女性差別撤廢協約과 韓國家族法

Abstract

Korea became the state party of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women on 12. 27. 1984. Since then, there have been major changes of the Korean Law. This paper describes the influence of the Convention on the Korean Family Law. The first part of the paper gives an overview of the Convention. In particular, the problem, whether the Convention is an self-executing treaty or not, is addressed. In my opinion, this should be answered in the affirmative. The second part deals with the relation between the change of the Korean Family Law and the Convention. 1. The Korean Family and Inheritance Law was amended in 1990, abolishing major discriminatory provisions against women. Consequently, Korea withdrew the reservation of the Article 16 para. 1 (c), (d), (f) of the Convention. 2. The Korean Nationality Act was amended in 1997 in order to treat men and women equally in getting the nationality of Korea. The main thrust of the reform was to make the Act conform to the Convention. Consequently, Korea withdrew the reservation of the Article 9. 3. The Korean International Private Law was reformed in 2001. As a result, the former husband-oriented provisions regarding the governing law were made gender-neutral. 4. On February 3. 2005. the Korean Constitutional Court declared the master of the family system incompatible with the Constitution. 5. On March 2005, the Korean Family Law was amended, abolishing the master of the family system and permitting the wives to give their surname to their children. But it remains to be seen whether Korea can withdraw the reservation of the Article 16 para. 1 (g). In conclusion, it is fair to say that the Convention Law exerted great influence on the change of the Korean Family Law.