Participants were also able to gain firsthand learning via a series of field visits to South Korean institutions and organizations related to human rights. The participants visited the Constitutional Court of Korea and were able to learn about the court processes and rulings directly from a Constitutional Court researcher. The Constitutional Court received particularly high attention from the participants due to the then ongoing ruling of the former president Park Geun Hye’s impeachment motion. Afterwards, they had a chance to visit the National Human Rights Commission of Korea to learn about the role of the commission and the process of reporting human rights violation cases.
 
 Later that afternoon, the participants divided into subgroups had a chance to visit six human organizations based on their interest. The six organizations were as follows: Korean Lawyers for Public Interest and Human Rights, Migrants Workers Trade Union (MTU), PSPD (People’s Solidarity for Participatory Democracy), Human Rights Foundation SARAM, Korean Sexual Minority Culture and Rights Center (KSCRC), and NANCEN (Center for Refugee’s Rights). It was a great opportunity for the participants to directly engage with grassroots practitioners and learn from them about the human rights challenges faced by different communities in South Korea. The participants were able to gain useful insights on advocacy strategies from the organizations, which would enhance the participants’ work back home.

Atty. Minhee Ryu was an excellent speaker. She was honest and shared with us the difficulties encountered by her organization. It was good to see their actual workplace, which was not very big and located in a very old building. This gave us the real picture of human rights advocacy in Korea. It was very inspiring to hear Minhee’s stories and to witness her passion and commitment and to learn how Hope and Law has advanced the cause of LGBT and other minority rights in Korea. (Raymond Alikpala, The Philippines)