Held for Four Days at DJ Center on the Theme of 'Memory and Community - The Future of Human Rights Cities'
[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Park Seon-gang] Gwangju Metropolitan City announced on the 23rd that it will hold the 10th World Human Rights Cities Forum under the theme "Memory and Community - The Future of Human Rights Cities" at the Kim Dae-jung Convention Center from the 7th to the 10th of next month.
To prevent the spread of COVID-19, the forum will be held online without an on-site audience, and anyone around the world can participate through TV recorded broadcasts and live streaming on YouTube.
This forum is notable for the joint participation of the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO Headquarters as co-hosting organizations. This signifies the increased international status of the World Human Rights Cities Forum.
Until now, four organizations including Gwangju City, the National Human Rights Commission, Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, and the Korea International Cooperation Agency (KOICA) have co-hosted the event.
Key attendees domestically include Lee Yong-seop, Mayor of Gwangju, Choi Young-ae, Chairperson of the National Human Rights Commission, and Lee Jae-jun, Mayor of Goyang City, Gyeonggi Province. Internationally, Mitchell Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General, Emilia Saiz, Secretary-General of the United Cities and Local Governments, as well as 14 overseas mayors including Markus K?nig, Mayor of Nuremberg, Germany, and Marte Møes Persen, Mayor of Bergen, Norway, will participate online.
The forum will be jointly operated by 32 domestic and 11 international partner organizations.
The program will consist of 35 sessions across seven categories: official events, plenary meetings, thematic meetings, special meetings, network meetings, human rights education meetings, and related events.
The opening ceremony will begin with an opening address by Mayor Lee Yong-seop, followed by keynote speeches from the UNESCO Director-General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The keynote speeches from the two organizations will be delivered via video.
In "Plenary Meeting 1," strategies to create safer and more inclusive human rights cities will be discussed based on the historical experiences of each city.
In "Plenary Meeting 2," a joint roadmap for the 2021 human rights city movement will be negotiated in response to the "Local Governments and Human Rights Resolution" adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in early October.
In "Plenary Meeting 3," local governments will share their "post-COVID" strategies and explore ways to build more inclusive and resilient cities.
In the "Thematic Meetings," local civic groups will directly plan and operate meetings on eight topics including the elderly, women, children and youth, disabilities, migrants, environment, social economy, and safe cities to derive policies for promoting citizens' human rights.
Special meetings include the Domestic Memory Cities Network Meeting, Global Youth Housing Rights Meeting, National Violence and Trauma Meeting, Human Rights Paper Presentations, Overseas Human Rights Policy Meetings, and Indonesian Human Rights Cities Meeting. Network meetings will feature the UNESCO Inclusive and Sustainable Cities International Union Meeting, UNESCO Asia-Pacific Anti-Discrimination Cities Union Workshop, Human Rights Activists Network Workshop, and Human Rights Cities Expansion Project Workshop.
In the "Human Rights Education Meetings," workshops to discuss the operational direction of the Gwangju International Human Rights Education Center and human rights education programs for local government officials in the Asia-Pacific region will be conducted.
Yoon Mok-hyun, Director of the Democratic Human Rights and Peace Bureau of the city, said, "The participation of two major UN organizations in the forum is a high evaluation of the achievements of the 10th World Human Rights Cities Forum and recognizes Gwangju as an important partner in human rights solidarity," adding, "We will prepare the forum thoroughly so that Gwangju can play a central role in the expansion movement of human rights cities."
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