Marilou M. Ibanez
My name is Marilou Ibanez, and my nickname is Marj. I’m currently doing volunteer work for the Philippine Community Organizers Society which is an association of community organizers all over the Philippines doing direct community work. Prior to this, I have worked for four years in government as speechwriter for a Cabinet Secretary, Teresita Quintos-Deles, former Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process. Ms. Deles had worked for thirty years in the NGO community as foremost peace leader and advocate prior to joining the Arroyo Administration after People Power II in 2001. I joined her as her speechwriter and also as consultant for indigenous peoples’ affairs, as I had worked for nearly six years with indigenous peoples’ organizations all over the Philippines in the lobby for the passage of the Indigenous Peoples’ Rights Act. Before this stint (immediately after graduating from college), I worked with peasant organizations groups in the lobby for the passage of the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Law.
I am currently taking up my MA in Asian Studies at the University of the Philippines, majoring in Korean Studies. I have taken up 24 units of Korean Language and have done research and seminar papers on Korea on gender, East-West encounter, the Hangeul, and arms race. I have developed a few but meaningful friendships with Koreans here in the Philippines, which is the reason why I chose to major in Korean Studies. I continue to be fascinated and challenged by the difficult but interesting Korean language. Learning to converse in it and read newspaper in Hangeul is my biggest dream and my current obsession.
In my spare time, I play the guitar and read a lot about things Korean. I have also finished an advanced dressmaking course in a vocational school. I used to sew my own summer dresses but then school work got me very busy.
My work on peace and human rights, now spanning a decade and a half, took root at an early age when former President Marcos’ soldiers evicted us from our house because my father worked in a newspaper that criticized his dictatorship. At age seven, I already possessed a keen awareness of social issues, and have since grown to follow my heart’s desire for a just and peaceful world. I have no major regrets in choosing this kind of life, so far.
In explaining my expectations of the program, I also need to fully explain why I’m interested in Korea. Like most Filipinos, I used to wonder why many Koreans visit the Philippines. Koreans can be seen anywhere I turn, but I didn’t know even one of them.
I got interested in Korean culture because of the food. I love kimchi, samjeupsal, kimchi-chige and bulgogi. I learned more about Korean food through the Korean novela, “Jewel in the Palace.” I chose to major in Korean studies because of the food. Eventually, I learned more as I took up courses on Korea at the University of the Philippines. I also took up 24 units of Hangug-o. I found Korean language to be very difficult, but my Korean teacher, a Koica volunteer named Min Gyong-In, worked hard so that her students would learn well. She taught us to sing some Korean songs, which I also learned to play along with the guitar.
Also, I met a Korean student from Hollym University who helped me practice my Korean. I tutored him in English too. I recently helped a Korean pastor with his thesis. Visiting professors from Korea also came to our class. Among our lecturers is Dr. Shin Dong Kim whose roots are from Gwangju and who works as board member of Asia’s Future Foundation. His vision to bridge cultures among Asians inspired me a lot.
As a result of my Korean Studies and membership in the Korean Studies Association of the Philippines (KOSAP), I developed a desire to bridge cultural relations between my fellow Filipinos and the Koreans. There are three reasons why I want to do this.
First, the Philippines hosts the biggest number of Korean visitors in the region. In 2004, Koreans outnumbered other Asian visitors in our country. In 2005, 375,000 Koreans came and this year, the Department of Tourism projected that 500,000 Koreans will come as tourists, students, golfers, and honeymooners. The highest number of our visitors are from the US, but since most of them are Filipino overseas workers returning home for a visit, Koreans are statistically the number one foreigners who like our country as a place to rest and study. Our government predicts that Korean tourists will rise in number by 16% annually. A Korean visitor spends an average of $1,500 per visit. This means, for my country, an income of nearly $75 M annually. In addition, Korean investment constitutes nearly a third (36.5% this year) of direct foreign investments. Korean companies and residents employ nearly 100,000 Filipinos. Koreans have become a part of our society and interactions between Filipinos and Koreans are inevitable.
Second, Koreans and Filipinos have both struggled to achieve democracy. Both went through turbulent times under authoritarian regimes but came out with different results. Korea used to be the second poorest country in the region and the Philippines the second richest. Today, the Philippines is the second poorest country in the region while Korea grew to become the 11th largest economy in the world. These days, Philippine democracy is under a serious threat. Again, we struggle against fear for our lives and the loss of our rights and freedom. But, some Filipinos believe that we have too much democracy. Too much freedom, they said, has not helped our economy.
The Koreans, they said, deserve the right to democracy because they know how to exercise it responsibly. Today, Koreans enjoy both democracy and prosperity. Some Filipinos think that we have not gone through the process of knowing what it really means to be free. Thus, we have not achieved the discipline which the Koreans have. I have a deep desire to learn how the Koreans struggled. How do a people gain the right to democracy? What did we fail to do as a people? I am very disturbed and I hope to find the answers to help our country. I hope to learn more about the Korea’s history of democracy.
Third, there is not enough venue in the Philippines for learning about Korea. Filipinos are big fans of Korean movies and tele-novelas, but they hardly know Korean history. Most Filipinos do not know that Korea sits on a strategic location which caused the great powers of the world to fight over it in the past. Most Filipinos do not know how Korea developed itself into a powerful nation that it is today. Most Filipinos do not now that Korea holds the record of having one the fastest economic turnaround in the world. And the Filipinos can learn much from the Korean experience of managing the transitions between tradition and modernity. Koreans are not perfect and so are we. But Korea has gone ahead of us in many ways. Yet, the Filipinos seem to be more interested in Europeans and Americans than in Koreans.
My classmates and I share the same dream of developing closer cultural interactions between Koreans and Filipinos. Right now, there are only twelve of us who are majoring in Korea. KOSAP is only two years old and there is so much work to do in terms of bridging the two cultures. We are fortunate to have, as members, Korean residents in the Philippines who have the same dream. Currently, Korean studies is offered in our university only. The other top two universities in our country offer Japanese and Chinese Studies, but not Korean Studies. We hope to open Korean Studies in other schools. Some of us work in the bureaucracy, the business sector, the NGOs, and the academe, and we each try to think of ways to influence our networks to open opportunities for fostering Philippine-Korean relationship.
This long-term goal inspired me to submit my application to the Gwangju International Internship Program. Big dreams start with small steps. Through this program, I hope to take my first careful steps.
Actually, I have only a few realistic expectations.
My first expectation is to learn about Korean’s struggle for democracy. The Gwangju Uprising seem to constitute a dark memory in the Korean struggle. The books available here don’t tell much about what really happened. Only Don Oberdorfer in his book, “The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History” gave me a picture of what occurred. It made me shudder, and I wonder how the Gwangju people survived the tragedy and healed themselves to overcome the pain. I want to know how they moved on. I want to know the truth about Koreans’ struggle for democracy.
Second, I want to learn to speak the Korean language. This may be unrealistic but at least, I want to start. I strongly believe that no one ever really knows about a people’s culture until one learns to speak their language. Third, I want to get to know the Korean people—their ways, their temperament, their views. I want to do this so that when I return to the Philippines, I can be more effective in building relationships between Filipinos and Koreans. Finally, I want to be useful while I learn. I truly treasure this rare opportunity and, if accepted, I will show my gratitude by giving the best that I could in whatever work assignment that will be given to me.
After ten months in Korea, I will pursue some projects with the help of my classmates. I have worked with NGOs in the Philippines since I graduated from college, and I will continue to work in the field of peace and democracy in the civil society for the next ten years with a focus on things Korean. I plan to shift to a course on development communications, because this is where I think I can contribute best to the NGO community. I want to continue studying the Korean language on my own. After learning it, I will finish my Korean Studies. I may be too old by then but it will be worth it. I believe that Korean Studies must be enriched by actual experience, not only by reading books. And the first step is to learn the language.
Finally, my classmates and I plan to expand our circle of influence through networking with government, business and the academe so that we can realize our goal to help our country and Korea develop meaningful relationships for the mutual benefit of both.
Nadira Mirzalieva
My education and my professional interest are focused on the human dimension, regional security and peace building. I am rather concerned about human rights development in Asia and in Central Asia in particular, since there are many obstacles of perceiving and applying democratic and human rights values of west in to our societies that used to be comparatively conservative and traditional a certain time before. In this context, I am very interested to know more about the experience and challenges that the South Korea had in the process of Human Rights and Democracy development in the last decade.
So far, in the field of Human Rights I have done research work on social movement in Aksi region of Kyrgyzstan based on the North-South political and economic division that brought to the bloody demonstrations in March, 2002. Also, I was involved in several initiatives touching up the problem of gender inequalities and discrimination in Central Asia. One of the activities I joined was to research and present the paper on “Gender inequality in southern part of Kyrgyztan”.
Besides the few researches I have accomplished, I worked in OSCE Center in Turkmenistan as an intern in the Department of Human Rights assisting human dimension officer. By that time I was doing my Masters with the OSCE Academy in Bishkek and had an opportunity to go to Turkmenistan and work on my MA thesis: “National Mechanisms and Political Will of Kyrgyzstan and Turkmenistan in combating human trafficking. Comparative analysis”. In this perspective it is important to mention that I have some experience with International Organization for Migration in the field of rights of labor migrants and exploited labor workers. In the aspect of Democracy and peace building, I worked in the National NGO on preventing interethnic, political and religious conflicts in Kyrgyzstan. I recently participated in training for trainers on conflict transformation and resolution applied by Johan Galtung, Professor of Peace Studies. Within the Austrian Center for Peace and OSCE Secretariat in Vienna I joined the Mission Preparation Training/Specialization Course on Combating Human Trafficking in the OSCE area.
In brief my professional interests are democratic development and influence of western counties, social movements, and gender issues, problems of migration, “Brain Drain” and trafficking in human beings. As for my hobbies as requested in the question, I am rather fond of sports, swimming, table tennis and basketball. I enjoy reading, dancing, and hand made jewelry.
First of all, I should mention that I was interested in Korea as a country as such for or a long time. This country seemed to me to be very unique in the sense that it combines both modern and conservatives values and tolerates peace. Also, I am curious to know Korean history and culture in brief, from the theory of international relations I know that Korea had experienced reasonably hard times regarding north –south division that had a strong impact and spot on the Korean history and system of the government. Frankly stating, I have not heard about the 1980 Gwangju Democratic Uprising before, so I can note that one of the motivations of mine to join the Gwangju International human rights internship programme is to learn the significance of this uprising for the people and history of Korea. In this respect, I am enthused to know what was the impact of social movements and struggle for democracy in Korea to overall economic, social and political development of Korea?. When I went through the information about the May 18 Memorial Foundation I was very supportive towards this idea, the idea of importance to keep the idea of this memory animate and considered.
According to my observation in Kyrgyzstan, Kyrgyz youth and civil society activists know very little about the human rights experience of Korea, thus there are small number of students studying in South Korea and those who gets internship opportunities and jobs. In Kyrgyzstan when people hear about programmes on human rights and democracy most of the people immediately think about US and Western Europe involvement and rarely about Asian countries, for some people this might be legitimate perceiving for some not. In this context I would like to mention that this opportunity with Gwangju International Internship program would be very helpful for young civil society activists from all over the world and Kyrgyzstan as well in terms of giving and receiving experience from each other about human rights and democratic developments.
I have several constructive expectations from this program. Personally I have personality to work with the team, feel myself as a part of unity. I believe my skills of teambuilding, tolerance towards all nationalities and various cultural, religious and political values will be very useful while working with the Solidarity Program of the General Affairs Department of the Foundation. I expect and very much believe the other three colleagues coming from different countries from all over the world will have the same intentions.
As you can observe from my CV my last working place was the Foundation for Tolerance International which is focused on peace and conflict prevention. My contract is finished with this organization and I am at the moment not involved in contemporary job, thus I am using opportunity to join the internship programme within your foundation which will be rather useful for me and for the foundation in particular I hope.
From the announcement I understood that each intern will be asked to select a research topic and present it at the end. I am thinking of several topics which I am interested to research namely in Korea of course if the they would fit into the interests of the programme and foundation. Moreover along with the researching the topics selected I would like to actively participate in lectures, seminars, discussions, fieldtrips, interviews to the places where democratization movements took place in order to have a bigger picture about the background information and use it in the paper research. Moreover, one of my objectives from the programme is to learn more about the role of the International organizations (IO) and NGOs in Korea fostering peace and freedom of human rights in Korea. What are the obstacles occurred in official level for them and how the people perceive IOs and NGOs.
During1999 – 2003 I was an undergraduate student studying the theories of International Relations, and thus I had the opportunity to focus on questions of foreign policy and diplomacy. Nevertheless, I had an overview of International and Regional Organizations (IO) and NGOs dealing with human rights issues. However, I am willing to understand in depth what are the mandates, methods and aims of the human rights organizations at the international and regional level. Moreover, I have reduced knowledge of contemporary human rights issues during the armed conflicts. Therefore, while my studies equip me with an essential background and knowledge of human rights issues, I still have areas to cover based on participation in the International Human Rights Internship Programe. My theoretical familiarity with human rights issues as drawn from my undergraduate studies would support my active participation.
Completion the Political Science Program from the OSCE Academy in Bishkek additionally supports my application for the International Human Rights Internship. The OSCE Academy modules included special courses for learning the NGOs’ and Foundations’ work with regard to human rights issues. Particular human rights, as for example, the rights of the refugees, minority rights, women and children rights constitute parts of the courses and lectures that I had the possibility to attend. In sum, at the OSCE Academy I obtained knowledge that is essential for my participation in the International Human Rights Internship and convinces me of my pro-active learning. From this point of view, the OSCE Academy strongly prepared me to benefit from the International Human Rights Internship in the area of measures taken by the international and regional organizations, with a particular focus on OSCE principles and norms on human rights protection.
My motivation to apply for internship also highly supported by my curiosity to study and research new issues your programme contains. As I so far focused on questions that are geographically pertinent to Central Asia, I have seldom come across human rights issues significant to Asia at large, or other regions. Having a global coverage, this upcoming internship experience could well enlighten my understanding of the issues that are relevant to other regions of the world, and give me the possibility to share my knowledge with other participants about questions actual to Central Asian region.
My future intention is to get involved in the workings of Regional Organizations. I am planning to build up my career with organizations that are involved in human development and security programs that are carried in developing countries. The latest trends show that Regional Organizations and NGOs are more and more employing comprehensive working techniques where issues should be tackled together, as for instance, protecting the human rights and ensuring the political stability and security of the country. Hence, here human rights issues meet political stability and security issues. International Human Rights Internship could definitely contribute towards enlightening my understanding of these interrelated fields and my preparation for to become one of those who will be able to best participate in such areas.
Amin Shah Iskandar
Amin Shah Iskandar is known as Black among the activist circa of Malaysia. Black was born July 1, 1980, in Kuala Lumpur. Black is an energetic youth and his interests spans from culturally creative activities on film, theatre, music and literature to being politically active.
Black is known as a Kuala Lumpur-based human rights activist and a singer songwriter. He is the coordinator and co-founder of University Bangsar Utama (UBU). UBU is a group of youth and student activists under the mentorship of a former 1974 student uprising leader Hishamuddin Rais, who went into exile for 20 years.
During the period of 1998-2001, known as a ‘reformasi era’, UBU was in the forefront of student and youth activism, involved in wide spectrum of issues, from protesting against the sacking of Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, anti-Mahathir authoritarianism style of leadership to being involved with an environmental anti-dam movement. Black is also very active in organizing street demonstration, involving in UBU’s political theatre group, writing feature articles for alternative publication and singing protest songs. Black is the main pillar of UBU’s free education programme for urban poor kids living in Kuala Lumpur squatter area and low cost flat housing.
In 2001, two UBU’s activists, Hishamuddin Rais and Khairul Anuar Ahmad Zainuddin, were detained without trial under Malaysian notorious act ISA. They were detained among ten other reform and pro-democracy activists. UBU was blacklisted as an illegal subversive organization by the Malaysian government. In that same year, Black initiated a Students’ Coalition Against ISA and the coalition faced a setback from government’s repression, which resulted in eight student being expelled from their universities.
Between 2004 and 2005, Black worked as an Administrator and Marketing Executive at DFX Studio, an independent film production house, producing local social awareness films and experimental videos. Realizing electoral process in Malaysia is not transparent, is corrupt, not free and fair; this year Black initiates the National Institute for Electoral Integrity (NIEI). The initiative started when he was involved with the regional organisation, Asian Network for Free Election (ANFREL) which monitors election in various countries, including Afghanistan. Black was the assistant coordinator of the mission.
During the past five years, I have gained valuable experience in various types of human rights activism, a range of fusion in cultural and direct politics. I have consistently got involve with local human rights campaign under the banner of Abolish the Internal Security Act (ISA) Movement, where the ISA allowed for detention without trial. I am also involved with the regional election monitoring group, Asian Network for Free Election (ANFREL).
I am currently in the process of organizing a local election monitoring group, called the National Institute for Electoral Integrity (NIEI). The project for NIEI is to promote voters education, producing pamphlets on the right to choose the kind of leader to be elected. While my current activity in Malaysia has been invaluable to my human rights vision in Malaysia, your intern program will beneficial to the NGO movement in Malaysia. It provides an opportunity for me to combine my continuing education on human rights with practical experience of South Korea presence situation and history. My gained experience will be beneficial to my political activism in Malaysia.
In the past, I have participated in Gwangju Biennale 2002 with my former cultural political group, University Bangsar Utama (UBU).Gwangju Biennale was instrumental in enhancing my artistic politico capabilities and the cultural environment reflected a strong sense of pride and universality. Since these are the same political ethics that I strive for personally, I can think of no better learning environment than by joining an organization such as yours.
Expectations, objectives, and interests on the human rights internship program
My fascination with South Korea begun when University Bangsar Utama (UBU), a cultural-political youth and student group was invited to Gwangju Biennale 2002. At that time UBU was part of the Artist Pro-Active (APA), an informal political-cultural forum for artists, musicians, film makers and literary activists in Malaysia. After the arrest of ten reform and pro-democracy activists in April 2001, APA played a role as a support group for detainees and their families. APA organized cultural events such as theatre show and arts exhibition to raised fund for the Anti-ISA coalition.
The trip to Gwangju Biennale exposed me to “images of dissent” as stated by an intriguing essay written by Frank Hoffmann about transformation of Korean Minjung art in HARVARD ASIA PACIFIC REVIEW, vol. 1, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 44-49. “Minjung art first appeared in 1980, just after the Kwangju Massacre. Never before in the Peninsula’s history, or perhaps anywhere else for that matter has art played such a prominent role in a nation’s drive to democratization. This was precisely why the intellectual establishment attempted to counter its influence by declaring Minjung art a non-art—subliminal propaganda devoid of aesthetic quality. Castigated by mainstream scholarship and media (state endorsed or controlled) and ignored by associated art journals and galleries until the democratic countdown began in 1987, Minjung art nonetheless developed into a highly influential and evocative force”. Wrote Hoffmann, Koreanist and art historian currently engaged in dissertation research on colonial Korean painting.
The theme of the fourth Gwangju Biennale, P_A_U_S_E, focuses primarily on a moment of critical reflection and dynamic change on the global art scene. And that made me to rethink about the role of art in Malaysian human rights activism and democratization process. Arts were never taught as a vital element of change in the Malaysian political scene. Its capacity and capabilities to transmit the language of change is underestimated, and always received a cynical skeptic views even among the human right activist themselves.
Learning from the Gwanju experience
Very unfortunately, I was in Gwangju for just two weeks and I was attending as many forum and exhibition as I could. But time and money was very much a limiting factor and I could not explore in depth the South Korean art and political scene or of the Gwangju scene for that matter. Gwangju, as the country’s “cultural capital,” could not be easily explored in just a week or two. When I visited 18 May Liberty Park I was surprised and admired the sacrifice and highly bloody price for freedom that was paid by the South Korea activists. And I am more surprised with the preservation of the event as a memorial of the uprising and the fact that May 18 is now declared a national holiday. This scenario has yet to happen in my country.
Combining cultural creativity with politics
I think art whether it is for political radicalism or art for arts’ sake, cultural creativity in South Korea has moved far ahead of us in Malaysia. Korean culture comprises an accumulation of knowledge, experience, technique and strategy. Knowledge comprising about role of the public sphere, civil society, constitutional and institutional pillar of Korean democracy, history of resistance, use of technology are among the hundreds of subject that I really desire to learn from the Koreans.
Malaysia despite its sophisticated, advanced infrastructure and wealthy resources has left behind the soul for freedom and democracy, an occupied mind of typical third world countries. That is why I am very keen to participate in May 18 Memorial Foundation international internship program. It has always been my dream to give honorary respect to the May 18 tragedy and their martyrdom. Gwangju uprising was consider a vital subject of study during my student activism day. This tragic incident of history was one of my key spirits to keep on living and to continue struggle for human rights and democracy in Malaysia and all over the world.
Develop networking for activism
Reading the brochure on the May 18 Memorial Foundation International Solidarity Program inspired me to apply for the internship. All the foci and aims describe in the brochures are similar with my intentions and interests. I would love to be attached to a political cultural group and learning and sharing experiences. In return, we in Malaysia also would love to have exchange programs to establish a two-way relationship. I hope to receive new knowledge that will be very useful in the struggle for democratization and resistance against an oppressive regime in Malaysia.
I would also like to expand my social, political and cultural circle. At the same time, in this age of information technology and globalization, I want to establish solidarity and networking mechanism not only with Korean political cultural activist but all participants of the program.
With this, I sincerely hope that I will be given the chance to engage with Korean activists to discuss challenges and approaches of youth activism in a globalizing world. The internship will also give me opportunity to share my experiences with activists in Korea.
Madhav Prasad Gautam
The National Human Rights Commission of Nepal was established in 2000 as an independent and autonomous institution under the Paris Principles to work for the protection and promotion of human rights.
I joined the Commission in 2002 as a protection Officer. As an Officer of the NHRC, I have utilized my knowledge, skills and experiences in the protection and promotional activities of the commission including complaints handling, human rights monitoring, and human rights education.
My three and a half years experience in this Commission made me familiar with NHRC’s power on investigating complaints, power on public inquiries and suo-moto, intervening in legal proceedings etc. With its fundamental power to recommend, refer, make enforceable order, publishing decisions etc. Similarly, I have been familiar with the report writing skills under the treaty monitoring bodies of UN on international instruments of human rights.
After joining the commission, I had been involved in various activities including complaints handling, Human Rights Monitoring and investigation; preparation of Annual Reports and other publications; and facilitation of training and workshops. My day to day work of complaint handling is my first choice sincce I meet lots of people and do counseling to the victims of conflicting parties ( Maoist Rebels and government troops). I was team leader of the various human rights probe team at Bara; Chitwan, Dang, Sindhuli, Dhanusha, Rauthat, Navalparasi, Sarlahi, Mahotari, Kailali, Kathmandu, Bhaktpur, Lalitpur where there are incidences of unawful and mass killings by conflicting parties. During my field visit I discuss with security forces, civil society, rebels, victim family and other concern people.
Since the last three and half year of my career in human rights commission I had investigated more than 50 different cases and monitored more than 45 conflict affected districts. I am monitoring more than 100 detention centers including army barracks and also, I monitor demonstrations of political parties.
During my missions I had interaction with rebels for the protection of civilian especially children. I had some experiences of successful mediation between jail authority and prisons. I have been resource person of various trainings on human rights including human rights monitoring training for volunteers, human rights and humanitarian law for security personals, human rights investigation for human rights defenders, and child rights monitoring training for concern non-governmental organization people.
Attending various national and international human rights trainings and workshops including civilian aspects of crises management, 18-29 may 2003, Mortein in Marsh U.K, Training Workshop on Enforcement of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights with reference to the Peace Process in Nepal, June 28-29,2003, Conflict Transformation by Peaceful Means Conducted by Transcend and GTZ; Workshop on the Role of NHRC in the Conflict Situation jointly organized by OHCHR &NHRC. workshop on NHRI’s and internally displaced person, Srilanka 26-28 Sept 2005. Besides this I had trained from different institutions about human rights and international humanitarian law.
Beside serving the Commission, I also plan to be engaged in the academics writings and teachings on different aspects of human rights. Moreover, I also plan to work as an expert for the academic institutions; this would help create an opportunity to develop expertise in human rights within Nepal where there is very little such expertise. Moreover I would also like to be active and involved in the advocacy of human rights and democracy in the country. My hobby is to read newspapers and journals and traveling new places and meet different people.
Statement of Purpose
At present Nepal is in a critical situation due to the ongoing-armed conflict between the Government and the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist), which began in 1996. The conflict has already claimed the lives of over 13,000 people and has resulted in massive human rights violations throughout the country. Unless the conflict is tackled and violence is brought to a halt, the basic human rights of the Nepalese people will continue to be in jeopardy So at present what Nepal need is human rights professional who can effectively address the human rights issues of Nepal. So in this Scenario my application for the Gwjngju International Internship Program is relevant.
The further knowledge in human rights would definitely be of a great advantage for me to excel in my professional career. It would provide me with an opportunity to groom myself in this field and work constantly for the cause of human rights in Nepal. Moreover it would also provide me with an insight on the trends of changing international scenarios and its effect on the human rights. Besides this, exposure to the international organizations would also help me know about the working procedures of the developed countries in the field of human rights that would be added assets in my professional career.
Also, I intend to learn from a diverse cultural experience like Korea which would lead to the understandinf of their values, norms and practices. The use of latest concepts and self-motivating education is another area of education I am interested to learn. Moreover, I am also interested in experiencing the aspects of cultural differences in Korea and Nepal. This will provide me with an opportunity to learn about the differences in the societies and communities. This will also be a tremendous opportunity for me to reach out to the Koreans.
I am a permanent staff of the commission. So, I am bound to serve for at least 3 years in the commission after returning from my further internship. Upon my return, I will focus on the emerging human rights issues and provide policy advice to the Commission to effectively implement its mandate of promoting of human rights.
Besides, serving the Commission, I also plan to be engaged in academic writings and teachings of human rights. Moreover, I also plan to work as an expert for the academic institutions; this would help create the development of human rights law in Nepal where there is very little such expertise. Moreover I will also be actively involved in the advocacy of human rights and democracy in my country.
Last but not the least; it will also give me an opportunity to gain knowledge of human rights from your country and those abroad.
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