Latest news with #FIFDH
Euronews
17-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Euronews
Defending tradition and language at Geneva'sHuman Rights Film Festival
Geneva's International Film Festival and Forum for Human Rights (FIFDH) has just wrapped up but the 'impact' of what was screened over the past ten days will resonate way beyond the Swiss city. Around 100 film projects were submitted for the "Impact Days" programme, organised as part of the event for directors and producers to present their work to potential backers. Only a dozen documentary films made the shortlist and one of them was Children of Honey, about Tanzania's Hadzabe people fighting to preserve their language. The Hadzabe are one of the oldest hunter-gatherer tribes in the world. Caught in a battle between the preservation of the old ways and the lure of modern conveniences, the community is engaged in an existential war of survival. 'When I first met the Hadza, I immediately realized that they have something which all of us have lost, which is a true connection to the natural world and also to each other. They have a very egalitarian social fabric," said Jigar Ganatra, the film's co-director. "When the idea of the film came out, the Hadza said that: 'This needs to be big, we want the world to know about our story because for far too long, we have been portrayed in a way that we don't like and also our story hasn't been heard.' "It's a great opportunity for us to be in front of people that can really support us, not just on the film side but on the real change maker side,' added Ganatra. Directors and producers also met with committed international players concerned by the struggles addressed in the films they watched. Simona Nickmanova, an impact producer on Children of Honey explained more about the filmmakers' work to understand the Hadza: 'We are working to understand where are their most urgent needs right now and how we can support already existing grass roots initiatives. They are very keen on preserving their language, as well as preserving their habitat and making sure that they are telling their own story.' Sentiments shared by the film's producer Natalie Humphreys: "This is really participatory, filmmaking co-creation, done in the right way. Not just in the new way, but the only way we should do going forward, which is participatory, where the community invite us in, which is what happened here, so that they have an international team to help get the story out." The talents all share one thing in common; they use film to foster change in communities. For more details watch the video in the player above. Growing up in Mumbai's Ambedkar Nagar district, Ashok experienced firsthand the challenges many children face. Through his educational initiative, OSCAR Foundation. Ashok uses football to motivate and instil academic focus.
Arab News
17-03-2025
- Politics
- Arab News
UNRWA chief confident he is on ‘right side of history'
GENEVA: UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini acknowledges that it has been 'stressful' leading the embattled UN agency for Palestinian refugees, but says he is confident he is 'on the right side of history.' The 61-year-old head of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees has, along with his organization, withstood a barrage of criticism and accusations from Israel since Hamas's deadly October 7, 2023 attack inside Israel and the devastating war in Gaza that followed. 'Of course it is stressful. No one could really be prepared for something like this,' Lazzarini told AFP in a recent interview. It has been rough from the start. The softly-spoken Swiss father of four began his tenure in 2020 under Covid lockdown, as UNRWA was reeling after the United States — traditionally its largest donor — dramatically slashed its contribution during President Donald Trump's first term. But that was nothing compared to what was to come. 'October 7 basically ... destroyed the last protection dikes that UNRWA might have had,' he said, lamenting the 'arsenal' it unleashed 'to try to discredit the agency, attack the agency, get rid of the agency.' Relations between Israel and UNRWA, which supports nearly six million Palestinian refugees across Gaza, the West Bank, Jordan, Lebanon and Syria, have long been strained, but they have fallen off a cliff in the past year and a half. Israel's allegation that some UNRWA staff took part in the October 7 attack spurred a string of nations early last year to at least temporarily halt their backing for the already cash-strapped agency. Lazzarini warned of 'the real risk of the agency collapsing and imploding.' Serving as the 'backbone' of the aid operation in Gaza, UNRWA should have funding until June, he said. 'I have no visibility' beyond that, added Lazzarini, speaking to AFP on the sidelines of the FIFDH human rights film festival in Geneva where a film about UNRWA was featured. Funding gaps are not the only problem the agency faces. Amid accusations that UNRWA was 'infested with Hamas terror activity,' Israel in January took the unprecedented step of severing ties with the UN agency and banning it from operating on Israeli soil. While UNRWA can still operate in Gaza and the West Bank, it has been barred from contact with Israeli officials, making it difficult to coordinate the safe delivery of aid in the Palestinian territories. No aid is meanwhile going into Gaza, since Israel halted deliveries to the Strip amid a deadlock over a fragile ceasefire. 'This decision threatens the life and survival of civilians in Gaza,' Lazzarini warned. He also described the situation in the West Bank, where Israel has for weeks been carrying out a major offensive, 'deeply, deeply troubling.' While uncertain how things would evolve, he said the threat of an Israeli annexation of the West Bank was hanging like 'a Damocles sword over the head of the Palestinians (and) the international community.' Israel has said that UNRWA can be replaced by other UN agencies or NGOs. But Lazzarini argued that while other organizations could handle distributing humanitarian aid, they could not replace UNRWA's delivery of 'government-like services' such as education and health care. Without UNRWA, 'we would definitely sacrifice a generation of kids, who would be deprived from proper education,' he warned. Education should also be a top priority for Israel, he insisted. 'If you deprive 100,000 girls and boys in Gaza (of an) education, and if they have no future, and if their school is just despair and living in the rubble, I would say we are just sowing the seeds for more extremism.' Israel has for years accused UNRWA schools teaching anti-Semitism and a hatred of Israel. Lazzarini decried 'an extraordinary war of disinformation' against the agency. Lazzarini, who himself has been the target of virulent attacks, acknowledged that 'certainly I don't read everything and don't listen to everything.' 'Otherwise you wouldn't sleep anymore.' He added: 'If I didn't feel that I am still on the right side of history, I don't think I would continue to carry on.' But, he said, 'I have been given a voice, and obviously I need to use this voice.' 'That is the minimum we owe to the Palestinian refugees who are pretty voiceless.'
