Rights watchdog runs multi-language petition system for foreigners

The state civil rights watchdog has been striving to listen not only to the voices of Korean citizens but also to those of foreign residents so as to help improve their lives here.

Since June 2008, the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission has run a multi-language section on its petition-filing website (www.epeople.go.kr), which enables foreign residents to file petitions in their native languages.

If a country has more than 10,000 residents here, they can use the ACRC petition service in their native tongue.

Currently, petitions can be filed in eight languages ― English, Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Mongolian, Indonesian, Thai and Uzbek.

The service for Uzbek residents began on Sept. 30. It will help enhance communication with and the rights of some 25,000 Uzbeks in Korea as well as some 200,000 ethnic Koreans living in the central Asian country, officials said.

To file a petition with the commission, one can go to the website and click on his or her national flag. The next step is to fill the application form and submit it.

The reply will be given in both the native language and Korean.

“We will more actively promote the petition-filing section at foreign missions and embassies so that more ethnic Koreans and foreigners residing here can use the service,” ACRC chief PR official Kim Dok-man told The Korea Herald.

“We will continue to expand the foreign language service, to which we also seek to add the Bangladesh and Cambodian languages.”

The petition-filing website is a symbol of government endeavors to solicit policy suggestions and hear complaints from both Korean citizens and foreigners in an effort to improve their civil rights and also communication with them.

It is linked to many of the central and provincial government homepages and important public institutions.

By Song Sang-ho  (sshluck@heraldcorp.com)