Stop the massive violations of human rights and religious freedom in South Korea!

People infected with COVID-19 are not criminals, but victims of the global pandemic! South Korea is the only country in the world, to place a religious community under investigation after the COVID-19 outbreak, turning it into a national scapegoat.

After the outbreak of the COVID 19 virus in South Korea, no substantial measures were put into place. From patient 1 to patient 30, measures solely consisted of minor quarantine regulations. After 30 cases had been registered in South Korea, borders to China remained open even allowing Chinese schools to go on excursions to Daegu.

In February 2020 patient number 31 emerged, triggering a large outbreak within a Christian community in Daegu, South Korea. Authorities scrambled to take action, but apparently too late. Concurrently the stigmatization, defamation and criminalization of this community had begun being further perpetuated by the media.

However, the responsibility of protecting the population lies within the tasks of the government and in the wake of the electoral campaign in April 2020, the opposition legitimately criticized the government for its inadequate management of the health crisis.

In order to hide their errors and corroborate their position, the governing coalition used the community as scapegoat through help of the scaremongering media.

Subsequently a petition demanding President Moon’s ouster, supported by more than 1.4 million people by March the 5th, was replaced by a petition demanding the closure of the religious community which was supported by a similar number of people.

Many individuals have suffered severely by manner the government had handled the situation. It has even claimed lives since those connected to the religious community have since then, been subjected to persecution and exclusion. Several leaders of this religious community have been incarcerated. While they have been prohibited to gather at all, many other religious communities have been permitted to attend church services again.

The United States Commission for International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) has also become aware of the unreasonable accusations and has urged the South Korean government to condemn scapegoating and respect religious freedom as it responds to the outbreak.