2nd regional cinema and human rights festival: Cinema promoting autism rights
The Regional Human Rights Commission of Al Hoceima-Nador held the second regional cinema and human rights festival, from 17 to 19 July 2014 in the towns of Midar, Drouiche and Ben Tayeb.
The second edition of the festival focused on how cinema can promote autism rights and issues. It was held in line with the national communication campaign on autism, launched by the collective of disability rights association and the National Human Rights Council, on April 1st 2014.
International films addressing autism issues were screened during the festival, in addition to several workshops and roundtable discussions on autism.
The participants of the workshops that were held on the sidelines of the festival agreed that cinema can be an effective vehicle to promote the human rights of people with autism and people with disabilities, in general, and raise awareness about autism and disability issues, challenges and violations (discrimination, marginalization, limited or no accessibilities to health, employment, and education public services, etc.).
They called for the mobilization of national institutions and society, at large, for the protection of the human rights of this vulnerable group, mainly in training and education. They also called for and recommended all human rights public policies to include, systematically, autism rights, not to mention the sufficient human and financial resources needed to protect and promote the rights of this group.