Human Rights Film Festival – The Future is Now!

For ten days, the Human Rights Film Festival gave us the opportunity, through great films, contributions, discussions and Q&A events, to address and question topics related to human rights, climate change and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and thus gain new perspectives.

On the 5th of October 2020 Handicap International (HI), also known as Humanity & Inclusion, was guest at this years Human Rights Film Festival 2020 in Berlin with the project: “Phase 2- Leave no one behind!”. On the panel: “The Right to WaSH for Displaced and Marginalized People”, within the “10 Years to Reach the SDG-Conference”, our project coordinator, Haakon Spriewald, discussed with local and international experts such as Manfred Profazi (IOM Germany), Juliana Tujman (GiZ Jordan), Ricardo Valenzuela (Fundación Halü Bienestar Humano) and Janet Cherono (Norwegian Refugee Council) how the right to WaSH can be better protected and promoted for vulnerable and marginalized groups.

In particular, HI emphasized the inclusion of persons with disabilities and other vulnerable persons to ensure the provision of safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene facilities for all. “We must constantly integrate disability as a cross-cutting topic in order to achieve SDG 6,” emphasized Haakon Spriewald, project coordinator of “Phase 2 – Leave no one behind!”.

On the one hand, the aim of the panel was to address deficits and failures in the design of inclusive WaSH programs and to share which approaches should be avoided in the future. On the other hand, the participants discussed measures to enable an inclusive implementation of WaSH programs in humanitarian aid and development cooperation.

Our proposed solution: the IASC Guidelines on the Inclusion of Persons with Disabilities in Humanitarian Action! The global guidelines set out essential measures for humanitarian actors and other stakeholders to effectively identify and respond to the varying needs, risks and capacities of persons with disabilities.

The recording with the key statements of our expert, Haakon Spriewald, is available on YouTube here.

In hindsight, you can watch the panel: “The Right to WaSH for Displaced and Marginalized People” on Vimeo.

The complete SDG Conference can be viewed under the following link. From 7:15:49 onwards Haakon Spriewald shares a summary of the panel discussion as part of the closing session: