On May 11th, KICJ signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the National Human Rights Commission of Korea to cooperate on the advancement of human rights. The agreement ensures partnership in a number of areas, including mutual consultation and aid regarding specific human rights-related issues, academic exchange for human rights policy research and education, deliberation on major human rights policy agenda, and exchange of research data and publications. KICJ is the first of government-funded research institutes to sign an MOU with the National Human Rights Commission for advancing human rights. KICJ has conducted a number of human rights-related research, including 'Comprehensive Evaluation of Human Rights Protection Competency of Criminal Justice Agencies,' 'Violence and Human Rights Violation on Campus and Its Improvement Plan,' 'A Study on the Improvement of Human Rights and Criminal Justice Policy in COVID-19 Crisis Management,' and 'The Network Construction for the Protection of Human Rights and the Co-operation for the Prevention of Human Rights Violation Related with Criminal Policy in East Asia.' "Since our name change last May, KICJ has expanded its research area to become a comprehensive think tank for criminal and legal policies," said Tae-hoon Ha, President of KICJ. "Partnering up with the Human Rights Commission, we hope to carry out systematic, comprehensive research on not just criminal justice-related issues in human rights but the human rights agenda overall, discovering new research topics in a preemptive manner."