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Korean minister urges domestic sexual violence legislation
By Chung Ah-young
November 26, 2004
It is high time to punish a husband for having sex with his wife against her
will, Gender Equality Minister Chi Eun-hee said Friday.
Chi expressed her strong opinion in an interview with the Yonhap news agency
that women should have the right to choose whether or not to have sex with her
husband, which is supposed to be a protected and respected act between husband
and wife.
``Sexual violence should not be tolerated in any situation because it is
usually not an isolated incident and usually accompanies other family violence
at home,’’ she said.
She observed that advanced countries such as the U.S. and U.K. have already
adopted the view that sexual assault by the husband at home is a criminal
offence.
``We expect that the recent move to revise the family violence law pushed by
Hong Mi-young, lawmaker of the ruling Uri Party, will hopefully bear fruit
soon,’’ she said.
Chi also emphasized that the patriarchal family registry system, or ``hojuje,’’
which gives legal authority to the male family head, should be abolished,
claiming that the system is not a kind of cases dealt with by the customary
law, as Confucian scholars argue, because it is stipulated in the civil law.
``The current male-dominant family registry system was originally introduced in
the Japanese colonial rule. It is not true, as Confucian scholars who staunchly
oppose the abolition of the system argue, that it dates back thousands of
years,’’ she said.
She explained that an alternative to the male-dominant family registry system
could be replaced for an individual or family registry system family or couple
registry system.
Concerning the anti-prostitution law, Chi said that the violent sexual culture
prevalent in Korea will show a significant change within one year from when the
law went into effect.
``One year for the successful establishment of this law will be very important
as the transitional period for the change,’’ she added.
``I think that the anti-prostitution law has made progress in that it raised
awareness about the sex trade which has been tacitly tolerated as practices but
now regarded as violating the law,’’ she said.
She dismissed the argument that the anti-prostitution law backfires against the
economy because the sexual industry has been dealt a serious blow.
``With the damage to the sex trade-based industry, the amount of an estimated
24 trillion won which had flowed into sex industry caused by corrupt and
indecent sexual trades can be diverted into more productive sectors,’’ she
said.
With regard to licensed prostitution, she said that it is unrealistic, given
the size of the sex industry in Korea including at least 330,000 sex workers,
which is likely to encourage private brothels.
``Licensed prostitution will trigger illegal human trafficking and human rights
violation which are already prevalent in our society,’’ she said.
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