The 11th World Human Rights Cities Forum will be held from October 7th to October 10th as an online conference. With 50 programs, around 300 national and international speakers will join this year's forum.

Through the theme of "Human Rights in Times of Challenge: A New Social Contract", the 11th WHRCF forum will contribute to the in-depth understanding of the various challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic, climate change, etc., and discuss ways for human rights cities to build resilient communities.

During the Opening Ceremony, António Guterres, the UN Secretary-General, will deliver his expectations for this year's Forum in a congratulatory message, emphasizing that cities experiencing new challenges play a central role in building the future and moving forward together.

Michelle Bachelet, the UN Human Rights High Commissioner, and Gabriela Ramos, the Assistant Director-General for the Social and Human Sciences of UNESCO, will give a keynote speech through video and in online real-time, respectively. In addition, the UN Special Reporters and the participants from more than 120 cities including Montreal (Canada), Barcelona (Spain), Lund (Sweden), and Montevideo (Uruguay), will participate to have an in-depth discussion in this year's forum.

UN Human Rights Chief Representative Mitchell Bachelet and UNESCO Secretary-General Gabriela Ramos will then give keynote presentations in real-time, respectively, and 120 other cities, including United Nations Special Reporters, will participate in more in-depth human rights exchanges.

Plenary Sessions will be held to share human rights policies implemented by each local government during a crisis and find human rights solutions to cope with short- and long-term challenges. A total of 50 sessions, including Rights to Food, Violence against Women, Refugees, Act on Human Rights Policy, and a human rights training program for local government officials in Asia, will be held.

Due to the spread of COVID-19, all meetings will be broadcast live online through our website (www.whrcf.org), , and detailed event information can also be found on the mobile application (Guidebook). In addition, simultaneous interpretation and text interpretation will be provided. ZOOM Q&A function is also prepared to expand the communication between the speakers and participants.

This year's Forum is co-hosted by Gwangju Metropolitan City, UNESCO, UN Human Rights, Gwangju Metropolitan Office of Education, Korea International Cooperation Agency, co-organized by Gwangju International Center, UCLG-CISDP, Raoul Wallenberg Institute, and sponsored by the National Human Rights Commission of Korea, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Justice, Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, Amore Pacific, Kimdaejung Convention Center, and Kwangju Bank.

- Pre-register and Participate Online (Click)
- Check out the 11th World Human Rights Cities Forum Promotion Video (Click)