Asian
Human Rights Commission
Basil Fernando of AHRC awarded 2001 Gwangju Prize
for Human Rights Award - Acceptance
Speech by Basil Fernando
AHRC - Gwangju Prize for Human Rights was Presented to Basil Fernando on 18 May 2001 in the city of Gwangju, republic of Korea
Gwangju Prize
for Human Rights was Presented to Basil Fernando
on 18 May 2001 in the city of Gwangju, republic of Korea
On the 18 May 2001, Basil Fernando, Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) and the Asian Legal Resource Cetnre (ALRC) received the 2nd Gwangju Prize for Human Rights. Mr. Fernando received the prize from Mr. Yoon Young-Kyu, President of the May 18 Memorial Foundation in front of a large crowed gathered at the new City Hall of Gwangju.
Mr. Yoon Young-Kyu, president of the May 18 Memorial Foundation made the welcome speech which provided the background of the prize and key reasons why Mr. Fernando was selected for the award. Following that, the prize and the statue which is given to the recipients of the prize was presented to Mr. Fernando. After the prize presentation, Mr. Fernando delivered his acceptance speech[hyperlink to the speech].
Those who were present at the ceremony included citizens of Gwangju, prominent human rights activists, members of non-governmental organizations, prominent poets, religious leaders, members of the City Council, members of the National Assembly of Republic of Korea and the mayor of Gwangjuu city. The event was also attended by family members of the disappeared and activists from Sri Lanka, Indonesia (1965 massacre victims), Mindanao - The Philippines and NGO representatives from Japan.
Acceptance Speech by Basil Fernando
Distinguished President of the May 18 Memorial Foundation Mr.Yoon Young-gyu, distinguished members of the Board of Directors, distinguished guests, dear citizens of Gwangju, friends, ladies and gentlemen:
It is an immense honour for me and my colleagues at the Asian Human Rights Commission and Asian Legal Resource Centre to receive the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.
When I first learned about the Gwangju Uprising it made a large impression on me, as I am sure it will have on many others. As I began to visit Gwangju and learnt more about it directly, what impressed me was the far-sightedness of the Gwangju people when faced with a grave situation.
My mind goes back to Bradley Martin’s description of his meeting on May 26, 1980 with the student leader Yun Sang-won. It was clear that the young man knew what was to come. The stories of others also point to their deliberate choice to fight with clear knowledge that there was a real risk of death. “Death be not proud”, they truly said. In the depths of their minds there were two clear options, between saving the spirit of the people or letting them become demoralized. They thought they could make the difference. Their far-sightedness lay in their ability to grasp the significance of the moment they were in, and decide on their path for the future. As they faced the guns, they saved their people from what is worse than death: moral degeneration and decay. They made it possible for the smile of democracy to descend on this land again and they turned the victory drinks of the military dictators into poison. In making that choice, they achieved the highest that any human being can aspire to. So it is that one comes to this city, blessed by such children, not only with respect but also with reverence.
It is time to revive the far-sightedness, the vast imagination and great sensitivity of the people who are remembered on the May 18. It is time that we re-articulate their aspiration in global terms and it is time to grasp the possibilities of that moment.
In recent years the Asian Human Rights Commission has tried to raise the importance of folk inspiration for democracy and human rights. We also have tried to promote the folk-school concept. I am beginning understand the great Gwangju event as a folk movement. Let me explain. Bradley Martin says that he did not know the name of the student who spoke to him till several years after, when Soh Eugene told him his name. Such was the case for the names of others in this story: they were not prominent people. The whole city was involved, a huge number of people, including both men and women. Their actions were not directed by established think tanks or inspired by academic research. What was right and wrong, what had to be done and not done, was decided the way ordinary folk do: by making great decisions in the depth of their hearts. They proved once again a universal truth: that the ultimate guardians of democracy and human decency are the ordinary folk and not the elite of a society. It is to this base of folk inspiration that we urge all human rights movements and democratic forces to direct their attention.
We too are now facing rather unusual times, in which the choices we make may have profound implications for the future.
The Asian Human Rights Commission has tried to bring to everyone’s attention the tremendous meaning lying in the communication revolution that is taking place in the world at present. Human civilization is at a rare juncture where global interaction is becoming possible to a degree that our imagination is still too limited to grasp. Used to narrow expectations and regional considerations on the one hand, and conditioned by the experiences of the Cold War on the other, the imagination of our generation has become bogged in the mud, while the waters above it have begun to run with immense speed. Our dreams are too primitive, our aspirations too timid, and our ambitions too narrow. It is time to wake up to our new situation; to realize an unalterable change in the intensity of human interaction made possible by a communication revolution, which has the potential for initiating a new era of human relationships.
The wind of unification that is blowing in Korea is taking place in this climate. It is with subdued excitement that we on the outside are watching. Our parents used to listen to the radio or read newspapers with anxiety during the Korean War. We now await a different turn of events soon. In this climate of communication, ‘soon’ often means very soon.
This is also true of the rest of Asia. Among the most wretchedly treated people in the world are the Dalits of India, known once as ‘untouchables’. The silence imposed by draconian suppression sanctified by religious rituals of Brahmins was such that the outside world knew little about this colossal cruelty. However, the changes in communication systems are now tearing the curtains down. The global debate on Dalit liberation has begun and we will hear more and more of it in the future. Just like Apartheid, this form of discrimination based on classification on the basis of birth will be subject to more and more ridiculed before it also ends.
All forms of authoritarianism and corruption will have to reckon with the changes in communications. The more that capable democratic and human rights minded people are using these communications, the more they will be able to deal with such issues, with far greater efficiency than any of the past generations. Time will have begun to run out for those means of denying democracy if people who are fighting against them will be willing to wear the wings that this modern communication age is capable of giving them.
The power of communication will become beneficial to people only when a link is established between the ordinary folk of our nations. The weakness of formal democracies in our region has been that all power has been kept in the hands of elite sections of society. Parliaments have often become places so distanced from the people. State officials have acted more like masters than servants; police and law enforcement officers have often been like superior beings, with the capacity to harm rather than help the people. Even the judiciary has frequently had no capacity to hear and understand the people. Modern communication changes are creating possibilities to challenge all this. Such a challenge will come when ordinary folk find their own ways to penetrate information curtains and become capable of making themselves heard. The future of democracy will very much depend on them.
At present, everywhere in Asia there is so much cruelty and horror.
Torture is endemic in many countries in Asia. There are wide spread extra-judicial killings and disappearances. Public or national securities laws in many countries give draconian powers to state agencies and the abuse of such power is common. Confessions are more used in trials ignoring the potential for enormous abuses. The culprits who abuse human rights enjoy direct and indirect impunity. In several countries in Asia law and order situation has virtually collapsed. Bringing perpetrators of human rights violations and crimes, when such crimes even amounting to crimes against humanity and war crimes, to justice still remain almost impossible. In this regard the situation of Indonesia regarding past crimes of the Soeharto’s military dictatorship needs to be specially mentioned. To turn this horror into hope, this cruelty into humanity, we must see beneath the possibilities. Out of the ashes of this horror something positive needs to be created. This hour belongs to those who have the far-sightedness, the imagination, the ambition and boldness to explore the possibilities of the moment, to make what seems impossible occurs.
Perhaps part of the reason I am so attracted by the Gwangju Uprising is because of the situation of my own country, Sri Lanka. Decision-makers there have always been the elite, and ordinary folk have never been listened to, due to culturally created constraints of status, caste and race. Every Sri Lankan now knows that the nation is facing a grave situation. It is my belief that it is ordinary people who need to intervene and who alone can make a difference. I am sure you will extend solidarity to all our people, people of all the different races living in Sri Lanka.
The Asian Human Rights Commission holds that we need a new vision and a new strategy for the global human rights movement, and particularly in Asia, to face the challenges of the 21st Century, an era of global communications. Human rights movements with a bottom-up approach, which are constantly fed by folk inspiration, are necessary. Without this, it is not possible to break the impasse faced by the global human rights movement, including the United Nations mechanisms for human rights. Let us invoke the inspiration of the Gwangju uprising globally, to achieve this end.
Before concluding may I also recall the launching of the Asian Human Rights Charter-A Peoples Charter in Gwangju in May 1998, an event organized by the Asian Human Rights Commission and Gwangju Citizens Solidarity (KCS). The Asian Charter too was an attempt to bring about a discussion among the people on the need for a regional mechanism for enforcement of human rights in Asia.
I thank the May 18 Memorial Foundation in Gwangju for presenting me with the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, which I humbly accept and which I am happy to announce will be used to spread the folk-school approach towards the promotion of human rights and democracy.
Thank you.
Welcome Address by the President of May 18 Memorial Foundation
On behalf of the May 18 Memorial Foundation, I would like to extend our thanks to the representatives from many citizens' groups, Father Jo Bi-Oh who suffered hardship as the head-commissioner of the Judging Board for the Gwagnju Prize for Human Rights, and Lawyer Lee Gi-Hong and other senior comrades of the region, for attending the 2nd Awarding Ceremony of the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights.
The May 18 Democratic Uprising has its 21st anniversary this year. Various memorial events are being held, not only in Gwangju, but nationwide.
What is more meaningful about this year, is that the social and cultural groups of this region are cooperating for the events, overcoming misunderstandings and mistrust. "One mind toward May, one nation toward reunification" didn't end in a mere gesture, but is being practiced in our life, now.
It is a great pleasure to hold the 2nd Awarding Ceremony of the Gwagnju Prize for Human Rights in this mature spirit of reconciliation and reunification.
"The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights" was established to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Gwangju uprising, combining the "Yun Sang-Won Prize" and the "May Citizens' Prize", which were established and conducted by Gwangju citizens. The Gwangju Prize for Human Rights has as its object to find and award individuals and groups, either at home or beyond the boundaries of Gwagnju and Korea, who have made great contributions towards universal values, human rights and peace.
This goal presents the future of the memorial projects, in terms of pursuing the globalization of the May 18 spirit in people's struggles for human rights, peace and democratization in Asia, and in the world.
Mr. Basil Fernando, Executive Director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, who is the second recipient of the Gwangju Prize for Human Rights, has made a great effort earlier than many others to spread the Gwangju spirit, to realize the universality of the May 18 Democratic Uprising.
Since AHRC's visit to Gwangju in 1996 for "the 1st International Youth Camp to Continue the May 18 Spirit," he has returned to Gwangju every year, and has explained the truth of the May 18 Democratic Uprising and its historical significance to many other Asian countries without any hesitation. Holding the historical "Asian Meeting for Declaration of Human Rights" in Gwangju in 1998, Mr. Fernando rendered a decisive service putting Gwagnju at the center of the history of Asian human rights and democracy.
Mr. Basil Fernando is a true missionary of the May 18 spirit and a true friend to us, a friend to Gwangju. It is our great pleasure to award him the 2nd Gwangu Prize for Human Rights. We believe his receiving the prize will bring still more opportunities to promote solidarity and friendship between the Korean people and other Asians, between Gwangju citizens and citizens of the world.
Once again, I would like to express my thanks to the honored guests who have come to congratulate Mr. Basil Fernando's receiving the 2nd Gwangju Prize for Human Rights. I think we all will share in his pleasure. Thank you very much.
May 18, 2001
Yun Young-Gyu,
President of the May 18 Memorial Foundation
Speech by a Member of Panel of Judges of the Award on the Selection Process
The spirit of the May 18 Gwangju uprising has become a light of hope to Asia’s people who are struggling against an anti-democratic and inhuman order today. To overcome this oppressive order, an indomitable courage to stand against brutal violence is required. In addition, one must have a devotion to examine the truth and to push for the punishment of those responsible for the violence that is perpetrated against other human beings and to endeavor to promote political and socio-economic democracy. This then is what is necessary to overcome the massacre of Asia’s people and to develop democracy, a feat which often seems impossible in Asia.
The Gwangju Human Rights Award that is given to a person or organization that reflects the spirit of the Gwangju uprising was first awarded last year to Xanana Gusmao, chairman of the CNRT (National Council of Timorese Resistance) in East Timor. This year’s recipient of the second Gwangju Human Rights Award is Basil Fernando of the Asian Human Rights Commission (ARHC) in Hong Kong.
In granting the award, the original purpose of the prize must always be kept in mind: to recognize a person or organization that best promotes and protects human rights in the Asian region, a part of the world that shares with us in Korea a similar historical experience. It is for this reason that Basil Fernando has been chosen this year as he is one of the most prominent and passionate human rights activists in the region. He has tirelessly sought to promote the human rights of Asia’s people, especially those who have been the most neglected and oppressed.
Mr. Fernando also has a strong belief that the Gwangju uprising on May 18, 1980, is a positive symbol of the commitment and courage of the human rights movement in Asia and of what it can achieve. Because of this conviction, he has organized many seminars, workshops and international events in order to spread the spirit of the Gwangju uprising to others in Asia. He has thus significantly contributed to enhancing the international image of Gwangju through these activities that he has promoted and organized.
Reflecting the desire to spread the spirit of Gwangju on May 18, 1980, throughout the world, we cannot but feel a deep sense of thanks and friendship for his endeavor to recognize Gwangju as “the city of human rights and peace” to all of Asia’s people beyond the Korean Peninsula through organizing the Asian Conference to Declare the Asian Human Rights Charter that was held in Gwangju from May 13 to 20, 1998, at which more than 30 Asian human rights leaders attended.
We believe that his selection as the recipient of the second Gwangju Human Rights Award will give courage and hope to all of those who are actively struggling for human rights, peace and democracy in Asia.
May 18, 2001
Fr. Jo Bi-oh Cheolhyun
The Chairperson of the selection committee for the 2nd Gwangju
Human Rights Award
Asian Human Rights
Commission
Email: ahrchk@ahrchk.org
Last updated May 24, 2001 11:51 AM.
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