Also live stream via live.debalie.nl
This year’s Human Rights Weekend invites you to reflect: what is your opinion on important human rights issues of our time? How are you indirectly involved in human rights violations elsewhere? What role could you play in defending human rights?
Find out where you stand and learn more about human rights by participating in a weekend of films, discussions and photography. Meet film directors, Human Rights Watch researchers, journalists, members of parliament and others and discover your position on topics such as the link between modern slavery and your seafood, the challenges to democracy and migration in Europe, increasing pressure on media freedom, forgotten war crimes and the impact of artificial intelligence on human rights.
The official spoken language for all programs will be English.
For more information and to buy tickets for the different programs, click on the program titles below.
MEDIA FREEDOM UNDER THREAT (Friday 8 Feb / 18:30)
Murders, death threats and ‘fake news’: Across the globe media freedom is increasingly under pressure. United States President Donald Trump’s expressed aversion to the media is even so severe that a coalition of journalists created a tracker to monitor legal and physical threats facing journalists in the US.
LIVING IN THE SHADOWS: PEOPLE WITH ALBINISM IN TANZANIA (Saturday 9 Feb / 13:00)
People with albinism in parts of Africa continue to live under the threat of horrific violence or death due to myths that the organs and limbs of people with albinism bring prosperity. Children with albinism not only live in fear of attack, but they also are often segregated from society, sent to live in temporary shelters, separated from their families and communities.
REPORTING ON IRAQ AND ISRAEL/PALESTINE (Saturday 9 Feb / 16:30)
In this masterclass, we take you behind the scenes of our work in Iraq and Israel/Palestine. Together with Senior Iraq Researcher Belkis Wille and Israel and Palestine Director Omar Shakir, we explore the practical challenges, how to research and report on all parties involved and feasible advocacy strategies to bring about change.
PECHAKUCHA AT HUMAN RIGHTS WEEKEND 2019 (Saturday 9 Feb / 20:30)
During the Human Rights Weekend, PechaKucha Amsterdam works together with Human Rights Watch and De Balie for a special human rights themed PechaKucha edition. The event will be a platform for an inspirational exchange of ideas and projects related to something that connects us all — our rights.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE, BIG DATA & HUMAN RIGHTS (Sunday 10 Feb / 13:00)
Artificial intelligence and big data have an extensive impact on our lives, playing a role when we apply for schools or jobs, when we shop and when we skim our social media feeds. Moreover, in some countries police and intelligence agencies use algorithms to determine which neighborhoods to focus on or to identify whether we’re security risks.
EUROPE 2019: REFUGEES, DEMOCRACY AND HUMAN RIGHTS (Sunday 10 Feb / 16:30)
Join members of the Dutch Parliament and the European Parliament to discuss these issues in this House of Commons debate. With the European Parliament elections coming up in May 2019, the time is now to tackle critical issues in Europe, such as rights-abusive governments, increasing threats to democracy, and the challenges involved in migration.
CHECK OUT THE MOVIES
PROSECUTING EVIL (Thursday 7 Feb / 19:30)
Barry Avrich’s gripping new documentary tells the fascinating story of Ben Ferencz—the last surviving Nuremberg prosecutor and lifelong advocate of “law not war.” After witnessing Nazi concentration camps shortly after liberation, Ferencz became lead prosecutor in the Einsatzgruppen case at Nuremberg, which has been called the biggest murder trial in history.
ON HER SHOULDERS (Friday 8 Feb / 20:00)
Nobel Peace Prize winner Nadia Murad is a 25-year-old lifeline to the Yezidi community. A survivor of the 2014 atrocities against the Yezidi in northern Iraq, Nadia escaped sexual slavery at the hands of the Islamic State (also known as ISIS) and witnessed the murder of those closest to her. With the love of her people propelling her forward, Nadia is determined to turn her pain into international action. She now shoulders immense burdens as a key public figure whose supporters are pushing her further into the spotlight.
AFGHAN CYCLES (Saturday 9 Feb / 14:30)
What lengths would you go to in order to ride a bicycle? Afghan Cycles follows a new generation of young Afghan women cyclists. For all of them, the bicycle is a symbol of freedom and they ride despite cultural barriers, limited infrastructure and death threats, embracing the power and freedom that comes with the sport.
ON MY WAY OUT (Saturday 9 Feb / 18:00)
Roman (Popi) and Ruth (Nani) Blank have been married for 65 years, but at age 95, Roman reveals a secret that tests their seemingly invincible union, in Brandon and Skyler Gross’ touching portrait of their grandparents.
THE SILENCE OF OTHERS (Sunday 10 Feb / 14:30)
A 1977 amnesty law in Spain known as “the pact of forgetting” prohibits legal action related to the oppression, torture, and murder of an estimated 100,000 people during Franco’s 40-year dictatorship. But for much of the population – including the survivor who passes his torturer’s home every day on the way to market, the children of forcibly disappeared parents found buried in mass graves, and parents still searching for their children seized at birth and handed to Franco’s allies – there is no peace in silence.
GHOST FLEET (Sunday 10 Feb / 18:00)
Ghost Fleet is a documentary feature that uncovers the vast injustice of modern slavery in the Thai fishing industry through thrilling escape stories. As global fishing stocks are depleted and commercial fishing operations toil under tighter and tighter budgets, the need for slave labor grows.
SCREWDRIVER (Sunday 10 Feb / 20:30)
After spending more than a decade in prison for an attack on an Israeli settler, Ziad struggles to readjust to life in Ramallah and doesn’t recognize the world around him. He’s weighed down by an incredible sadness as he tries to live what feels like an already lost life. When he meets a young Palestinian-American filmmaker, it becomes clear Ziad’s problems aren’t just sociological, but also psychological. With no real help to heal this unseen wound, it seems that he might end up exactly where he began.
SPONSORS AND PARTNERS
