The Gwangju City Metropolitan Government organized the third World Human Rights Cities Forum (WHRCF) on 15-18 May 2013 in Gwangju city, Korea. With the theme “Sustainable Human Rights City for All,” the conference brought together local government leaders, human rights workers, and other stakeholders in the human rights city campaign from countries in the different regions of the world. The 2013 WHRCF adopted the Gwangju Guiding Principles for a Human Rights City (Gwangju Compact).
Gwangju city has been hosting the WHRCF since 2011 to provide cities with a venue to share values and experiences in promoting and protecting human rights by the local governments.
The city’s support for the promotion of human rights cities stems from its history, particularly the 1980 Gwangju Uprising. But, as the Gwangju city Mayor (Mr. Un-tae Kang) noted in his opening remarks, Gwangju city has a longer history of fighting for human rights. He pointed to the era of the dynasty rule when farmers created “basic rights movements” and during the period of Japanese colonial rule when “citizens waged liberation campaigns.”
The Mayor likewise outlined what the city has been doing about human rights: establishment of a city government department for human rights (the first local government office of its kind in Korea), adoption of the Gwangju Human Rights Charter, development of human rights indicator and index, establishment of human rights ombudsman, establishment of human rights monitoring system, and adoption of human rights education and citizens participation program. To promote human rights, one subway station (Kim Dae Jung station) has been turned into a human rights subway station with exhibits explaining the meaning of human rights (posters, art works, books, pamphlets, and also the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in English and Korean languages). There are two other subway stations that have become memorial pavilions to remember the 1980 Gwangju Uprising and the Gwangju students’ independence movement respectively.1 The WHRCF concept note stresses that “human rights mainstreaming through the human rights-based approach at all stages [of administration of] a human rights city including budgeting, planning, implementation, monitoring and evaluation is very crucial to make [the city] institutions inclusive and effective.”
Madam Hee-ho Lee, the widow of the late former President Kim Dae jung and current Chairperson of the Kim Dae jung Peace Center, expressed the hope in her speech at the 2013 WHRCF opening ceremonies that the valuable experiences that were to be discussed in the forum would lay the groundwork for the participants to “help develop cities where the human rights of the socially disadvantaged including the disabled, women, senior citizens, children, adolescents and low-income class are protected.” She added that she was convinced that the “other cities would also follow the efforts of Gwangju city.”
The 2013 WHRCF has the theme “Sustainable Human Rights City for All: Guiding Principles for a Human Rights City” to emphasize the “software element” of sustainable administration of cities based on the international human rights standards.
The 2013 WHRCF’s main program consisted of a plenary session that featured a panel discussion on the theme “Sustainable Human Rights City for All: Opportunities and Challenges” and several thematic workshops on human rights institutions and policies, human rights education and civil servants, architecture and human rights, city and child/ youth, city and disability. The Working Group on Guidelines for Human Rights Cities met to discuss the draft Gwangju Compact.
There were other meetings held by other networks that supported the 2013 WHRCF. The United Cities and Local Governments Asia-Pacific (UCLG ASPAC), the regional section of UCLG based in Jakarta, held its Executive Bureau Meeting and the workshop on the third Global Observatory on Local Democracy and Decentralization (GOLD III Workshop) with the theme "Decentralization & Local Public Services."
Under UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme, a meeting entitled “UNESCO World Record Heritage - Human Rights Network” commemorated the inscriptions relating to human rights and examined issues regarding their protection and management. UNESCO registered in 2011 in the Memory of the World Register the “Human Rights Documentary Heritage 1980 Archives for the May 18th Democratic Uprising against Military Regime, in Gwangju, Republic of Korea.”2 The meeting adopted the Gwangju Declaration calling, among others, for the preservation of human rights records to “help future generations to understand the value of these records and their role in promoting democracy” and thus the human rights records should be made accessible to all people in the world.3
The Solidarity for Democratization Movements in Asia (SDMA), launched during the 2010 Gwangju Asia Forum as a network of civil society organizations supporting the struggles for human rights and democratization in various countries in Asia, held its 2013 Gwangju Asia Forum during the same period.
The 2nd Annual Global Essay Contest for Human Rights City was also held during the 2013 WHRCF. The contest had two parts, domestic contest for Koreans and the international contest. The international essay contest gathered essay entries from many countries with the final set of three essays from South Africa, the Philippines and China.
The participants of the 2013 WHRCF attended the 33rd Commemorative Ceremony of the May 18 Democratic Uprising. The President of Korea, Madam Gyeun-hye Park, and other politicians attended the ceremony.
The 2013 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights Award Ceremony of the May 18 Memorial Foundation was held after the conclusion of the 2013 WHRCF. The 2013 Gwangju Prize for Human Rights was given to H.I.J.O.S. Argentina, while the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights Special Award was given to Tempo Weekly Magazine of Indonesia.
The 2013 WHRCF adopted on 17 May 2013 the Gwangju Guiding Principles for a Human Rights City or Gwangju Compact as a contribution to the establishment of human rights cities in different parts of the world.
The Gwangju Compact provides that a “Human Rights City ensures the rights of all its inhabitants, particularly the right to enjoy a decent life in a healthy environment with full access to basic services including housing and mobility...” It “applies a human rights-based approach to city administration and policy making including planning, designing, implementation, monitoring and evaluation.” It touches on several other principles such as Equality, and Non-discrimination; Participatory Democracy, Co- Responsibility and Accountability; Social Inclusiveness and Cultural Diversity; Equitable Urban Development and Sustainability; Socio-Economic Justice and Solidarity; Human Rights Education and Training; Institutionalization of Human Rights; and Right to Remedy.The 2013 WHRCF statement entitled “Sustainable Human Rights City for All” lists the following commitments:
1) To continue to promote and implement the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City4 as a strategic tool to globalize human rights from below and to continue fostering inter-municipal cooperation among cities the world over in implementing human rights policies, in cooperation with the Committee on Social Inclusion, Participatory Democracy and Human Rights of the United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG),
2) To promote the vision of a human rights city in Asia and the Pacific through cooperation with like- minded cities, the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) and the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and interested academic institutions and civil society organizations,
3) To call upon the Korean government to play a leading role in promoting a vision of human rights city nationally and globally through the United Nations (UN) including Human Rights Council and UNESCO,
4) To call upon the UN human rights bodies, in particular, UN Human Rights Council and its Advisory Committee (HRCAC) and Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), to take up the issue of human rights city as their priority agenda and work plans, and
5) To finalize the Gwangju Guiding Principles for a Human Rights City (Gwangju Compact) through further consultations with various stakeholders including UN human rights experts and to develop a framework for their implementation.
The 2013 WHRCF was a major international human rights event, distinguished by its particular focus on developing human rights cities all over the world. Around five hundred participants attended it from one hundred twelve cities in forty-four countries. It provided a venue for local government officials to interact with the human rights workers. It also provided an actual example of a human rights city – Gwangju city.
The 2013 WHRCF was organized by the Metropolitan City of Gwangju in cooperation with the May 18 Memorial Foundation and Korea Human Rights Foundation. It was also co-sponsored by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MOFAT), Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Education, National Archives Korea, Cultural Heritage Administration, National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK), Korea National Commission for UNESCO, the Asia Pacific Centre of Education for International Understanding (APCEIU), the Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, and Sungkonghoe University.
Jefferson R. Plantilla is the Chief Researcher of HURIGHTS OSAKA. He participated in the 2013 WHRCF.
For more information, please contact: The May 18 Memorial Foundation 5·18 Memorial Cul ture Hal l Seo-Gu, Naebangro 152, 502-260 Gwangju, Republic of Korea; ph (82 62) 360 0518; fax (82 62) 360 0519; e-mail: 518org@gmail.com,
may18found@gmail.com; eng.518.org/eng/html/main.html.
1. Visit Gwangju Subway (www.gwangjusubway.co.kr/engsubway/cultural /Cultural03.jsp) for information about the subway stations.
2. Visit this url for the announcement on the registration of the Gwangju Uprising documentary: www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and- information/flagship-project-activities/memory-of-the-world/ register/full-list-of-registered-heritage/registered-heritage-page-4/human-rights-
documentary-heritage-1980-archives-for-the-may-18th-democratic-uprising-against-military-regime-in-gwangju-republic-of-korea/.
3. The full text of the Gwangju Declaration is available at www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/flagship-project- activities/memory-of-the-world/homepage/.
4. Visit www. cities-localgovernments.org/.../CGLU_CISDP_Carta_Agenda_EN.pdf for the file of the Global Charter-Agenda for Human Rights in the City.