| The National Human Rights Commission /Korea Times file |
The state human rights watchdog has submitted an opinion expressing the unconstitutionality of the military criminal code that punishes homosexuality in the military, officials said Thursday.
The military criminal act, revised in 1962, prohibits same-sex relationships among military personnel, who are mostly male. The article states a maximum jail sentence of two years for "anal intercourse" and "indecent acts" between servicemen.
The controversial act is currently under review in the Constitutional Court after the filing of 12 petitions against it.
The National Human Rights Commission said it has delivered the conclusion to the Constitutional Court, saying that the current code infringes upon gay soldiers' rights to equality, privacy and to choose sexual preferences.
The commission also said the clause uses abstract and ambiguous words without specifically prescribing elements of the crime, which goes against the principle of the criminal law in which crimes must be defined with appropriate certainty and definiteness.
The watchdog submitted similar opinion on the issue to the Constitutional Court in 2010. (Yonhap)