One World is currently one of the leading festivals in Europe that deals with human rights issues and is among the founding members of the Human Rights Film Network, which bands together 29 festivals around the world.

 

One World’s films strive to provide comprehensive and well-balanced information, and they offer audiences an opportunity to acquire a deeper understanding of foreign policy and social issues. One World contributes to the public discussion about the role that Czech citizens and the Czech Republic can and should play in a globally interconnected world, and it also contributes to the debate as to why the Czech Republic should engage in promoting democracy and security around the globe.

 

One World mainly addresses young people, students and secondary school pupils, and through films it tries to show them the values on which a free and democratic society is based. The only Czech international human rights award, Homo Homini, is presented at the festival.

 

The festival programme includes the best documentary films created in the previous year, which have won awards at prestigious international festivals, along with investigative and activist films that draw attention to serious issues and human rights violations.

 

One World also serves as a meaningful discussion forum. This year in Prague, more than 80 discussions will take place on various foreign-policy, human-rights, civil-society and environmental themes. Another 80–90 discussions will be held in 29 regional centres.

 

Moreover, One World serves as an educational platform. Thanks to its educational projects, One World documentaries are also incorporated into lessons at Czech primary schools and secondary schools. One World has recently been endeavouring to incorporate documentaries with human rights themes into lessons at Czech universities as well. The aim of the History, Film and Human Rights project is to create original seminars led by masters’ and doctoral students in social science fields, who would work with One World documentaries and thereby contribute to reflections on the subject of human rights abuses from an historical perspective. A closed two-day seminar will be held during the festival for the project’s participants. (You can find more information at www.clovekvtisni.cz/dejinyfilmalidskaprava).

 

One World is a year-round institution, which simultaneously devotes itself to promoting documentary film, such as in the form of a special “Documentary Mondays” night at the Světozor Cinema. In recent years, One World has also expanded by being incorporated into many smaller human rights oriented festivals in Central, Southern and Eastern Europe.