KWDI Korean Women’s Development Institute

The purpose of this study is to suggest the framework act (bill) on the prevention of violence against women based on the examination of relevant laws, legislative examples of foreign nations, and opinions of experts, with a view to convert the current legal system where relevant laws on violence against women, the act on the protection of victims of domestic violence, the act on the protection of victims of sexual violence, and the act on the protection of victims of sexual traffic, are operated independently into the system of framework act related to violence against women.

Although the acts on the prevention of domestic violence, sexual violence, and sexual traffic provide rules and regulations from a neutral standpoint, given that most of the victims are women, the goal of relevant policies is to support female victims. However, with the whole amendment of the ？Framework Act on Women’s Development？ into the ？Framework Act on Gender Equality？ in 2014, the national perception of gender-equal support of victims of violence is building. Violence against women is a violation of human rights against women that happens due to the imbalance of strength between men and women, and currently this is the dominant type of incidents related to domestic violence, sexual violence, and sexual traffic. If, under the present situation, such policies that support male victims start being enforced or expanded, there is a possibility that the policies supporting female victims might be reduced or weakened. To prevent the occurrence of such a phenomenon, it is opportune to have discussions on the framework act that will protect and support female victims in the future.

Besides, those cases where services offered under individual acts on the protection of victims of domestic violence, sexual violence, and sexual traffic are similar, or those cases where laws and their actual enforcement do not coincide with each other (the emergency call center 1366, for an instance) can be discovered and prescribed in the framework act.

The contents of the study includes the examination of the concept of violence against women, the laws and policies relevant to protection and support of female victims of violence, and analysis of legislative examples of the United Kingdom and the U.S. And based on the results of the study, measures on legislative adjustment were suggested through the conference of experts and the Delphi survey.

Employed research methods include the review of literature, examination of legislative examples of foreign nations, conference of experts, and Delphi survey.

Basic aims of legislative adjustment were set as follows: making a rational complementation in the policies concerning protection and support of female victims of violence, which has become necessary due to the legislative shift from the policy for women to the policy pursuing gender equality, resolving disagreement between legislation and enforced policies, integrating the laws and regulations in individual acts providing similar services, and introducing new institutions required to protect and support female victims of violence. Thereafter, the framework act (bill) on the prevention of violence against women, reflecting above mentioned contents, was suggested.