Human Rights Cities come together in Gwangju for int'l forum

Speakers online and in person at the opening ceremony of the World Human Rights Cities Forum (WHRCF) in Gwangju, Oct. 7. / Courtesy of WHRCF Secretariat

By Arlo Matisz

Gwangju has once again brought cities and citizens of the world together to build a better future, despite the global pandemic, for the 11th World Human Rights Cities Forum (WHRCF). At this annual event created by the southwestern city, national and international experts in diverse fields shared methods and perspectives for the purpose of improving human rights around the globe, ending its four-day run on Oct. 10.

Hosted by Gwangju City, the U.N. Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), UNESCO Headquarters, the Gwangju Office of Education and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA), the event saw thousands of participants joining sessions online and onsite to address topics such as elderly and disabled rights, refugee protection and violence against women. Keynote speakers included U.N. Human Rights High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet and UNESCO Assistant Director General Gabriela Ramos, and U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres gave a congratulatory address at the opening ceremony.

As this was the second year of hosting the event during the COVID-19 pandemic, the forum structure has evolved as organizers applied lessons from last year's event as well as the collective experiences of the various participating organizations in producing international collaborations using both onsite and online resources.

The WHRCF has been held annually in Gwangju since 2011, when the Gwangju Declaration on Human Rights Cities was adopted. The declaration, which defined Human Rights Cities as "both a local community and a socio-political process in a local context, where human rights play a key role as the fundamental values and guiding principles," was the keystone of building Gwangju as a Human Rights City upholding the values of the 1980 May 18 Democratization Movement.

Since 2014, the Gwangju International Center (GIC) has been managing the event, which has grown from 400 participants in its first year to 2,000 in 2019. This year it saw 3,000 onsite and online participants.

"The forum addressed the issue of human rights with the theme of 'Human Rights in Times of Challenge: A New Social Contract' in this new-normal situation, GIC Director Dr. Shin Gyong-gu, a member of the forum's planning committee, told The Korea Times.

"The concept of 'new social contract' is expanding the traditional concept of 'social contract' to include health and climate issues as well."

This theme, while having direct relevance to the pandemic, also covered numerous other ongoing global issues that have been somewhat eclipsed by the pandemic such as refugee crises, as well as issues of concern for Korea such as disability and the elderly.

Rights during the pandemic were at the forefront of several discussions and panels, with relevance to Korea's recent controversies regarding mandatory testing of foreign workers. Earlier this year, several municipalities and provincial governments forced foreign workers to undergo COVID-19 testing. The Seoul Metropolitan Government withdrew its administrative order after criticism of violating foreign residents' human rights. But more recently, spikes in COVID-19 cases among foreign laborers have led to local governments once again applying administrative orders for businesses employing foreign workers, as well as special policies designed to allow undocumented workers access to vaccines without placing their livelihoods or residency at risk.

International Relations Ambassador of Gwangju Metropolitan City Yoon Yeo-Cheol, a member of the WHRCF Organizing Committee, discussed the impact of COVID-19 on human rights in a radio interview on "face2face," an English-language talk show on Gwangju Foreign Language Network (GFN).

"The global spread of COVID-19 is having a serious impact on economic, environmental, political and cultural areas and made our daily life constantly insecure. Under these circumstances, the human rights environment has seriously deteriorated with massive unemployment, deepened inequalities, racial and gender discrimination and increased vulnerabilities of the aged and disabled. Furthermore, freedoms of expression and assembly as well as right to privacy have been frequently violated. This situation brought home to us the importance of human rights as universal values regardless of the situation you are in."

Ambassador Yoon cited Nuremberg, Germany, as an example of a Human Rights City, which refers to municipalities that refer "explicitly to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other international human rights standards and/or law in their policies, statements, and program." He explained the German city was where the Nazi Party had enacted the racist and anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws but also hosted the post-war tribunals for Nazi war criminals and has made substantial efforts to establish itself as a bastion of human rights.

"In the course of our work of building a network among Human Rights Cities, we noticed that cities with similar historical experience of state violence and ambition to become Human Rights Cities found solidarity with Gwangju. Among them, Nuremberg is the partner with which Gwangju is enjoying most active exchanges. … Nuremberg has a Human Rights Road as a symbol of its remorse and established its own human rights award. Nuremberg also promotes civic participation in administration of human rights and provides exemplary civic education on human rights. The city of Nuremberg provides so many inspirations for other cities. Gwangju also tries to learn from Nuremberg to improve its own human rights system."

Jana Milosavljevic, a coordinator for the GIC's WHCRF Secretariat, explained her role at the forum and its importance to her own life in Korea as a Serbian expatriate.

"Since last year, the WHRCF partnered with UNESCO, and this year we had six sessions that were co-organized with UNESCO which I was working on specifically," she said.

She pointed to the "UNESCO Master Class Launching Panel: Human Rights City Gwangju Series," part of the UNESCO Master Class Series against Racism and Discriminations which was started in 2019 in France, which has spread to all of UNESCO's International Coalition of Inclusive and Sustainable Cities (ICCAR), with "the intention to help young people understand what racism and discrimination are, and why people show that behavior, and to learn ways to fight that," she said.

"Next year we're planning to start a masterclass against racism and discriminations in Gwangju with a project focused around it. We will look at racism and discrimination through the lens of human rights," she added.

"I am excited to coordinate that because Korea has become more and more open and multicultural, with foreigners coming to work and study, and foreigners deciding to stay after coming here, such as myself. Young people should become more aware of racism and discrimination and human rights and how they all connect."

Visit whrcf.org for more information on the forum, and follow it on Twitter @GwangjuWHRCF.

Arlo Matisz is an economics professor at Chosun University and the host of GFN's talk show "face2face," which broadcasts from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Sunday evenings.