Details

With the festival, the organizers - among them the KAS-Rule of Law Program South East Europe and the Czech Centre - aim at raising public awareness for human rights issues.

The second edition of the Human Rights Documentary Film Festival One World Romania shows 45 films from 20 countries which deal with thematic focus topics such as "20 years on", "Past imperfect".

Numerous award-winning movies, exhibitions, workshops and much more will complement the screenings. One special event - in cooperation with People in Need from Prague - will be dedicated to Burma in presence of a Burmese dissident.

Patron of the event is Vaclav Havel.

For more information see www.oneworld.ro.

Introduction by the Director of the Rule of Law Program South East Europe:

In 2008, when the Czech Centre Bucharest organized the first human rights documentary film festival with the support of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung, the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was commemorated world-wide. With this Declaration, the General Assembly of the United Nations recognized the concept of the inviolability of man’s dignity, and the worldwide respect for such, on which all human rights are based. Ever since, the political significance and recognition of human rights has continued to grow. However, human rights are still far from being protected and respected worldwide: at the beginning of the 21st Century, the universal guarantee of fundamental human rights remains an unredeemed promise.

The Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung looks back on a long tradition of working for human rights as a core element of the foundation’s work. Its mission to promote human rights derives from the belief in the inviolability of man’s dignity and the Christian appeal for compassion for our fellow man. The Foundation promotes human rights worldwide, both nationally and regionally, e.g. through specific dialogue programs on the rule of law, such as the Rule of Law Program South East Europe based in Bucharest, which is a partner of the film festival.

The Rule of Law Program South East Europe pays particular attention to the efforts of the countries in the region as they try to cope with those parts of their pasts which involved totalitarianism, authoritarianism, and / or open warfare. Therefore, we are pleased that among the thematic categories of the film festival are “20 years on,” and “Past imperfect”, both of which aim at encouraging people to remember the past to build the future.

We particularly support these categories for the following reasons: Remembrance plays a decisive role in the successful development of a political culture. Democracy is oriented towards and dependent on openness, transparency, trust, individuality, and solidarity. All of these are virtues of citizens living in a democracy. A democracy which replaces a dictatorship—or any other form of a totalitarian or authoritarian regime—endangers its credibility (and forfeits it altogether in the eyes of the dictatorship’s victims) when perpetrators go unpunished, such as when the new democracy fails to legally prevent the perpetrators from retaining their positions and further pursuing their careers.

Remembering the past, and dealing with the grave human rights violations which occurred in this region, can be a preventive affirmation of civic virtues which strengths democracy and promotes key elements of the rule of law (among which is the protection of fundamental rights).

The awareness of this benefit must evolve within the population itself. What is needed, therefore, is education and political information for as large a part of the population as possible, an approach that is particularly favored by the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung. The human rights documentary film festival “One World Romania” pursues this approach. We are pleased and honoured that we can once again be part of it.

Dr. iur. Stefanie Ricarda Roos

Director, Rule of Law Program South East Europe

Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung