Human Rights Association for Victims of Coercive Conversion Programs (HAC) speaks out against coercive conversion

Human Rights Association for Victims of Coercive Conversion Programs (HAC) is an organisation that supports victims whose civil rights have been violated and works to protect their freedom of religion. It was established in August 2007 in response to the plea of seven victims. Its purpose is to bring illegal coercive conversion programmes to a halt and aims to raise awareness of the ongoing violation of civil rights committed by pastors of the Protestant denominations in the Republic of Korea to the rest of the world. It is also striving to bring news of this injustice to the national government.

Following the death of Ms. Gu, who was asphyxiated to death in her attempt to escape her parents and coercive conversion pastors on 9^th January 2018, a 120,000-strong rally and campaign took place in Seoul, Korea, triggering a wave of similar protests in 23 cities in 15 countries. One such rally was held by HAC in Melbourne, Australia, as supporters gathered in protest for a ban on coercive conversion programmes and enforcement of legal punishment for coercive conversion pastors, who belong predominantly to the Christian Council of Korea (CCK).

The following are the words spoken by the HAC presider at this rally (video link provided below):

“Forced conversion is a clear violation of universal rights for the freedom of religion. These programmes are held by forced conversion pastors who use violence to make people change their religious beliefs. They kidnap, confine and subject victims to violence to try to force them to give up their beliefs. This is wrong. The freedom of religion is a basic human right, and the right of every individual should be protected and their choice respected. It doesn’t matter what your religious beliefs are. Discrimination on grounds of one’s belief is bad enough, but being forced to convert by being physically beaten, bloodied, bruised and stripped of one's dignity is so foul. Enough is enough. Together, with one heart, we must expose these pastors for what they are doing." He concluded, "We want to stop anyone else from being hurt by these wolves in sheep’s clothing. Together, let’s let the world know of their evil acts.”

20,796 people have now commemorated Ms. Gu's death on a commemorative website set up in her memory since her death (weblink provided below). It contains a letter that Ms. Gu had written to the then president of South Korea after her initial escape from a Catholic monastery in July 2016 where she had been held captive for a period of 44 days receiving forced conversion education by these pastors. Within this letter, she pled for a ban to the practice and punishment for these pastors. Her plea was ignored.

As the press within South Korea has largely remained silent on her death as police reports passed off her death as a “family and religious matter”, it was foreign media that spread her news to people around the world. The first major foreign publication occurred on 27^th November 2018 in the New York Times which published a full one-page advertisement entitled “Ban Coercive Conversion.” This was immediately followed by a publication in the UK newspaper, ‘The Enquirer’, with an article entitled “Coercive Conversion Programmes" (link provided below).

Although 33 media worldwide have now published Ms. Gu’s death, more publicity needs to be made. Since her death, there have been 137 confirmed victims of coercive conversion this year. This practice goes far beyond violation of one’s “religious freedoms”. In the words of one such victim, “I lived my daily life bound with handcuffs on. I even needed to urinate and defecate in front of my father watching me. It was very shameful.” Today, human rights are violated behind the guise of religion in the supposedly democratic and constitutional South Korea. 

Please help spread news of this practice to prevent anyone else falling victim to such injustice. Thank you.

Human Rights Association for Victims of Coercive Conversion Programs (HAC) official English website

http://endcoerciveconversion.org/

HAC rally in Melbourne, Australia

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI1slxLIeaQ

"Coercive Conversion Programmes" (The Enquirer)

https://www.theenquirer.co.uk/coercive-conversion-programmes/?fbclid=IwAR3GYlrEFSA210J3mOdM4B1opr3Odj6qa28dVCFslN1oFGtmr8cw-DWduOw