On 11–12 September, the second edition of One World Echoes, the world’s largest international human rights film festival, took place in Oslo. At its opening ceremony in Cinemateket, Ambassador David Červenka recalled Václav Havel’s legacy and the significant role of active support for human rights and civil society in Czech foreign policy. “Given our own experience with totalitarian regimes in the last century, the Czech Republic can offer an authentic human rights policy. Thanks to human rights defenders, we gain a clearer picture of the situation in different parts of the world,” the Ambassador added. He noted the Festival’s special meaning in like-minded countries such as the Czech Republic and Norway, as it allows the echoes of the issues raised by the films to resonate further. Festival’s director Vesna Evans stressed that the purpose of the event is to remind people of their responsibility for human rights, calling on those present to have the courage to stand up for them.

As part of the two-day program, audiences watched four documentaries, each followed by public discussions with filmmakers, human rights experts and activists. Before the screening of the opening film, Ambassador Červenka emphasized that credible human rights policy begins at home and welcomed the fact that the Echoes opened with the winner of the Czech competition at One World, The Other One by Marie-Magdalena Kochová, about the lives of “glass children”, siblings of children with disabilities. In the subsequent discussion with the director as well as psychologist Torun Vatne, participants asked about the protagonists and support for families with children with special needs. The program continued with The Sky Above Zenica, focusing on environmental protection in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The third film, From Ground Zero, presented the stories of people living in the Gaza Strip.

The program concluded with the documentary Songs of a Slow Burning Earth. Director Olha Zhurba’s audiovisual mosaic highlighted the everyday consequences of the Russian aggression against Ukraine on ordinary lives. A discussion followed with the film’s co-producer Anne Köhncke and the founder of the Norwegian-Ukrainian Advocacy Hub, Natalya Yeremeyeva. After the screening, Ambassador Červenka personally thanked the Ukrainian activists and, together with the director of the Oslo Echoes, invited audiences to attend next year’s edition. Director Vesna Evans also acknowledged the financial support of the Czech Republic by the Embassy in Oslo and the Czech Centre in Stockholm, the Fritt Ord Foundation, the City of Oslo and the Solgløtt Foundation. The opening reception, hosted by the Czech Embassy, was supported by Metrostav Norge.

The One World Festival was founded in 1999 as a project of the Czech non-governmental organization People in Need. Over more than two decades of its existence, it has become the largest human rights film festival of its kind in the world. Every year it takes place in dozens of locations across the Czech Republic. Abroad, audiences can attend One World screenings in Brussels and, for the second year now, also in Oslo. Around the globe, the festival has inspired civil society to launch similar initiatives.