32 Domestic Violence Protection Bills Left Stalled in the National Assembly

Every time a domestic violence tragedy occurs, the National Assembly has promised countermeasures, yet the number of related protection bills pending in parliament has reached 32. Critics point out that bills repeatedly proposed to strengthen the isolation and protection of victims have been left unattended without ever being processed.

Legislative Discussions Repeated After Every Tragedy

According to Yonhap News, prompted by a string of domestic violence tragedies, police are reviewing measures to strengthen the isolation of perpetrators and the protection of victims. However, domestic violence protection bills pending in the National Assembly number 32 and have gone unprocessed for years. Although national investigations and bill proposals were discussed each time an incident occurred, many were never even reviewed, citing disagreements between ruling and opposition parties or political schedules.

The current Act on the Punishment of Domestic Violence includes victim protection mechanisms such as provisional measures and restraining orders, but problems with protection gaps after judicial processing and limitations in responding to emergencies have repeatedly been raised. The proposed bills are known to focus on expanding electronic ankle monitoring of perpetrators, strengthening penalties for violating restraining orders, and expanding victim protection facilities.

Why the Bills Stalled

Behind the neglect of 32 bills lies the issue of legislative priorities. In the National Assembly's relevant standing committees, such as the Legislation and Judiciary Committee and the Committee on Gender Equality and Family, domestic violence bills failed to make the agenda, pushed aside by politically contentious bills. Analysts note that as the Assembly's main agenda in 2026 has focused on political and judicial issues such as special prosecutors and impeachment, the room for reviewing public safety legislation has shrunk even further.

Domestic violence incidents have followed a pattern in which public demand for countermeasures surges immediately after an incident, only to fade with time. The legislative process, caught up in these cycles of public attention, has also failed to gain momentum after proposals, with many bills ending up on the verge of expiration. Re-proposals often simply repeat the same content, resulting in no substantive progress, critics say.

Could the Tragedies Have Been Prevented?

It is known that in many of the recent tragedy cases, the perpetrators had previously been subject to protective measures. Experts have pointed out that incident prevention is impossible unless provisional measures such as restraining orders work effectively, and that a system for monitoring compliance with isolation measures and responding immediately to violations should be codified into law, rather than focusing on harsher punishment.

Police measures to strengthen perpetrator isolation under review also inevitably face limits without a legal basis. Administrative-level responses leave post-hoc accountability unclear, and the legal community broadly agrees that effective protection is difficult without legislative backing.

Outlook for the Legislative Process

For a bill to pass in the National Assembly, it must go through standing committee review, a systematic and phrasing review by the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, and a plenary vote. With the Assembly's current schedule filled with special prosecutor-related bills and audit discussions, it remains unclear when domestic violence protection bills will make the agenda. However, as repeated tragedies have raised social demand for victim protection legislation, there remains a possibility that the ruling and opposition parties could put public safety legislation on the negotiating table separately from contentious bills.

A phased approach—consolidating overlapping bills among the 32 pending measures and prioritizing provisions that can command consensus—is being presented as a realistic alternative. Since protecting domestic violence victims is an issue less prone to partisan ideological conflict, calls are growing for standing committee discussions to resume swiftly so that review can proceed regardless of political schedules.