The nation’s human rights watchdog will recommend sexual minorities be included in the government’s statistical and fact-finding surveys, concluding that Korea lacks any government-level efforts to learn about the demographics and current conditions of such people, it said, Sunday. The recommendation follows a series of cases where sexual minorities, including transgender people, suffered discrimination in various sectors, such as the military and college admissions. The National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK) said, Sunday, it decided on the recommendation recently to help the government set up policies to eliminate acts of hate and discrimination against LGBTQ people. Under the decision, the Prime Minister’s Office will be recommended to prepare guidelines for statistics conducted by central government organizations to include sexual orientation and gender identity, so the statistics can be reflected in government policies. The minister of the interior and safety, the minister of health and welfare, the minister of gender equality and family and Statistics Korea will be recommended to create new transgender-related categories in their statistical surveys. Besides three surveys conducted earlier by the commission, there have been no government-level studies on the demographics of transgender people, and they have been omitted in the health ministry’s annual survey on healthcare and medical service, the gender equality ministry’s study on family and Statistics Korea’s census.