By IANS,
New Delhi : Death penalty, dictatorship, displacement… such issues will be highlighted through an array of mediums at a weeklong festival to be organised by human rights watchdog Amnesty International India in December.
The International Week of Justice Festival, from Dec 5-10, will commemorate the 60th year of declaration of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights this year.
The festival will see prominent faces from the world of filmmaking, art and activism from countries like Pakistan, Britain, Israel, Palestine, Nepal, Afghanistan and, of course, India.
It will take place at the India Islamic Cultural Centre, the Alliance Francaise and WWF Gallery. The festival will coincide with World Dignity Day and the International Human Rights Day.
The opening film is “Sleeping” by Robert Rae of Britain, the story of a Palestinian refugee in Scotland. Placed under the festival’s theme “Out of Place”, it centres on the subject of displacement, crisis of citizenship, conflict and border.
In the theatre section, “Necropolis: Rehearsing Koltes In Such Times”, directed and performed by Parnab Mukherjee, is one of the highlights of the opening ceremony. The play is a theatrical enactment of the evolution of terror laws in India.
In the light of the killings of journalists in conflict zones, the festival also takes up the issue of freedom of expression and the rights of human rights defenders through its “Special Tribute to Journalist and Artists”.
Its “Neighbourhood Spotlight” on Tibet, Afghanistan and Myanmar further focuses on the right to protest, fair trials and other freedoms in these regions.