On 18th January 2020, 1000 members of the Human Rights Association for Victims of Coercive Conversion Programs (HAC) and citizens attended the 2nd anniversary memorial
service for the late Ji-In Gu in Geumnamro Park, Dong District, Gwangju city.
On 9th January 2018, Ms. Gu was asphyxiated to death by her parents in her fight against receiving 'coercive conversion' education from pastors. Following her death, a 120,000-strong rally was hosted in Seoul by HAC - an organisation founded in 2007 to support victims of human rights violations and protect one's freedom of religion - calling on the government to ban coercive conversion, punish pastors and shutdown the Christian Council of Korea (CCK). Rallies were held worldwide in dozens of cities including Washington
D.C. and New York, with publicity from 221 US media channels including ABC, and 25,000 HAC members and citizens gathered outside the CCK's HQ in February 2018. 140,000 people signed a petition to the Blue House (Korean Presidential dwelling) calling for a ban on coercive conversion. At the 41st UN Human Rights Council held in July 2019, the European Council for Freedom of Conscience (CAP-LC) officially issued
a condemnation statement on forced conversion in South Korea. On
July 24th 2019, an open letter to the South Korean President Jae-In Moon, signed by 15 international NGOs including Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF), read, “South Korea may well be the last democratic country in the world
where deprogramming is still tolerated”. The letter urged the president
to “investigate in-depth accusations of forcible deprogramming, put a stop
to this obnoxious practice, and hold those responsible fully
accountable.” In August 2019, at
a ministerial conference at the US State Department building, it was officially
pointed out that Korea is the only democratic country where forced conversion
is tolerated. Later on, in 29th November 2019, 80 legal experts, journalists and civil society
representatives gathered in Seoul to
participate in an human rights seminar entitled 'Intolerance and Discrimination Against New Religious Movements: An International Problem' hosted by Center for Studies on New Religions (CESNUR) and Human Rights Without Frontiers (HRWF) for the protection of religious minorities' rights, with a particular focus on 'coercive
conversion'. Despite international pressure, the Korean government has done nothing to punish pastors, ban coercive conversion or shutdown the CCK. What makes this even more deplorable is the fact that, from 2008-2018, pastors affiliated to the CCK have been found guilty of 12,000 crimes including fraud, burglary, forgery, defamation, drink-driving, arson, sexual assault and murder. All this in a supposedly democratic country where freedom of religion is guaranteed within its Constitution.
It is, therefore, only right that these issues were raised on 18th January 2020. Preceding and following the memorial ceremony in Gwangju, HAC members - the majority who are themselves victims of the coercive conversion programme - held a campaign to inform and educate citizens on the seriousness of the practice through various booths.
Coercive conversion is a practice whereby pastors affiliated to the CCK, desiring power and money, deceive families into believing that their loved one has joined a cult. Upon the pastor's counsel, the family feeds their loved ones sleeping pills, drags them to a secluded location, robs them of their phones, confines them in handcuffs and subjects them to physical and psychological abuse until they renounce their beliefs and consent to receiving Presbyterian ‘conversion education’. Because pastors label this programme 'counselling', they mask their true intent for financial profit and evade the law, thereby bringing legal punishment on deceived family members. In Ms. Gu's case, it was the parents who were held fully responsible for their child's death.
According to an HAC report, the total number of coercive conversion victims from 2001-2019 was 1534, including assault (861), forced 'conversion education' therapy (1280), forced absence from school or work (1338), divorce (43), forced admission into mental wards (43) and deaths (2).
At the memorial ceremony, Mr. Kye-hwang Jang, chairman of the Historical Territorial Foundation of Korea, said, “Free will granted by God to
human beings, and the freedom of human rights granted by the state to the people, are the rights of individuals that no one can infringe upon. Nevertheless, the life of Ms. Ji-In Gu was tragically taken. One's God-given freedom of religion was abused and human rights ruthlessly trampled on as they remain unprotected by the state." One college student in her twenties said, “I'm shocked that peoples' human rights have been abused to the extent that someone died in Gwangju - host of the World Human Rights Cities Forum. I
hope that our country and all its citizens will continue to speak out so that such a tragedy
will never recur.”
Coercive conversion is a criminal practice implemented by a criminal organisation that disguises itself behind the veil of religion. As this article goes out to print on 21st January 2020, dozens of people throughout South Korea are suffering silently, confined against their will in remote locations, for refusing to renounce their religious beliefs. Please help raise awareness.
News Articles (Korean)
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