Background
In order to discuss the issue of migrants and refugees from the viewpoint of the theme of the 2019 World Human Rights Cities Forum, “Local Government and Human Rights,” the first question is how indigenous people can coexist peacefully with migrants. We would like to ask what the roles and responsibilities of local governments are to promote migrants' human rights. In addition, we imagine human rights cities that do not discriminate against immigrants and indigenous people but encourage diversity.

Theme of the Forum
Does Korean society guarantee human rights from the perspective of migrants and refugees? Is Gwangju a human rights city? These questions provide a good opportunity to look into the human rights of migrants and refugees actively and positively during the 2019 World Human Rights Cities Forum.

Under the theme of “Imagine Human Rights Cities for Migrants,” WHRCF 2019 will progress a preliminary discussion like a sub-theme workshop with four topics discussed by the migrants in the Gwangju Global Congress in 2018: "migrants’ rights to know and to access information," "multicultural and the majority education for indigenous people," "migrants’ empowerment - the minority education" and "migrants’ equal right to health.” The discussion aims at examining how those topics are reflected in the policy in Gwangju Metropolitan City and establishing a development plan to be utilized more actively at the coal face. After that, the contents of each topic will be presented to see the reality of human rights of migrants, as well as to reconstruct the roles and responsibilities of local governments to implement the agenda for human rights of migrants.

Session Organizer
Gwangju Migrant Workers’ Center
Gwangju Bukgu Multicultural Family Support Center
Space Elizabeth
Danuri Help Line
Gwangju Migrant Health Center
Center for Multicultural Peace Pedagogy

In recent years, as the debate deepens from the social enterprise certification system of the central government (Ministry of Employment and Labor) to the registration system of the local government, the national interest and support for the social economy is not limited to the level of the central government, but local governments’ activities are increasingly required. In addition, according to the Ministry of Education's "Plan to support co-cooperatives in schools for Invigorating Social Economy" announced in September 2018, the demand for educational activities related to the social economy of local governments is a continuously increasing along with the support policies for social enterprises from the local government.

As the need for in-depth discussion on the direction of social economy education for youth is increasing, we invite domestic and foreign experts to share excellent case and to discuss on the subject: “Exploration of the direction of social economy education for youth: cases of Cooperatives jeunesse de services(CJS)” at the 2019 World Human Rights Cities Forum.

Session Organizer
Global Social Economy Forum (GSEF), Gwangju Support Center for Social Economy

 Through the Disability and Human Rights session in World Human Rights Cities Forum, a lot of issues were presented and ideas shared including the tight to mobility, right to independent living and human rights of the LGBTQ+ and people with mental disorders. In the meantime, in the cities of human rights, there are more and more residential facilities for people with disabilities, which separates them from the local community. That is why the Disability and Human Rights session, which was about to create concrete rights and discussions necessary for equal citizens to live together in a city of human rights, deeply grasps what the meaning of the human rights city is.

 Community Care shows the direction of the Moon Jae-in Government's welfare policy that says it will not expel the elderly, the disabled, the mentally disabled and the homeless into facilities to isolate them from the community. It is the decision to abolish the disability classification system, and not to limit the application for welfare services based on medical assessment. The direction and decision must be carried out at the local level in order to be experienced by the people with disabilities.

 The session in 2019 World Human Rights Cities Forum, which handles with the subject of , would like to point out the policy of deinstitution-independent living, which is being promoted by Seoul, Daegu and Gwangju, under the theme of . We would like to share the ideas and efforts of the other local governments including Seoul, which is now promoting the five-year plan following the first five-year plan of deinstitution-independent living, Gyeonggi where the most supported accommodations are located and Daegu, which closed the homeless shelter Heemang-won (Hope Center) and composed a special team for deinstitution-independent living for the disabled. We will also share the New Zealand’s 10-year (2016-2026) disability strategy to create an environment for people with disabilities in the community after shutting down the last large-scale supported accommodation facility. Through this, we will seek to create a concrete practice for the 'human rights city' to become a society without supported accommodation facilities.

 In 2019, the WHRCF session will identify the current status of the five-year plan of deinstitution-independent living promoted at the local government level. It will be a great opportunity for Gwangju to find the concrete practice how to make the environment for people with disabilities to survive in the community without supported accommodation.

Session Organizer
The Research Institute of the Differently Abled Person’s Right in Gwangju
Gwangju Solidarity Against Disability Discrimination

Human rights city is a concept of the city where human rights, the universal value of humanity, is realized at home of life. Historically, women been excluded from the concept of universal human rights but have raised a hare and supplemented the concealed field of gender discrimination. In addition to the discrimination against women, they have raised the issue of discrimination against various social minorities such as men who are oppressed by gender role, children, adolescents, the elderly, the disabled, sex minorities and immigrants in solidarity.

The human rights cities are only realized when policy directions and practices are implemented in all cities where women and social minorities are not excluded and discriminated. In other words, the human rights cities can be completed through the creation of gender equality in the cities. In order not to make realizing human rights cities an abstract slogan, it is necessary to raise the human rights consciousness of the residents at the village and local level and to establish concrete structures and organizations of the city for the people to exercise their human rights activities independently and naturally.

In the session of “Gender,” we will share and exchange the achievements and limitations of gender equality policies which governments and public entities around the world adopted as women policies for gender mainstreaming integrating the gender perspectives after the Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing in 1995. By doing so, we will examine the women-friendly city (village) project in Korea, one of the main policies implemented to promote gender equality and imagine a city where the human rights of women and social minorities are guaranteed, and everyone is happy.

Session Organizer
Gwangju-Jeonnam Women Association United

The value of a sustainable city is not different from that of a human rights city. Sustainability suggests the most basic and fundamental direction that civilization should not infringe the happiness of future generations. 55% of the world's population lives in urban areas. The life in the city is the measure of the sustainability of the world. “Human rights city” is a concept that human rights, the universal value of humanity, must be realized in the context of life in the city. The life in the city or the sustainability of the city cannot be left without the realization of the human rights city.

We will discuss the necessity and possibility of recycling resources in the “Environment” session of the World Human Rights Cities Forum in 2019.

We will look into the garbage problem which is finally discarded after being distributed and consumed in the city. With the increase in the use of disposable plastic and plastic bags, the amount of waste is increasing rapidly (increased by 35% in Korea from 2009 to 2015). The increased amount of waste seriously pollutes soil, air and the ocean, and, at the same time, the waste processing is a waste of finance. If garbage intensifies the problems of resource waste and environmental preservation, we are now infringing upon the happiness of future generations. With the cities at home and abroad, we will share the cases of resource recycling cities to see how their efforts have been accomplished and how to solve the environmental problems in the urban area. In particular, we will point out problems with plastic waste and seek alternative solutions.

Session Organizer
Korean Federation for Environmental Movements Gwangju

Every man, as a human being, is born with dignity and value, and has freedom and equality. Children/youth are also human beings. Therefore, human rights should be guaranteed to the children/youth in the standard of universality, which is an important principle of human rights. However, it hasn't been long since the universality of human rights in the history of mankind began to be applied to the children/youth. After the universality of human rights was exclusively possessed by adults, children/youth were able to have their turn.

Korea has ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1991, but the list of rights of the Convention in the Korean society was merely adopted. Despite the spectacular advances of democracy and human rights since 1987, the scope or domain of the human rights had been confined to adults. The common sense that children/youth have human rights began to spread after the debate on the 'Ordinance of Student Rights' began in earnest in 2009. Enacting the ordinance of student rights in Gyeonggi-do, Gwangju, Seoul, and Jeonbuk led to reconsider that children/youth should become the subject of human rights. And this went along with the time when 'human rights city' or 'local government and human rights' were discussed.

Gwangju, however, enacted the 'Ordinance of Student Rights' in 2011, when the World Human Rights Cities Forum was first held. In other words, Gwangju laid the groundwork for ensuring the human rights of students, who are the majority of children/youth, at the local level during the period of addressing the issues of the human rights city. Just as Gwangju is leading the discussion of human rights cities, the Gwangju Student Human Rights Ordinance was enacted as the second in the nation and has played a leading role. After eight years of the enactment of the Student Human Rights Ordinance, is the human rights of children/youth guaranteed in the human rights city of Gwangju?

We would like to answer this in the forums. First, we will scope out the global situation of child rights and identify challenges for the local community level. Also, we will examine whether the human rights situation of children and youth in cities has significantly changed since the enactment of Children’s Rights Ordinance in Japan, a model of Ordinance of Student Right. In addition, we will analyze the human rights situation of children/youth in Gwangju and draw out the challenges. We would like to propose the policy tasks that the human rights city Gwangju should promote to ensure the human rights of children/youth.

Session Organizer
The Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education
Center for Public Interest & Human Rights Law Chonnam National University

Human beings natively have a desire for safety. It is a basic instinct and the modern society highlights it as well. A dictionary definition of “safety” is the state of comfort and no danger. When applied to a person's body, it means the human body with no wounds.

Everyone wants to have a healthy life in a safe environment. Then, safety is a practice and a duty that must be performed in our lives. In other words, it is the “human rights” enjoyed and exercised by the human beings or by the citizens of a country.

In pursuit of the safety, we need to understand “accidents” that can happen frequently in our lives. Most accidents occur most frequently due to human factors, namely human errors, followed by physical and environmental (nature) causes.

Korea’s representative accidents are, for example, Ahyun-dong gas explosion (1994), collapse of Seongsu Bridge (1994), Sampoong Department Store collapse (1995), Korean Air plane (KAL) crash (1997), Sealand Youth Training Center fire (1999), Daegu subway fire (2003), Taean oil spill (2007), Sewol ferry disaster (2014), and so on. The common feature to these accidents is that they were caused by human errors.

This means that, by human efforts, accidents can be fully prevented and safety can be sufficiently secured. To this end, the participation of local residents has to be encouraged in order to establish a safe city and appropriate behaviors need to be demonstrated to prevent accidents and manage safety.

The 2nd Master Plan for National Safety Management (2010-2014) recognized the limitations of central government-led disaster response and safety management, and stressed the need for inter-government cooperation as well as the cooperation between the local government and residents.

Ultimately, as this is difficult to be engaged with the central government, the local governments should establish local safety governance in close cooperation with the police, fire agency and safety-related public authorities. In order to realize the policy goal of establishing a safe community, local residents must participate in local safety policy. They can take part in the local safety improvement activities in several ways because they are aware of the hazards in their village based on their daily experiences. In particular, the residents’ participation is essential for the safety of the relatively vulnerable people such as children, women and the elderly (Oh Yoon-kyung, Seo yun, Jung Ji-beom, 2016).

Local safety, namely the safe city governance, can be understood as the cooperation and efforts of various stakeholders, including local residents, local governments, fire agency, the police, health sector and civil organizations, for the safety of local communities.

Kim Myeong-Soo, researcher of the Korea Research Institute for Human Settlements (2017), proposed the following five policy measures to establish a safe city. First, psychological safety should be secured by sharing safety information of the city. It is necessary to raise safety awareness through the information sharing and to make scientific and objective “hazard mapping.” Secondly, reconsidering effectiveness by integrating and linking city safety policies. The governance by situation need to be established for new types of disasters, and developing policies and linking them with scenarios for different disasters has to be urgently done. Third, consistency of the safety-related plans needs to be maintained. The policy consistency should be ensured by matching periods of safety plans. The safety plan should be established by improving the action plans and by reflecting the characteristics of the city’s hazardous factors. Fourth, the actors of the city’s safety should cooperate. It is important that the central government focuses on administrative and financial support, and the local governments respond to actual disasters to improve real time responsiveness. Fifth, a safe community should be realized by strengthening local community and by residents’ participation. A citizen-centered decision-making system and a cooperative system among civil society actors should be established, and safety information should be provided to expand the residents’ participation.

Putting together the weak points of the policies, active participation of local residents as well as the establishment of governance among various stakeholders such as local residents, local governments, fire agency, the police, health sector and civil organizations are required in order to realize a safe city. In this sense, to realize our community, Gwangju Metropolitan City, as a safe city, the role of governance should be necessarily understood in various aspects based on “the best practices in other regions or the developed countries” and “the current state of Gwangju Metropolitan City.”

Key Word : safety, accident, local residents, safe city, governance

Active Aging means a process of optimizing opportunities of health, participation and stability to improve the quality of later life while enjoying physical, mental, and social well-being as an elderly person, and contributing to the society with his/her own experience and wisdom as an elderly person. Therefore, the place where active aging is possible is human rights cities because the elderly is not alienated and socially integrated without the generational conflicts in a city where the elderly can stay healthy and vibrant.

"Local Community-based Integrated Care (Community Care)" is beginning in June 2019 in Korea. Community Care is a policy that provides various services tailored to the needs of the people in need of care where they live. In the process of planning and executing the pilot projects, the local governments, in cooperation with private organizations, provides housing, health care, nursing and various care in order to solve the problems of citizens with complex needs.

In the countries with long history of decentralization and local self-governing, local governments play an important role in human rights and welfare policies. There is also a great deal of cooperation from civic (NGO) organizations that are well-versed in local circumstances. For Korean society whose history of decentralization is relatively short, it is very helpful to review the roles and efforts of the local governments and civic (NGO) organizations in the developed countries for the human rights policy and welfare services for the elderly.

It is also necessary to pay attention to the plans of the Seo-gu in Gwangju metropolitan city, which has been selected to carry out the Community Care Pilot Project. In terms of human rights and welfare guarantees for the elderly, we will be able to discuss the concept and our contribution to active aging. We hope the close cooperation between the government of Gwangju and the elderly-related civic (NGO) organizations will be achieved with the aim of "the human rights city of Gwangju" where the human rights and welfare of the elderly are sufficiently guaranteed

Session Organizer
Korean Information & Referral Service Center on Aging (Gwangju Namgu Senior Club)

Discrimination and hatred against the disadvantaged and minorities is a national as well as socially important issue. Discrimination and hatred are manifested in various forms, but the things that must be examined at the local governments as a policy issue are symbolic violence and hate speech especially for direct or indirect victims of national violence. Distortion and disparagement of Gwangju Uprising and discrimination and hate speech against the April 16 ferry disaster and its bereaved families are the defiance against the fundamental human rights and the human dignity-related matters. These expressions and behaviors of hatred are also secondary violence against the victims by the national violence, misfeasance or institutional deficiencies.

In this thematic session, aversion-related specific issues and response cases will be examined while some legal and institutional issues are currently handled including a comprehensive anti-discrimination law that is closely related to human rights policy as a matter of discrimination and aversion, and punishment for the distortion and denial of Gwangju Uprising. In order to reconsider the hatred as a structural violence in Korean society, some of the victims and activists are participating to the discussion of the process of enacting the hate speech punishment ordinance to deal with the specific issues such as discrimination and hate speech against Japanese Koreans in Japan as a social movement.

Session Organizer
The May 18th Institute CNU, Gwangjuro