From September 6-15 the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) held its WCC 2012 (World Conservation Congress) on Jeju Island. The event, held every four years, and said to be the world’s largest meeting of environmentalists, was held at the Jungmun Convention Center in Jeju, only minutes from Gangjeong.
On the final day of the WCC on September 15, 2012, villagers and peace volunteers had been doing 500 bows in front of the Jeju Convention Center since the early morning while the Gangjeong motion, No. 181 went through the final stages of contact groups and voting. Finally, due to government and IUCN intervention and politics, the WCC 2012 ended without a resolution on Gangjeong village, despite overwhelming support from IUCN NGOs. Although our Gangjeong motion couldn’t pass, Gangjeong people and the international friends celebrated with laughter and tears at the definite big progress we had made together and a victory of for our struggle. As Mayor Kang stated, the World now knows about Gangjeong so that the Korea government cannot simply try to hide us anymore.
This amazing victory was achieved through the super efforts of a lot of awesome people around the world. Many of them are not Koreans but simply our brothers and sisters, which makes the celebration even more worthy.
The so-called “Addictive Gangjeong Dances” were never absent during Gangjeong’s celebration. People celebrated because they are already winners for what they fight for. You can see the beautiful world citizens from and for Gangjeong in these photos.
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