A/HRC/29/46/Add.1 I. Introduction 1. At the invitation of the Government, the Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance visited the Republic of Korea from 29 September to 6 October 2014. 2. The Special Rapporteur travelled to the capital city, Seoul, as well as Sejong City, Busan, Changwon and Ansan. He met with representatives from the Government at the national level, the judiciary, the prosecution services and the Korea Broadcasting Cooperation. Regrettably, the Special Rapporteur did not meet with any ministers, although he had requested meetings at that level. 3. In addition to meeting with representatives of Government and State institutions, the Special Rapporteur met with representatives of the National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK), United Nations agencies, non-governmental organizations, and community members and other groups and individuals working in the field of racism, as well as migrant workers and asylum seekers. 4. The Special Rapporteur wishes to express his sincere gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Korea for its cooperation in the conduct of the visit. He is grateful to the different State agencies for their cooperation. He is also indebted to the United Nations entities and to his interlocutors from civil society for the excellent cooperation they extended to him throughout the visit. He hopes his conclusions and recommendations will contribute to finding concrete ways and means of addressing the challenges raised in the present report in an effective and human rights-compliant manner. II. General background 5. The Republic of Korea was proclaimed in August 1948, after the end of the Second World War, and peace agreements left the country divided from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea by drawing a line along the thirty-eighth parallel in the Korean peninsula. The country received United Nations support after it was invaded by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea two years later. The Korean War ended in 1953 without a peace agreement, leaving the Republic of Korea technically at war with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea for more than 50 years. 6. After a long period of authoritarian regimes, the country went through a democratization process in the late 1980s. At that time, the political situation was marked by significant, large-scale and occasionally violent pro-democracy protests that opposed the country’s long-standing authoritarian rule. As a result of those protests, the authoritarian establishment saw its position weakened, and that weakness was seized upon by opposition leaders demanding democratic reforms. In June 1987, the ruling party’s presidential candidate proposed a far-reaching democratization plan that accepted all the opposition’s key demands. The Constitution was approved by popular referendum and formally adopted on 29 October 1987. 7. Since then, the Republic of Korea has been a key player in the region. It is a member of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Group of 20. However, since the end of the Korean War in 1953, the strained relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea have played an important role in shaping the legal, political and institutional framework of the country. The Cheonan incident in 2010 and the nuclear test conducted by the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea in early 2013 are examples of the latest tensions between the two neighbours. More recently, the tragic accident of the Sewol ferry, which led to the deaths of more than 300 persons, mostly high3