As part of the Luxembourg City Film Festival, neimënster will be holding an evening discussion and documentary screening centered around the theme of sexual violence in armed conflict on Friday 4 March 2016.

The evening will begin at 19:00 with a debate moderated by journalist and member of the Human Rights Committee (OHCHR), Inès Kurschat, during which several international specialists will intervene to discuss how, despite the presence of increasingly sophisticated arms, mass rape continues to be used a weapon of war in modern conflicts. Despite the actions of some NGOs and political actors and the fact that sexual violence constitutes a war crime since the Nuremberg trials, a climate of impunity hangs over the subject and restricts convictions from being made.

Speakers include Michelle Jarvis, Deputy Prosecutor and Head of the Court of Appeal to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, who played a central role in gender issues at the ICTY; Robin May Schott, doctoral student and teacher, specialising in wartime sexual violence, including mass rape; and Dr. Michael Korzinski, who holds 15 years of experience in the treatment of torture survivors and other forms of organised violence. The latter was at the heart of a unique training module enabling investigators, prosecutors and judges to understand how trauma affects survivors of sexual violence and how to collect efficient proof whilst protecting survivors and witnesses.

This will be followed by the presentation of two documentaries on the subject, 'Zero Impunity' and 'Mission Rape - A Tool of War'. The former is an interactive documentary supported by Film Fund Luxembourg and the CNC in France which delves into the mechanics of sexual violence as a war strategy, by reinventing the concept of online activism.

The evening will be concluded with a screening of a second documentary, 'Mission Rape - A Tool of War', by Annette Mari Olsen and Kati Forbert Petersen, who will be present. The documentary looks at sexual violence as a strategy for humiliating and breaking women and draws on the experiences of victims linked to the Association of Women Victims of War.

Held under the Luxembourg City Film Festival, the evening will launch the series of events centering around International Women's Day which will be offered until 8 March 2016 at neimënster, including a screening of the documentary 'Burden of Peace'.

The event will take place in English, beginning at 20:00 at the Robert Krieps Hall of the Abbaye de Neumünster. Entry costs €6 at standard rate, €3.5 reduced and €1.50 with a Kulturpass. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit www.neimenster.lu or contact +352 26 20 52-444.

 

Photo by neimënster