2021 Online Human Rights Education Training Program for Sustainable and Inclusive Communities: A Human Rights Education Program

By Jana Milosavljevic

Gwangju Metropolitan City, represented through the Gwangju International Center (GIC), is participating in the KOICA (Korea International Cooperation Agency) Global Fellowship Program by running a human resources development training program entitled “Human Rights Education Training Program for Sustainable and Inclusive Communities.” As one of the projects of the Gwangju International Human Rights Education Center, the training program opened for the first time this year and was successfully conducted online with trainees from Kenya from October 25 to November 3.

KOICA operates under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and aims to fight global poverty and support sustainable socio-economic development in developing countries. Through the sharing of development experiences and know-how with its partner countries, Korea at the same time is strengthening friendly relations with those countries. The KOICA Fellowship Program (CIAT) is one such example. CIAT stands for “Capacity Improvement and Advancement for Tomorrow,” meaning developing an individual’s capacity for a better future, and moreover the advancement of the recipient country’s organizations and policies. Or put simply, reflecting its acronym that sounds like “seed” (ssi-at) in Korean, CIAT hopes to spread seeds of hope across partner countries.

Korea’s historical circumstances that sprung from the May 18 Democratic Movement in Gwangju provided a milestone for Korean democracy and influenced the enhancement of democracy across other Asian countries as well. Carrying on the legacy that was conceived in May 1980, the Human Rights City of Gwangju is actively carrying out its role in protecting and promoting human rights in many different ways, one of which is the aforementioned Human Rights Education Center, which opened last year following an initiative from Gwangju City’s mayor, and reflecting on the UN High Commissioner’s willingness to cooperate on human rights education and training, as stated in the UN’s General Assembly Human Rights Council 2012 Report of the Advisory Committee.1 Consequently, emphasizing the importance of human rights education for local government officials, Gwangju City, together with the GIC, proposed this human rights educational training program to KOICA with the aim of spreading the experience of Gwangju as a human rights city and sharing its values in developing sustainable and inclusive communities.

For this specific project, the GIC partnered with the Raoul Wallenberg Institute of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (RWI), United Cities and Local Governments (UCLG), and the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to deliver 10 days of online training, human rights activities, and workshops prepared for a total of 12 officials from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) and the Judiciary through a wide variety of online lectures by renowned lecturers from the abovementioned institutions.

The main goal of the program was set to elevate the human rights administration in Kenya through the process of creating and realizing a solid action plan. The “action plan” is a specific plan created by trainees that aims to provide alternatives and solutions to the issues and problems trainees themselves identified at the beginning of the program. The trainees worked together in small groups to establish their action plans through a number of online Action Plan Workshops, where they were guided by experts in the field. Apart from the lectures and workshops, online “Human Rights Activities,” such as a discussion on Han Kang’s novel Human Acts and a screening of the movie May 18, were also organized to engage trainees in understanding the past and present of Gwangju through various media.

At the closing ceremony, several trainees shared with the GIC their thoughts and impressions about the training program. Mr. Ali Mohamud Adan, senior human rights officer from the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights said that he believes he has gained a lot of knowledge on human rights issues outside of Kenya and Africa. He also noted that hearing about various case studies and best practices from all around the world inspired him to, going forward, try to implement some of them in his day-to-day work.

Ms. Judicaster Nthambi Nthuku, principal magistrate from the Judiciary, also mentioned that she has acquired a lot of knowledge on human rights thanks to the program. Specifically, she clarified that she has developed an interest in looking at county governments’2 integrated development plans to see what they are doing to enforce and implement human rights in Kenya.

Her colleague, a senior principal magistrate in the Judiciary, Ms. Mildred Natecho Munyekenye, also added that the program has been an eye-opening experience when it comes to issues connected to human rights, and mentioned that she herself feels more obliged to protect human rights in her daily work. She also expressed gaining a new interest in Gwangju as a human rights city.

Mr. Samson Oduor Omondi, senior human rights officer from the KNCHR, shared that the course was a good opportunity to look at the struggles that nations, cities, and individuals have been through when building a human rights city culture. He expressed that the program was a very good opportunity to blend theory and practice.

Finally, a number of trainees also pointed out to what extent their perceptions and ideas about Gwangju and South Korea in general have changed as a result of the program through comments such as, “At first, I thought it was a country full of issues like testing of missiles, but now I know they have a human rights city, which I wish to visit in the near future,” and “Their struggle for democracy and human rights has made me see them as a people that can lead in changing the world.”

The trainees’ action plan initiatives are expected to be followed up on during the next year, and the best action plan will have the opportunity to receive further support from KOICA, while the Human Rights Education Training Program for Sustainable and Inclusive Communities will be expecting new trainees from Kenya in the year 2022.

Websites
http://www.koica.go.kr/koica_en/3441/subview.do (KOICA CIAT)
http://www.inhec.org/index_e.php (Human Rights Education Center)
https://rwi.lu.se/ (RWI)
https://www.uclg.org/ (UCLG)
https://www.ohchr.org/ (OHCHR)

Footnotes
¹ http://www.whrcf.org/bbs/board.php?bo_table=GeneralData_eng&wr_id=2&sca=Human+Rights+Archive
² Local governments are referred to as ‘county governments’ in Kenya.

The Author
Jana was born and raised in Serbia. She currently lives and works in Gwangju as one of the GIC coordinators. She loves exploring new places, learning about new cultures, and meeting new people. If you are up for a chat, she can talk to you in Serbian, English, Korean, Japanese, or German. Instagram @janemiya