20 July 2015 Individual Complaint to - The Special Rapporteur on the Situation of Human Rights Defenders - The Special Rapporteur on the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association - The Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression Name of Defender: Mr. Lae-goon PARK Country: Republic of Korea Incident / Violation: Human rights defender is detained since 17 July 2015 due to his participation to protests related to the Sewol ferry incident, which happened on 16 April 2014 where 304 people died. Date of Fact Sheet: 20 July 2015 A. Essential Information 1. Alleged Victim Name: Mr. Lae-goon Park Nationality: Republic of Korea Age: 53 Occupation: Human rights defender / Co-standing steering committee member of the 4.16 Coalition on the Sewol Ferry Disaster, Co-steering committee member of the People’s Committee for the Sewol Ferry Tragedy
B. Useful Information Coalition 416 on the Sewol Ferry Disaster (established on 18 March 2015) Almost one year after the Sewol ferry tragedy, three parties (Sewol families, People’s Committee for the Sewol Ferry Tragedy, and individual supporters) established the “Coalition 4.16 on the Sewol Ferry Disaster (Coalition 4.16)”. The Coalition 4.16 has three standing steering committee members, one each from each group and Mr. Park was one of them. Since then, most activities including protests have been organized under the Coalition 4.16’s name to show that families, civil society organisations, and individual supporters are jointly working towards truth of the Sewol ferry incident. (Website: 416act.net – This is currently in Korean only but we will soon open English site.) People’s Committee for the Sewol Ferry Tragedy (established on 22 May
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