
The History of KHRI
By: Je Young of Korea International School
SDGs: Quality education, Reduced inequalities, Peace justice and strong institutions
Every year in April, many KIS students sacrifice their lunch and advisory times to participate in a, week-long event known as Human Rights Week (HRW). In past iterations, HRW has focused on a different topic of social justice, each based around a certain UN Sustainable Development Goal (UNSDG). From this, the event has brought in famous internet figures like the Korean YouTuber Jonathan to talk about the issue of race in South Korea, activists from the broader international school community like Cherry Sung to discuss environmentalist initiatives, as wellas academics like Sokeel Park to discuss the conditions and experience of North Koreans, among many others.
This has been the case for the past five years that the HRW Organizational Council has operated, but ever since the 2020-2021 school year, the group rebranded itself as the Korea International School Human Rights Initiative, or KHRI for short.
This change was done for the purpose of expanding our vision to beyond that one week in April and into one that applies to the entirety of the school year. Fundamentally, this means that our goals have remained the same: raise awareness for the various social issues that exist in the world; inspire KIS students to involve themselves in activist campaigns and related activities both within the school community and beyond; and prepare students to enter into the broader world possessing the ideals of global citizenship. However, the methods in which we pursue the aforementioned goals have developes.
Specifically, we have sought to organize additional events spread out throughout the school year. Although we have continued to maintain HRW as our primary event, we still found the time to hold a seminar discussing the findings of a study done on the condition of the LGBTQ+ community in South Korea with people from the Yale Lowenstein International Clinic for Human Rights as well as another on the practice of shackling on disabled persons with Human Rights Watch in October and early April of this year alone. This was also accompanied by plans for high school-wide advisory activities that were meant to engage the studentry in the topic of human rights through exploring their application on certain groups of people, especially those who have been historically disadvantaged based on race, sex, gender, or class, among others.
We have also been setting the foundation to start engaging with other international schools within Korea and beyond. Already having coordinated with many other service organizations within KIS to involve themselves in HRW, we have also counselled with Singapore American School concerning their Service Council system to look into how we can further share a unified vision amongst all clubs within the school. Additionally, informally reaching out to service clubs within other schools like SFS has already occurred, with our goal to further develop relationships across the international schools of Korea in the coming years.
In all, KHRI is still a continuation of the HRW Council which preceded it, but with a much broader goal of applying its goals of incentivizing students to become cognizant, active members of their community not only within Korea International School, but within Korea, Asia, and the world as a whole.
This has been the case for the past five years that the HRW Organizational Council has operated, but ever since the 2020-2021 school year, the group rebranded itself as the Korea International School Human Rights Initiative, or KHRI for short.
This change was done for the purpose of expanding our vision to beyond that one week in April and into one that applies to the entirety of the school year. Fundamentally, this means that our goals have remained the same: raise awareness for the various social issues that exist in the world; inspire KIS students to involve themselves in activist campaigns and related activities both within the school community and beyond; and prepare students to enter into the broader world possessing the ideals of global citizenship. However, the methods in which we pursue the aforementioned goals have developes.
Specifically, we have sought to organize additional events spread out throughout the school year. Although we have continued to maintain HRW as our primary event, we still found the time to hold a seminar discussing the findings of a study done on the condition of the LGBTQ+ community in South Korea with people from the Yale Lowenstein International Clinic for Human Rights as well as another on the practice of shackling on disabled persons with Human Rights Watch in October and early April of this year alone. This was also accompanied by plans for high school-wide advisory activities that were meant to engage the studentry in the topic of human rights through exploring their application on certain groups of people, especially those who have been historically disadvantaged based on race, sex, gender, or class, among others.
We have also been setting the foundation to start engaging with other international schools within Korea and beyond. Already having coordinated with many other service organizations within KIS to involve themselves in HRW, we have also counselled with Singapore American School concerning their Service Council system to look into how we can further share a unified vision amongst all clubs within the school. Additionally, informally reaching out to service clubs within other schools like SFS has already occurred, with our goal to further develop relationships across the international schools of Korea in the coming years.
In all, KHRI is still a continuation of the HRW Council which preceded it, but with a much broader goal of applying its goals of incentivizing students to become cognizant, active members of their community not only within Korea International School, but within Korea, Asia, and the world as a whole.