[Photo: Thematic Session from the WHRCF2017]
[Preview 2018 World Human Rights Cities Forum]
World Human Rights Cities Forum - Thematic Session (3)
This year, in a spacial turn of events, civil society organizations not just from Gwangju but also Seoul as well as Jeju island will participate in each session of 'City and Social Economy', 'City and Peace' with us.
The Global Social Economy Forum(GSEF), which will coincide along the overall forum, hopes to establish concepts and philosophy of urban regeneration through the social economy and seek specific ways by looking at successful cases of urban regeneration with social economy projects. This meeting will be held on October 19th, from 09:00 AM to 12:00 PM, and will review the efforts and results of current projects carried out by each urban sector. In doing so, this session aims to facilitate direct conversations about the Social Economy and the Regeneration of City & Local Communities.
The City and Peace session was also added as one of the new thematic sessions in WHRCF2018. The theme for this year’s City and Peace session is ‘A city with a military presence, imagining peace’. The session will take place from 09:00 AM to 12:00 PM on October 20th. Gwangju is still exposed to state violence from its adjacent military bases and has also suffered state violence in the past; the latter is in fact the reason that Gwangju has become such a prominent symbol of democracy and human rights in South Korea. This session will serve as a venue to hear other stories of cities which had to go through a great deal of pain incurred by their states and also serve as a platform to envisage peace within cities hosting military bases. This session will be organized by a civil society organization from Jeju island rather than Gwangju.
Finally, in our city and child/youth education session, we will be discussing democracy in schools, a space where democracy is learned, experienced, and developed more actively than any other place. Schools are said to serve an important educational role in promoting democracy. However, efforts in order to fulfill this realization are still inadequate. During the forum, specifically on October 20th from 09:00 AM to 12:00 PM, we will look to ways how three main agents of education (teachers, students, parents) work to make the ideals of democracy in schools a reality.
The thematic sessions are designed to better discuss various topics of which are closely connected to citizens’ lives as well as promote human rights. Accordingly, the sessions have been successfully executed thanks to the active participation of civil society organizations. In this respect, the WHRCF is proud that to be able to not just discuss issues but, more importantly, contribute to significant change in areas of governance. This year, we are working with Gwangju Jeonnam Women’s Association Coalition of ‘City and Gender’, Global Social Economy Forum of ‘City and Social Economy’, Gwangju Information & Referral Service Center for the Aged and Gwangju Namgu Senior Club of ‘City and Elderly’, Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education and Center for Public Interest and Human Rights Law of Chonnam National University of ‘City and Child/Youth Education’, The Research Institute of the Differently Abled Person’s Right in Gwangju and Gwangju Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination of ‘Disability and Human Rights’, Korea Federation for Environmental Movements, Gwangju of ‘City and Environment’, Gwangju Migrant Worker’s Center, Gwangju Bukgu Multicultural Family Support Center, Danuri Help Line, Center for Multicultural Peace Pedagogy and Gwangju Migrant Health and Human Rights Center of ‘Migrants/Refugees and Human Rights’, The May 18th Institute and A Healing Centre for Victims of Torture and State Terror of ‘State Violence and Human Rights’, Jeju Peace Human Rights Institute WHAT of ‘City and Peace’.
As the topics of thematic session are all closely related to our lives, we look forward to your continued interest and participation in promoting human rights in each area.
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