Human Rights Watch will present the third edition of the Amsterdam Human Rights Weekend from January 30 to February 1, 2015 at De Balie. The theme is “Reporting Change: Behind the Scenes in the Middle East and North Africa.”

The weekend will include films, a play, and panel discussions with Human Rights Watch experts, film directors, photographers, and journalists.

Topics include “emergency cinema” in Syria, revolution and repression in the digital age, the Islamic State (also known as ISIS), Libya, front-line journalism, conflict and refugees, and Egypt’s forgotten revolution.

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“The huge challenges facing the Middle East made this an obvious focus of this year’s Human Rights Weekend,” said Anna Timmerman, senior Netherlands director at Human Rights Watch.

“We want to raise awareness and spark critical reflection with an interesting array of films, discussions, theatre, and photography about key human rights issues in the Middle East that also directly affect Europe.”

Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East and North Africa director at Human Rights Watch, and Marcel Kurpershoek, senior fellow in Arabic poetry and culture at New York University Abu Dhabi and former Netherlands special envoy for Syria, will open the Human Rights Weekend on January 30 with a discussion of the greatest challenges facing the human rights movement in the Arab world.

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The festival’s films kick off with “Syria: Bullets and Countershots – A Selection of Short Films by the Abounaddara Collective.” Abounaddara is a collective of filmmakers that opposes the prevailing representations of Syria by the Western media through “emergency cinema,” presenting ordinary men and women.

Each program will be followed by a panel discussion or question-and-answer session featuring activists, Human Rights Watch researchers, filmmakers, and journalists.

Partners of the Human Rights Weekend are: De Balie, ASN Bank, the Dutch Postcode Lottery, De Groene Amsterdammer, World Press Photo, and BKB.

Human Rights Watch is an international organization that defends and protects human rights.

Photo courtesy: Human Rights Watch