw the proliferation of human rights centers in universities. To discuss these phenomenon, this article addresses the reason why human rights centers are needed in universities. Universities are vulnerable to human rights abuse because of power inequalities between professors and students. On the other hand universities have potential to raise human rights issues. To make centers work properly, as other human rights centers do, the centers should have 1) investigation function, 2) advisory function, and 3) educational function. In addition, they should have fundamental elements of 1) norms, 2) independence, 3) accessibility, 4) jurisdiction and proper authority, 5) efficiency, 6) accountability. However most of human rights centers in universities do not have enough materials and manpower human resources and fail to develop human rights policies and practices dedicated to universities. The government, local authorities and human rights commission of Korea should assist human rights centers in universities and cooperation between centers is need to address lots of problems in universities.