With introduction by Her Excellency Jacqueline Lydia Mikolo, Minister of Health, Congo Brazzaville
This movie was made in Congo a few weeks ago by a talented team of documentary film makers.
It features the life experiences of a pregnant woman who had to deliver her first child in the forest alone, the mission of traditional birth attendants, but also the challenges and needs that midwives and doctors in a rural public hospital and a private clinic have to improve the quality of their work and provide better services.
The film also exposes the challenges that indigenous women particularly face during pregnancy and at child birth: remote health facilities, financial barriers, lack of quality of care, insufficient skilled staff availability, and scarce referral means, as well as experiencing an unfamiliar westernized environment with language and cultural barriers, stigma and even discrimination.
This movie is about two worlds dedicated to improve maternal health but that would require working together and learning from each other to better serve and save the lives of Bantou and indigenous women and newborns.
Documentary/Congo/French (English subtitles)/15 minutes/2019
Winner of the Academy Award® for Best Documentary (Short Subject), Saving Face tells the story of plastic surgeon Dr. Mohammad Jawad who left his prominent London practice to return to his home country and help the victims of acid attacks. Two of these women, Zakia and Rukhsana, are victims of brutal acid attacks by their husbands and in Rukhsana’s case, her in-laws as well. Both attempt to bring their assailants to justice and move on with their lives with the help of NGOs, sympathetic policymakers, politicians, support groups with other acid attack victims and Dr. Jawad. Saving Face also depicts a Pakistan that is changing - one where ordinary people can stand up and make a difference and where marginalized communities can seek justice.
The screening will be followed by a Q & A session with Dr. Mohammad Jawad, pioneering Consultant Plastic, Reconstructive, and Burns Surgeon
Documentary/Pakistan/English/Urdu/40 minutes/2012
Director: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Daniel Junge
Producer: HBO Films
How can film, music, poetry and street art elevate the promises of the 1994 Cairo Conference?
Join a panel of award-winning international artists in a unique fireside chat as they share and showcase their innovative arts and storytelling projects that have helped change the narrative of reproductive health, women’s empowerment and gender equality to engage a wider audience. Artists include:
• Ayanda Makayi, musician and actor from MTV Shuga (South Africa)
• Wise Two, graffiti artist (Kenya)
• Charlotte Hill O’Neal, poet, musician and visual artist (Tanzania)
• Poeta Dennis, poet and founder of The Art East Hub (Kenya)
• Buddha Blaze, music manager/producer, founder of Nairobi Hip Hop and host of The Blaze Podcast (Kenya)
• DJ Mix Master Lenny, DJ (Kenya)
• Lisa Russell, filmmaker and Founder of Create2030 (USA)
With introduction by a representative of the Government of Ireland
Circumcised at eight. Raped by wandering militiamen at twelve. Fully infibulated again at thirteen, and then married off to a fifty-year-old man who regularly beat her; Ifrah Ahmed runs away to a place she had once known as home in war torn Mogadishu to find it had become the kind of battleground now known as “Black Hawk Down.”
Ifrah makes the extraordinary journey out of war-torn Somalia and arrives not in Minnesota, USA, as she had been led to believe, but Dublin, Ireland. Within months she is campaigning for better conditions for asylum — seekers arriving in Ireland. She quickly becomes a leading activist against gender-based violence and fights through her campaign work for the abandonment of FGM world-wide.
The screening will be followed by a Q & A session with Ifrah Ahmed, founder of the Ifrah Foundation
Drama/Somalia/English/112 minutes/2019
Director: Mary McGuckian
Producer: Mary McGuckian, Adrian Politowski
Today’s young leaders have a significant role to play in implementing the ICPD programme of action, especially in the context of following up on commitments made at ICPD25. This concurrent session is designed as a participatory workshop to equip young people with experiences and tools – including creative means - to translate the SDGs and ICPD PoA into concrete actions, within their own communities and beyond.
The ICPD Programme of Action and the 2013 Addis Ababa Declaration on Population and Development (AADPD) have together provided a unique opportunity for Africa to take regional action to address population dynamics. They are inspiring Africa’s efforts to harness a demographic dividend, advance human rights and meet the Sustainable Development Goals. The recent ICPD/AADPD regional review reveals an incredible body of evidence about gains, gaps and challenges in the implementation of these frameworks. It highlighted exemplary initiatives that African countries are undertaking to ensure that policy and services address population issues and achieve meaningful development results, particularly for marginalized and underserved populations. Although the continent has frameworks setting out region-specific guidance and most African countries have explicit population policies, they lack comprehensive strategies and budgets to support the implementation and monitoring of these plans. This concurrent session will provide an opportunity for countries to share knowledge and experiences in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of policies and programmes that respond to their demographic trends.
Violence against women and girls is one of the most pervasive human rights violations in the world.
In conflict, humanitarian and disaster situations, women and girls are especially vulnerable to different forms of gender-based violence including rape, confinement and sexually slavery. This violence causes enormous physical and emotional suffering to individuals, but its consequences do not stop there. It also generates shock waves across all of society, exacerbating the spread of HIV/AIDs, straining health systems, and taking a toll on whole economies. Despite national and international legal action and conventions to combat gender-based violence and harmful practices, prevalence rates remain high. There is an urgent demand for focused discussion on solutions to end gender-based violence and harmful practices, and this session is dedicated to providing a platform for that purpose. Expect stakeholders to share experiences combating these harms, and to make firm commitments to pave the way towards the vision zero gender-based violence.
What does it take to survive extreme violence and discrimination? Indeed, what does it take to change the world? This plenary will bring together leaders who have triumphed over violence and discrimination and now lead efforts to end gender-based violence and champion human rights. The facilitated dialogue will explore what made each of the panelists a leader: resilience, determination, commitment to justice. Examples of the importance of partnership will be shared to illustrate and catalyze further action from local to global level. How does one become a good partner and a collaborative leader? What will sustain partnerships and leaders in the struggle to end gender-based violence by 2030?
