Characteristics and Investigation Procedures of Human Right Center Regulations in Universities

As gender sensitivity and human rights awareness improve socially, institutions dealing with human rights have been formed in many areas, and the Higher Education Act 2021 made the establishment of human rights centers in universities mandatory through amendments. However, although the number of human rights centers increased rapidly due to the law's coercion to install, due to the limitations of human and material resources and the lack of related regulations, another problem of formal operation was encountered. This is because even if the legal basis for the establishment of the human rights center is established, it is practically difficult to secure an appropriate budget and personnel for work, and most of the people in charge are working as short-term non-regular workers, so they have structural limitations that make it impossible to design work with a long-term vision and lack of capacity. In addition, the legal problems of the human rights center's work need to be highlighted. First of all, there is a concern that the investigator will become another party to a legal dispute due to the lack of a unified legal foundation, such as the legal nature of the investigation and the legal limitations of the investigation within the center. The operating regulations of the university human rights center are established and operated by universities in the form of school regulations, and the court recognizes the external binding force based on the disposition of procedures according to school regulations as a trial standard, so the regulations must be substantially and procedurally justified First of all, regarding the legal nature of the human rights center investigation, the position of the autonomous norm theory, which guarantees university autonomy and does not distinguish between national and private universities, was considered valid, and it was confirmed that it was recognized as an external effect and as a basis for the trial. In addition, differences in human rights center investigation regulations for each of the five universities and problems were diagnosed. In addition, through in-depth answers from professional investigators at human rights centers by universities on specific issues in the investigation procedure, the uniformity of the investigation procedure was emphasized, and the necessity of a common manual for investigation procedures by universities was emphasized. Human rights are an absolute concept, but all human rights of the participants whose interests as perpetrators and victims are bound to be compatible are considered. Therefore, even if the university's autonomy is ultimately guaranteed, it is considered desirable to first establish exemplary human rights center regulations that anyone can accept and trust through common agreements between universities on the results and investigation procedures of the human rights center, and leave them to the university's autonomy to borrow them.