South Korea has approved the creation of a foundation fighting to protect transgender people from discrimination.

Organisers have been given the go ahead to create the Byun Huisu Foundation, a non-profit which will work to protect trans South Koreans from political and societal transphobia.

What was originally supposed to be a 20-day deliberation turned into a two-year debacle after an application to create the foundation was submitted in May 2024.

The decision was repeatedly delayed over opposition from a conservative member of South Korea’s human rights regulator, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRCK), who routinely voted against fellow members of the watchdog’s standing commissioners.