Over half of Koreans associate human rights with wealth

More than half of Koreans think the more wealth you have, the more human rights you can enjoy, a survey showed Tuesday.

While people in a better financial situation and with a higher educational background believe that the nation’s human rights situation has improved, those in the lower income bracket and with a lower level of education believe the opposite.

According to a survey of 14,525 adults conducted by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea in August last year, 52.5 percent of respondents picked people in the low income bracket as the group most vulnerable to human rights violations and discrimination.

The rate was higher than that of disabled people at 50.1 percent — a group traditionally considered a social minority — and those of people with a lower educational background at 28.9 percent and women, 26.7 percent. The survey allowed for multiple answers.

Nearly 30 percent of respondents said they had experienced discrimination directly in the past year. Thirteen percent of them said they were discriminated against because of their low economic status, such as their job condition or income level.

The second-largest cause for discrimination was age, at 12.9 percent, which was followed by gender, at 11.8 percent. How respondents evaluated the nation’s human rights situation also differed greatly depending on their socio-economic status.

More than half of those in the high-income group, with a monthly income from 7 million won ($6,180) to 10 million won ($8,830) responded that the human rights situation here has improved, but less than 30 percent of the low-income group, whose monthly income was lower than 2 million won, had the same view.

Around 43 percent of respondents with a master’s degree or higher level academic degree evaluated the human rights situation positively, but only 28.2 percent of respondents with a middle school or lower educational background, and 36 percent of those with a high school diploma viewed the human rights situation positively.

The lower people’s income level was, the less they knew about how to deal with human rights violations, the survey showed.

Among people with less than 1 million won ($883) in monthly household income, 12 percent said they had absolutely no idea on how to respond if their human rights were violated, or if they were discriminated against.