Festival gives a voice to human rights
The fifth International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights in Geneva will once again be highlighting abuses committed around the world.
The event’s ambition is to give a voice to all those who are suffering and denounce problems such as violence against women or the difficulties faced by migrants in Switzerland and abroad.
“We want to highlight these problems wherever they happen,” Leo Kaneman, one of the festival’s founders, told swissinfo.
This year the organisers have decided to pay homage to the Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, murdered last October, during a special evening about the violent deaths of Russian reporters and the erosion of civil liberties under President Vladimir Putin.
On Thursday – International Women’s Day – the festival is taking a closer look at violence committed against women. Swiss President Micheline Calmy-Rey will be attending, along with the former interior minister, Ruth Dreifuss, and Luis Alfonso de Alba, president of the United Nations Human Rights Council.
The festival is also casting a critical eye over the United States war on terror and its effects on civil liberties in America. Other subjects include the threat of genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region, policing the internet, legislation against historical revisionism and the kidnapping of Japanese nationals by North Korea.
Switzerland has not been forgotten, with a documentary by Andreas Hoessli, Swiss Sans Papiers, which puts the 90,000 illegal immigrants who work in the country under the microscope.
Free speech
The festival tries to cover the whole spectrum of human rights, including economic, cultural and social rights. This means themes such as microcredit are also on the programme.
The programme is getting underway as the United Nations Human Rights Council opens its fourth session in Geneva, allowing activists to make their voices heard.
On Friday, for example, Nassera Dutour, president of the association representing the families of Algerians who have disappeared without trace, will be able to express herself freely.
In February, the Algerian authorities refused to allow a conference on forced disappearances during the 1990s. Thousands of people vanished during the civil war that was going on at the time.
But it isn’t just a soapbox for human rights specialists. The festival has become popular, showing that human rights do appeal to a wider public.
“Each year, more and more people are turning up,” said Daniel Bolomey of Amnesty International Switzerland. There were 6,000 spectators for the first event, and 16,000 last year.
swissinfo
Geneva’s fifth International Film Festival and Forum on Human Rights is taking place from March 8-15.
Twenty-six films are competing for a variety of prizes.
The festival jury includes the French-Moroccan singer Sapho, the Argentine pianist Miguel Angel Estrella and the Egyptian filmmaker Marwan Hamed.
The festival’s final evening will be given over to freedom of speech with an exhibition of seven cartoonists’ work and a debate.
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