Gwangju as a Human Rights City
By Laura Becker
Gwangju’s identity as a human rights city goes back much further than the May 18th Democratic Movement of 1980. In 1894, Jeolla province was the center of the Donghak Peasant Revolution, an armed rebellion led by followers of the Donghak movement and an army of aggrieved peasants, against the exploitative central government. Donghak, literally “Eastern learning,” was an academic movement in Neo-Confucianism that rejected foreign influence and the intrusion of Christianity, and called for democracy, human rights, and Korean nationalism. The Korean government, supported by the Japanese, crushed the Donghak rebellion and executed the rebels, but many of the peasants’ grievances were addressed in the sweeping Gabo Reforms of 1894-1896.
The Gwangju Student Independence Movement, which took place in October and November of 1929, is considered the second most important Korean independence movement during the Japanese occupation, after the March 1st Movement. Korean students remained silent or shouted for independence when they were forced to sing the national anthem of Japan on November 3rd, which is coincidentally both the birthday of Emperor Meiji and the National Foundation Day of Korea. As they began to lead street demonstrations, students were repressed by Japanese authorities, but participation spread to hundreds of schools throughout the country and encouraged the national independence movement.
Despite its unique heritage, Gwangju’s historic experiences do not automatically translate into a present-day city that promotes democracy, justice, and human rights. Korea has established institutional democracy and accomplished economic growth, but the wave of neoliberal globalization has created a social environment in which high competition, unemployment, and the growing gap between the rich and poor cannot be ignored. The formation and practice of a human rights city is an ongoing project undertaken in collaboration with other cities around Asia and the world. What establishes Gwangju as a human rights city, and how can a human rights city be evaluated?
The human rights administration of Gwangju, the first city-level administration of its kind in Korea, was established in 2010. It is charged with the planning and execution of the human rights charter, overseeing human rights improvement citizen committees, international exchanges, and the annual World Human Rights Cities Forum. While government officials manage the human rights administration, joint policy meetings bring together human rights activists, researchers, and public officials to suggest ideas and policies for solving human rights issues at an administrative level.
The Gwangju Human Rights Charter was created by citizen representatives on May 21, 2012 and outlines the areas of human rights that establish Gwangju as a human rights city. The charter represents a social agreement between the city and its citizens on what it means to be a human rights city.
In addition to the charter, the Gwangju Human Rights Indicator is an instrument for an objective evaluation of human rights policies. Five major areas of human rights each have eighteen practical tasks to promote human rights in citizens’ everyday lives. For example, in the area of Communications and Participation, one practical task is to promote a culture of human rights and citizenship. Each practical task is then broken down into a number of sub-indicators, each with its own methods of measurement. One sub-indicator of a culture of human rights and citizenship is the level of civil participation in human rights education. This is measured by the percentage of schools providing human rights-related classes and by the percentage of participants in human rights education out of the total population.
The spirit of democracy shown vividly throughout Gwangju’s history would not be able to live on without governmental structures, resources, and the dedicated efforts of public officials and citizens’ groups working together. By breaking the vision of human rights into concrete and measurable goals, the Gwangju Human Rights Indicator allows policymakers to move beyond philosophical ideals of human rights and actually assess how effectively their policies are carried out in practice.