A/HRC/32/36/Add.2 9. The Republic of Korea emerged from the Korean War in the 1950s devastated and impoverished, but has made tremendous strides in developing practically every facet of national life. From a per capita income that compared with the poorer countries of Africa and Asia in the 1960s, the economy has grown rapidly and in 2004 the country joined the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. It ranked 17th out of 188 countries in the human development index in 2014, although that is somewhat compromised by the relatively high level of inequality in the distribution of human development across the country. It received close to the best rankings in an assessment of freedom and civil and political rights in 2015. 1 The Special Rapporteur commends the people and the Government of the Republic of Korea for those impressive achievements, of which they should rightly be proud. 10. Civil Society in the Republic of Korea is diverse, motivated, energetic and vocal on a broad range of issues affecting society. The tradition of people coming together peacefully and taking to the streets or halls of power to speak their minds and effect change is inspiring and worthy of emulation elsewhere. In the Special Rapporteur’s view, such a vibrant civil society sector should continue to be encouraged and facilitated because it bodes well for the country’s progress. The Government should look beyond the sometimes noisy and boisterous assemblies and focus on the expression of the needs and aspirations of the people as both a barometer of social tensions and a peaceful avenue for their release. Supressing opportunities for this mode of expression only opens up a less desirable avenue, one of violent resistance, an eventuality that would undermine everything that the country has achieved to date. III. International legal framework 11. The Republic of Korea is party to nearly all key United Nations human rights instruments except the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families and the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance.2 The State maintains its reservation to article 22 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, by which it makes its compliance with the provision subject to local laws. In its general comment No. 24 (1994) on issues relating to reservations made upon ratification or accession to the Covenant or the Optional Protocols thereto, or in relation to declarations under article 41 of the Covenant, the Human Rights Committee stated that reservations should not “seek to remove an autonomous meaning to Covenant obligations, by pronouncing them to be identical, or to be accepted only insofar as they are identical, with existing provisions of domestic law.” States are required to ensure that their domestic laws conform to the international standards they ratify, not the other way around. 12. Although it has been a member of the International Labour Organization (ILO) since 1991, the Republic of Korea has not ratified two key conventions: the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87) and the the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98). The Special 1 2 4 Freedom House ranks the Republic of Korea as free in its Freedom in the World index, available from https://freedomhouse.org/report/freedom-world/2015/south-korea. South Korea has yet to ratify several key optional protocols, including those to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights aiming at the abolition of the death penalty and to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment and the optional protocols on individual communications procedures to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.