OPPORTUNITIES: Student Short Film Competition on Human Rights 2012

The United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Vienna is once again supporting the Student Short Film Competition on Human Rights 2012, organized by the Film Festival on Human Rights “this human world” taking place every year in Vienna and held under the auspices of UNIS Vienna with the support of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Art, Culture and Education and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Austria.

The competition invites students between the ages of 10 and 20 in Austria and other countries worldwide to produce short films (max. 3 min) on the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a special focus on sustainability, migration / refugees and global warming.

The aim of the competition is to raise awareness to human rights of young people, to give students the opportunity to tackle this topic from a cinematic point of view and to offer them a platform for the presentation of the films.

In 2011 the competition was already successfully launched in Austria, Ukraine, Georgia and Armenia in cooperation with local United Nations information offices.
This year, UNIS Vienna invites all UN Information Centres worldwide to take part in organizing the Student Short Film Competition in their client countries in cooperation with local educational and cultural institutions and submissions evaluated by a local jury.

The overall objective is to present the winning movies from the different countries on an online platform / via social media and thus give participants and fans of the competition in the different countries the opportunity to see both local and international submissions. This will allow to share the thoughts, ideas and creative approaches of young people to promote human rights and to tackle global challenges. Awards ceremonies should be planned so that on Human Rights Day (10 Dec 2012) a selection of winning movies from other countries can be shown together with local winners.

In Austria, UNIS Vienna in cooperation with “this human world” is calling for submissions among all schools in Austria. The first three winning movies will be nominated by a prominent jury as part of the film festival “this human world” followed by the award ceremony taking place at the United Nations Office in Vienna on the occasion of Human Rights Day 2012. On this occasion the Austrian winning movies will be screened as well as a selection of winning movies from other countries. In addition to the Austrian jury award, local communities will be invited to view Austrian submissions online and vote via e-voting for an Austrian Audience Award.

In order to assist interested UNICs in launching the competition in their client countries, UNIS Vienna has developed a template call for submissions with further explanations and conditions of participation which can be adapted to local requirements.

If your UN Information Centre would like to organize the Youth Short Film Competition on Human Rights 2012 and get further explanations, please contact:

Irene Hoeglinger-Neiva / UNIS Vienna (irene.hoeglinger-neiva@unvienna.org, +43-1-26060-4448).

Thank you in advance for your interest and collaboration and please see below some additional information on the event from previous years.
Janos

Janos Tisovszky
Director
United Nations Information Service
Tel. +43-1-26060-5676
Mobile: +43-699-1459-5676
E-mail: janos.tisovszky@unvienna.org
Website: www.unis.unvienna.org


Note:
Winning films from Austria of 2009, 2010 and 2011 can be found on:
http://www.thishumanworld.at/jart/prj3/thw/main.jart?rel=de&content-id=1322553342699&reserve-mode=active

2011 Submissions from Georgia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVossayTWBc&feature=list_related&playnext=1&list=SPB20EC3C70B4DEE42


2011 Submissions from Armenia:
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLB8B6BF00E8875C50&feature=plcp


2011 Examples from Ukraine:
1. http://reporter.korrespondent.net/reports/11315
2. http://reporter.korrespondent.net/videoblog/11193

NEWS / AWARDS: Students produce films on Human Rights: Film Festival and UN honour the winners

The winners of the third Students-Film-Competition received their awards at the Vienna International Centre on 6 December 2011. The film Every Human Being has the Right to Food by students of the Clemens-Hochmeister school in Landegg (Tyrol) won the first prize.

The first Austrian film festival for Human Rights This Human World (THW) organized the competition in cooperation with the United Nations Information Service in Vienna (UNIS), the Media Literacy Award of the Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture (BMUKK), and the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) in Austria. Under the patronage of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Commission in Austria, students 10 to 20 years old were asked to make short films on the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted on 10 December 1948.

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NEWS: Young People speak out on education for human rights

A new 12-minute film, “Education for Human Rights… Young People talking”, aims to raise awareness of key human rights issues in schools around the world.

Produced by UNESCO and realized by pupils of UNESCO Associated Schools in 10 countries, it shows adolescents of secondary-school age freely expressing their opinions about gender, diversity, violence, exclusion and other questions.

Viewers are invited to appreciate how young people understand and experience concepts and ideals of human rights in countries as different as Albania, Azerbaijan, Brazil, Burkina Faso, Canada, Dominican Republic, France, Indonesia, Lebanon and Uganda.

The film can be used as a teaching tool for secondary schools to introduce core topics of human rights education and initiate classroom discussions.

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PUBLICATIONS: OSCE/ODIHR launches book on human rights education for schools

WARSAW, 2 October 2009 - The OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) and several partner organizations launched a resource book today on human rights education for primary and secondary schools and teacher training institutions featuring 101 examples of good practices.

The book, "Human Rights Education in the School Systems of Europe, Central Asia and North America: A Compendium of Good Practice", was presented in the margins of the OSCE's annual human rights conference, the Human Dimension Implementation Meeting.

ODIHR created the book together with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the Council of Europe, and the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

"Education on human rights is vital for a democratic society as it promotes equality, empowerment and participation as well as conflict prevention and resolution," said Ambassador Janez Lenarcic, director of ODIHR.

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