Here are the 2010 themes
see FILMS and PROGRAMME for more information

MIGRATION AND HUMAN WRONGS
Thursday 4th February

The films - Long Distance Love, The Fortress, Europe or Die Trying, Kingsley's Crossing, Malta Radio.
The issue - How do we face the growing human rights problems of modern migration? In recent years, ever stricter and more streamlined migration laws have increasingly justified the term 'illegal migrants', denying migrants even the most basic human rights. Policy makers and society in general seem accepting of a growing trend, which is to put the blame on the migrants themselves: In leaving their own country, they give up any rights they once had. But isn't this rather a sign of legal standards being out of synch with global migration trends? And aren't we running the risk of losing our own humanity if we don't address this problem in a far more profound way?

Today, we operate with two very different sets of human rights: One for the privileged enough to be safe and comfortable in their countries of origin, quite another for those who decide - for whatever reason - to look for a better life somewhere else in the world.

Human Rights Watch have written a report about migration (Sept 2009) that is highly relevant for the films and debates under this festival theme. It is entitled Pushed Back, Pushed Around - Italy's Forced Return of Boat Migrants and Asylum Seekers, Libya's Mistreatment of Migrants and Asylum Seekers. You can read it here.

MIGRASJON OG MENNESKERETTIGHETER
Torsdag 4. februar

Filmene - Long Distance Love, The Fortress, Europe or Die Trying, Kingsley's Crossing, Malta Radio
Saken - Hvordan møter vi de økende menneskerettighetsproblemene knyttet til global migrasjon? I de senere årene har vi sett en stadig strengere innvandringspolitikk i Europa, rettferdiggjort blant annet av betegnelser som ”illegale innvandrere”. Denne innstrammingen fratar migranter selv de mest basale menneskerettigheter. Politikere og samfunnet generelt synes å akseptere en holdning om at migranter kan skylde seg selv; når de forlater sitt eget land gir de samtidig opp de rettighetene de hadde. Men er det ikke heller et tegn på at juridiske standarder ikke er i overenstemmelse med globale trender for migrasjon? Og risikerer vi ikke å miste vår menneskelighet om vi ikke møter utfordringen fra denne migrasjonen på en annen, mer grunnleggende måte? I dag opererer vi med to typer menneskerettigheter; en type for de som er priviligerte nok til å bli der de kommer fra, og en type for de som, uansett årsak, bestemmer seg for å lete etter et bedre liv et annet sted i verden.
__________________________________________________________________________________

WORLDS WITHOUT WITNESSES
Friday 5th February

The films - Chechnya's Missing Women, Women in Shroud, City of the Roma, To Shoot and Elephant, The Problem - Testimony of the Saharawi People

The issue - What happens when a state shuts its borders to outside scrutiny? These days the answer is more and more often that courageous journalists, activist and individuals step in and use new media technologies. Often at great risk, they manage to capture the crucial information on film, and then somehow get the film out of the country and seen by a wider world. How important is this information?

New media and technology gives new possibilities for spreading information by journalists and by people at large. Mobile phones and handy-cams make it possible to communicate incidents almost in real time, and to do so using methods that are hard to control. At the same time there are regimes that are determined to hide what is happening in their countries – journalists are denied access to the country or to the area of conflict where war crimes and human rights abuses are occurring. How might we begin to relate to these realities that simply do not exist in the limelight of the so-called ‘normal’ media. What do most people really know about the conditions journalists are working in in Turkmenistan? (so little is know we don’t even have a film about it!). Does this place really exist? A world without witnesses is a world that is wiped of the map when it comes to any coverage at all.

When the Burmese monks demonstrated in autumn of 2007, the whole world was able to follow them as they marched peacefully in the streets, how the numbers increased day by day, and how they were in the end brutally suppressed. But then the news flow stopped. Both on account of the fact the junta threw journalists, bloggers and activist into jail, but also because they managed to block all access to the Internet. Ever increasing sophistication of communication technologies are paralleled by the rate of development of tools to control.

There is no doubt that new technology and new media contributes to the democratisation of our information society and encompasses the possibilities to disperse information about abuses and oppression, for example the sms’s from Mads Gilbert during the Gaza conflict a year ago. This makes us feel as though we are in the middle of where it is happening, always, we feel engaged and enraged. But how soon do we turn our minds to the next place it is at, and how much did we really understand in the first place.

The question we must now ask is where all this new information is taking us? Does it lead to more effective political reaction and subsequent action? Or is it leading us towards being current affairs consumers and instantaneous activists, who demand a clear position from politicians there and then, without ever seeing if they follow up on their promises or not… for by then we are concerned about the next burning issue of our times.
__________________________________________________________________________________

IMPUNITY VS JUSTICE - THE CHALLENGE OF RIGHTING WRONGS
Saturday 6th February
The films - Getting Justice, The Reckoning, Outside the Law - Stories from Guantanamo, My Neighbor My Killer, Enemies of the People.

The Issue - The Peace and Reconciliation process in South Africa lead outside observers to suggest that justice enough can be achieved through the admission of guilt and subsequent forgiveness. Since that time the processes that try to make wrongs right, that try to give some sort of justice to the victims while not giving impunity for the perpetrators, have advanced considerably. A major element in these new developments is the central role of justice – the recognition that forgiveness is often not enough. But do these new systems work? Or is impunity rampant around the world, leaving legacies of open scars and wounded communities with no hope of a harmonious future.

Justice will be done: Thirty years after the fall of the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, the UN special court for Cambodia has initiated the trial against some of those responsible for atrocities and crimes against humanity. The International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague has issued a warrant for the arrest of Omar al-Bashir, regarded by many as responsible for the organized killings, rapes and torture of civilians in Darfur. Rwanda has developed its own systems for justice at international, national and regional level, and the post-election violence in Kenya has now been included in the list of cases to be brought in front of the ICC. But do these diverse systems actually work? Can justice ever really be done in these horrific cases?

Impunity will triumph: There are many states and individuals who are working outside of international laws and conventions, Guantanamo being a case in point. Is there a blanket of impunity over the people that that establish these prisons, work in them, fill them with prisoners, build them and maintain them? Guantanamo itself should have been shut down the week before this festival takes place. But it won’t be – over 200 innocent people are still sitting there with nowhere to go. How can justice for these people be achieved? Will other states help to resolve the challenging issue of where these former-prisoners can live? Isn’t this an international justice issue that should concern the Norwegian government as well?

The long-term legacy of not righting wrongs is fundamental. The work of truth commissions is significant as a way of documenting and disclosing a violent past, with important long-term health and psychological healing consequences, for both individuals and communities.

People have to continue living together – do current processes really make this possible?
__________________________________________________________________________________

BIG BUSINESS - OUTSIDE THE LAW?
Sunday 7th February

The films - Dreamland, Delta - Oil's Dirty Business, Crude, Rape of a Nation, Blooming Business, Twenty Years without Justice: The Bhopal Chemical Disaster, The Yes Men Fix the World.
The issue - The films in this program focus on how some big multinational corporations avoid responsibility for damages to people and nature while making a huge profit. These stories show that it is hard to bring a multinational giant to court and to get a verdict, even though the case may seem obvious. Large companies are able to manipulate courts and court procedures and delay processes and win on default as the other party will not have the resources to follow the case through.

As long as a number of companies are able to commit human rights violations and get away with it, good companies are in an unfair competition. We need national and international justice sys­tems that can tackle the enormous power of large multinational companies and bring them to justice when needed.

In the comments and discussions we want to look at how it is possible to make large corporations accountable and what the developments are in national and international justice systems to tackle the power of big business.

MULTINASJONALE SELSKAPER - UTENFOR LOVEN?
søndag 7. februar

Filmene - Dreamland, Delta - Oil's Dirty Business, Crude, Rape of a Nation, Blooming Business, Twenty Years without Justice: The Bhopal Chemical Disaster, The Yes Men Fix the World.
Saken - Filmene i dette programmet fokuserer på hvordan noen multinasjonale selskaper unngår ansvar for skade på mennesker og natur mens de samtidig har store fortjenester. Enkeltsaker viser at det kan være svært vanskelig å stille multinasjonale gi­ganter til ansvar, selv når saken virker opplagt. Store selskaper er i stand til å manipulere dom­stoler og forsinke rettsprosesser og vinner ofte på ”walk-over” fordi motparten ikke har ressurser til å følge saken til ende.

Så lenge mange nok selskaper klarer slippe unna ansvar for brudd på menneskerettigheter så skaper dette en urettferdig konkurranse for gode selskaper. Vi trenger nasjonale og internasjonale rettssystemer som er i stand til å takle makten til store selskaper og gjøre dem ansvarlige når det trengs.

I kommentarene og diskusjonene ønsker vi å se på hvordan det er mulig å gjøre selskaper ansvarlige og hva utviklingen er innen nasjonale og internasjonale rettssystemer for å takle makten til multinasjonale selskaper.

___________________________________________________________________________________

Form your opinions
join the debate
and be part of the solution

t.

Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, British Council
Embassy of Spain,
Goethe-Institut Norwegen