Wednesday's Namsan Freedom Trail and Friday's Labor Guro Trail offer hands-on human rights education at historic sites
Guro-gu ran its "2026 Human Rights Site Tour Program" for newly hired civil servants on Wednesday and Friday.
The program was designed to let new employees visit sites tied to the history of human rights and labor, and to bring those experiences to bear on public administration for residents. Moving away from conventional lecture-style instruction, the district used the sites themselves as classrooms, with the aim of deepening participants' sensitivity to human rights issues.
The tours ran from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. on each day, with about 20 civil servants per session and roughly 40 in total.
A human rights field expert accompanied each group, providing in-depth commentary on the history and significance of every location.
The first session, on Wednesday, followed the Namsan Freedom Trail, taking in the former sixth bureau of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency, the site of the former Juja police substation, and the former KCIA main building. Participants examined documented cases of past human rights abuses at the sites and reflected on the importance of human rights in public service.
The second session, on Friday, covered the Labor Guro Trail. Participants visited the Export Bridge, the former Daewoo Apparel site, the G-Valley Industrial Museum, and Geumcheon Suni's House — a living-history center recreating the lives of workers at the old Guro Industrial Complex — tracing the daily lives of laborers from the industrialization era and reaffirming the value of workers' rights in the workplace.
Guro-gu District Mayor Jang In-hong said he hoped the program had given new employees "a meaningful opportunity to walk through historic sites and reflect deeply on the value of human rights," adding that he expected "the experience gained through this education to serve as a strong foundation for carrying out proactive public administration on behalf of residents."
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