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More Than Words: Legal Professional Activism and the Prevention of Torture in South Korea
- Human Rights Quarterly
- Johns Hopkins University Press
- Volume 41, Number 3, August 2019
- pp. 646-671
- 10.1353/hrq.2019.0047
- Article
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ABSTRACT:
Past studies have identified the spread of international human rights norms and waves of democratization as two major forces that facilitate human rights protection. Less well-known is the process of how legal professionals exploit these macro-level opportunities to promote human rights in new democracies. In this study of torture in South Korea, I show that the practice of torture disappeared only through the efforts of lawyers and judges to establish the rule of law. Specifically, I identify three reforms that enhanced accountability of state agencies: judicial independence, lawyers' participation in criminal proceedings and the establishment of the Human Rights Commission.