2018-08-14 11:40:06
Kim Ye-won is a human-rights lawyer and disability-rights advocate who argues that separation, not lofty laws, drives discrimination. Drawing on her own experience of losing sight in one eye and attending mainstream schools, she emphasizes that true integration comes from everyday shared experiences—especially in early childhood education—rather than building more segregated institutions. She links this view to the broader principle that exclusion begins with separation, referencing historic desegregation precedents to stress why mixed environments matter for changing attitudes.
Professionally, Kim combined public-interest commitment with strategic legal advocacy. A graduate of the Judicial Research and Training Institute (class 41), she helped seed a public-interest legal fund with fellow trainees and worked at the Dongcheon foundation, the Seoul Disability Human Rights Center, and then founded the Disability Rights Law Center. Her legal wins include persuading the courts to treat a damaged prosthetic as a work-related injury, and she has been recognized with the Seoul welfare award and the inaugural Kwak Jeong-sook Human Rights Award for her work defending disabled workers, migrants and other marginalized groups.
Beyond courtroom victories, Kim highlights persistent practical barriers: classification systems that push students into special schools, long commutes to segregated facilities, and social isolation that leaves vulnerable people without everyday “ties” to others. She advocates for small, implementable changes—such as shared mealtimes and mixed classroom settings—to build empathy and connection from childhood. Balancing her legal work with being a mother of three, Kim stresses a pragmatic long-term commitment to remain in public-interest work and ensure laws are translated into lived inclusion.
Original source: [법조 이사람-김예원 변호사]“장애인 분리금지에도 현실은 따로성장 거창한 법보다 함께 교육받는게 중요” (Source: the news outlet; please refer to the original article.)
