“Non-profit organizations should be able to be recognized as a corporate body by filing a report to government, rather than having to receive permission from the government,” she said.

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he government rejected South Korea’s first gender minority organization Beyond the Rainbow’s request to incorporate as a non-profit organisation, officials said Tuesday.

Beyond the Rainbow argued that by rejecting their application, the government is discriminating against gender minorities.

Beyond the Rainbow’s spokeswoman said that it is unconstitutional for a government to have the right to grant or deny permission to establish a corporate body because the government can decide to refuse some organizations based on their causes.

“Non-profit organizations should be able to be recognized as a corporate body by filing a report to government, rather than having to receive permission from the government,” she said.

The gender minority rights organization approached the Seoul City Government, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea and the Ministry of Justice between January 2014 to January 2015 but was rejected by all.

Beyond the Rainbow’s spokeswoman said that the organization first approached the Seoul City Government’s Welfare Policy department but it rejected the request as the organization’s purpose “goes against traditional values.”

The department’s spokesperson told The Korea Observer that it never said such words to the organization.

“We told them that they need to go to the Human Rights department to receive permission and that the Human Rights department will review their case,” the spokesperson said.

“Non-profit organizations should be able to be recognized as a corporate body by filing a report to government, rather than having to receive permission from the government”

The spokeswoman at Beyond the Rainbow told The Korea Observer that an official from the department did initially say that it “goes against traditional values” but later changed their words and said that they could not help because the department is not in charge of managing civil rights organizations.

“So after that, we approached the Human Rights department at the Seoul City government,” Beyond the Rainbow’s spokeswoman said. “They told us that they do not have the right to grant permission for incorporation and said that we should bring our application to the National Human Rights Commission.”

Then the gender minority rights organization approached the National Human Rights Commission but heard back that the review of the organization’s application will take more than a year, and even after that, the standing committee will turn down their application for sure so it is better not to try.

The Commission’s spokesperson said they did tell the organization that the review process takes a long time but never discouraged them from submitting their application.

W

hen asked how long the application process takes in general, the Commission’s spokesman said it differs from case to case and that discussing the average amount of time it takes for an application to pass is pointless.

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice confirmed with The Korea Observer that they did reject Beyond the Rainbow’s request for incorporation permission on the ground that the Ministry serves for “universal human rights.” Therefore, the Ministry cannot approve of an organization that seeks to promote rights for only a specific group of people.

At the moment, Beyond the Rainbow is preparing to take legal actions to protest against the rejection from the governmental organizations.

Under the current law, non-profit organizations can receive permission from government to become a corporate entity.

Once becoming a corporate entity, non-profit organizations can manage their budgets in a more transparent manner with governmental supervision. Donors can then also receive tax benefits.