2018.03.19 17:52
Kim Ye-won, a 36-year-old lawyer and founder of the Disability Rights Law Center, has been selected as the first recipient of the Kwak Jeong-sook Human Rights Award. The prize was created to honor the legacy of the late lawmaker and disability rights activist Kwak Jeong-sook, who lived with a spinal cord injury, led the Korean Women with Disabilities Union, and served as a proportional representative in the National Assembly for the Democratic Labor Party.

Kim’s legal career and advocacy work were cited in the selection. A graduate of Chuncheon High School and Gangwon National University Law School, she passed the bar in 2009 and worked at the Dongcheon public interest foundation affiliated with the law firm Bae, Kim & Lee. There she helped secure a landmark Supreme Court ruling recognizing that damage to a prosthetic leg used by a disabled worker can qualify as a work-related injury. Kim later worked at the Seoul Disability Rights Center and in 2017 established a nonprofit law office dedicated exclusively to representing victims of disability rights violations.

Responding to the award, Kim said she views it not as recognition of past work but as encouragement to continue. The award ceremony will be held on the 20th alongside a memorial event marking the second anniversary of Kwak Jeong-sook’s passing, in Gwangju’s Seo-gu at the Gwangju Citizen Media Center.

Original source: ‘제1회 곽정숙 인권상’에 장애인권법센터 김예원 변호사 선정 – 법률신문 (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)