Immediate investigation when reporting child abuse…’Jeong In Lee Law’ crossed the threshold of the National Assembly

The’Jung In-yi Prevention Act’ to prevent the recurrence of the case of’Jung In-i’, who died 16 months after birth due to abuse of adoptive parents, crossed the threshold of the National Assembly on the 8th.

◇ Investigation is initiated immediately when reporting child abuse =The’Amendment to the Special Cases Act on Penalty of Child Abuse Crimes, etc.’ (Child Abuse Penalty Act) handled at the plenary session of the National Assembly on that afternoon. The main point is to establish a new mandatory provision for an investigation. This is a supplementary measure against the indictment that the police terminated the internal affairs or dismissed them without suspicion even after receiving reports of suspected abuse three times before Jung In-i’s death. However, this provision applies from one year after the promulgation to prepare for the enforcement of the law, unlike other provisions that take effect immediately after promulgation.

In addition, the police and dedicated public officials have newly created a provision that requires investigations in a separate place from child abusers so that victims, reporters, and witnesses can freely state. In addition, the time for emergency measures for police and dedicated public officials to deliver suspected abused children to shelters or to isolate them from parents was increased from 3 days to a maximum of 5 days, and in case of emergency measures, child abusers may enter the residence or car. . In addition, information such as the mutual notification of the results of the field investigation between the investigative agency and the local government and the addition of the police to the subject of child abuse education were included. The upper limit of fines for interfering with child abuse-related work has also been increased from 15 million won to 50 million won.

In addition, the passage of amendments to the Civil Law also eliminated the’disciplinary right of children’ that existed for 63 years after the enactment of the Civil Law (1958). This means that the act of beating a child against a child because it is a ‘love hawk’ is no longer legally protected.

◇“You should stop this law” → “Thank you for missing the toxin clause” =Initially, criticism was raised that the law against Jeong In-i was a “promotional bill.” However, it is evaluated that some toxin provisions disappeared as the ruling and opposition parties went through the discussion. Kim Ye-won, a lawyer at the Disabled Rights Law Center, who appealed to the National Assembly when a related bill was erupted, “Jung-in ask for a stop to the prevention law” (6th) and “Jungin’s face is not worth publicizing” (7th) On Facebook, “(some of the bill) toxins are missing. I am so grateful that I stopped at this level.”

A representative article that was omitted in the course of discussions in the National Assembly is the reinforcement of the sentence for child abusers. On the 7th, the inside of the Democratic Party’s lawmaker Roh Woong-rae, who was entrusted to the judiciary committee, included a content that doubled the sentence of the abuser (5 years → 10 years in prison) if a child died from abuse. However, it was not reflected in the final draft. Rep. Baek Hye-ryeon, the same chairman of the subcommittee of the bill, said, “There were many opinions that there was a need to consider strengthening punishment.” In addition, contents such as’immediate separation of child and abuser when reporting of child abuse more than twice a year’ and’reinforcement of penalties in case of violation of duty of emergency measures by investigative agencies’ were also omitted. However, additional legislation is needed to expand the budget and manpower necessary for the smooth implementation of the law, so the possibility of remaining as a countermeasure in the’half position’ cannot be excluded.

◇Severe disaster law passedIn the plenary session, a bill on the punishment of serious disasters (Severe Disaster Act) was also passed. It is the content of criminal disposition of business managers, such as the CEO, when a worker or a user of the workplace dies due to a workplace accident. The level of punishment for managers in charge is imprisonment for more than one year or fines of not more than 1 billion won, and corporations and institutions can be fined less than 5 billion won. The law will be applied from the beginning of next year for workplaces with 50 or more employees and from 2024 for less than 50 employees. Workplaces with fewer than 5 employees were excluded from the application because of the protection of small business owners.

Reporter Kim Jun-young [email protected]