This year, 2024, will host elections for more than a billion people in Asia, with major democracies such as India, Indonesia, Taiwan, Bangladesh, South Korea, and Pakistan holding important suffrage. There are some indications, however, which point to the quality of these elections being questionable. The region faces the spread of misinformation, growing polarization, ever-more-turbulent geopolitical headwinds, the growth of technology and social media, and forceful authoritarian influence. In this discussion, we will discuss how such factors contribute to the degradation of the electoral process in Asia and how do we enable reform to ensure that our elections remain have the citizens in their heart.

Some may say that the truth has been told, reparations have been made, and the issue is now in the past. But in terms of transitional justice, there is still a long way to go. Restorative justice is far from complete, as the perpetrators of the genocide remain unpunished, and distortions of history are still prevalent. Only irreversible justice can prevent similar tragedies from recurring, as we have seen in Latin America and South Africa. We are embarking on a two-year journey towards an irreversible and complete resolution of the Gwangju Uprising. International activists who are collaborating to find resolution to state violence in the past and present will take overseas examples and focus discussions to analyze possible step by step tasks that will bring impact. International norms will be reviewed to see how transitional justice processes have contributed to restorative justice in various countries and how they are currently implementing transitional justice. These findings will then be used to find ways to unpack the unfinished challenges in Gwangju.

The Transitional Justice Session is a permanent topic of the GDF and is co-organized by Asia Justice and Rights (AJAR), a human rights organization that works internationally to implement transitional justice.

This year's GDF will specifically address the issue of impunity, one of the most challenging aspects of transitional justice. Impunity is when atrocities caused by authoritarian states or state organizations are never investigated, and when the truth is revealed, no accountability is asked from the perpetrators. The lack of accountability and, at the minimum, acknowledgment and apology by the perpetrators leaves victims with no way to resolve their resentment and trauma. We hope that the GDF 2024 will highlight the prevalence of impunity in Asia as a case study. The results will lead to international solidarity for those working to implement a transitional justice where bad actors are held accountable.

The Korean civil society has a long history of showing solidarity for the democratization of Myanmar. In the early 2000s, Korean civil society came together to carry out the “Burma Democratization Movement” calling for democracy and for the military to hand over power to the civilians. The 2021 military coup, brought together the Korean civil society again in which have been carrying out a campaign calling for freedom of Myanmar. This special session, organized by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies at Jeonbuk National University, will look into the lives of refugees who have fled to the border areas, the current situation in the region, and international solidarity activities in Myanmar.

The day before the session, May 16, we will also screen four short documentaries, specially brought in from the Thai-Myanmar border giving the audience a first glance of the realities on the groud and directly hear the voices of the Myanmar people.

The crisis of public broadcasters and their journalists threatens to undermine the freedom of media and expression that makes democracy possible, and to undermine the stability and health of democratic societies that have been built and developed over time. In this program, we will examine the political, economic, and social crisis of public broadcasting in Korea and other countries and discuss the diagnoses of journalists, journalists in the field, civic activists, and politicians, as well as alternative solutions.