The World Human Rights Cities Forum(WHRCF) will be held for 4 days from September 30 to October 3, at the Kimdaejung Convention Center in Gwangju, South Korea. This year's forum will delve into the issue surrounding its theme: "Local Governments and Human Rights: Reimagining the Human Rights Cities".
Since its inception in 2011, each version of the Forum has emphasized the role of local governments in the protection and promotion of human rights of citizens at the local level. The UN Human Rights Council accepted the agenda of 'Local Governments and Human Rights' and adopted resolution 39/7, requesting the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights to prepare the Local Governments and Human Rights report before the 42nd session.
The theme of Local Governments and Human Rights: Reimagining Human Rights Cities was established for the purpose of examining the challenges to human rights and looking for a positive and responsible role for local governments to find solutions to them. Re-defining a human rights city of the 2011 Gwangju Declaration on a Human Rights City in a new and modern context will help solidify the foundation of our knowledge and policies toward human rights cities. Reimagining human rights cities in 2019 will make it possible to have an objective reflection on the previous paths towards establishing human rights cities that we had once walked, as well as to establish a detailed plan for future human rights cities.
The 2019 Forum will have more than 40 sessions and events including Plenary sessions, which will handle human rights cities policies and practical implementation while reimagining the future of human rights cities. Thematic sessions will be comprised of a total of 8 sub-sessions including women, social economy, and state-sponsored violence, and more. It will address the human rights issues linked directly to the citizens' life while reimagining the systems and procedures of human rights cities with the purpose of practical enhancement of human rights of residents. Network workshops are organized as well to facilitate exchange and cooperation among human rights actors. A Special Session has been organized to design the future of a sustainable human rights city by identifying both local and global issues and policy trends. There will be a wide range of other sessions such as two training sessions, two research paper sessions and a human rights discussion group. Other opportunities will be provided to the participants such as screenings of human rights films and tours to human rights sites.
The 2019 Forum is co-hosted by the Gwangju Metropolitan City, the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA). The forum is co-organized by the Gwangju International Center (GIC) and UCLG Committee on Human Rights (UCLG-CISDP). This forum is sponsored by the following Korean government departments and international organizations: The Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Korean National Commission for UNESCO, and the Asia-Pacific Center of Education for International Understanding, and the Korea Tourism Organization.
More than 20 local organizations are actively participating in the 2019 Forum by organizing various events in addition to thematic sessions. The Forum is also a product of close collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN OHCHR), human rights institutions such as the Raoul Wallenberg Institute, city networks such as the UCLG-ASPAC, and international civil society organizations such as International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development (INFID), Habitat International Coalition (HIC), and the Polis Institute.
* You can review the entire Concept Note of the WHRCF2019 through our official website (www.whrcf.org).
