Every day on the road from East Jerusalem to Ramallah, the Kalandia checkpoint kills thousands of Palestinians in their hearts and their souls… In Durban, South Africa, an abused young girl takes a black felt pen and draws female genitalia on a brand new teddy bear. In Washington, D.C., Rebiya, an Uyghur refugee is given a choice: to give up her beliefs, or her children.

Today, I would like to express my pleasure and gratitude at being invited to join with the Montreal Human Rights Film Festival. This invitation is a reminder of my own personal and essential responsibility to be wakeful and vigilant, but more than that, it brings me good news of the world.

Typically, at the words human rights, most of us are flooded with dark feelings and darker expectations. And yet, on this fifth anniversary of the MHRFF, while acknowledging the importance and the gravity of the events to which the filmmakers will draw your attention, what I would like to bid you look at are these people who bear witness, who despite calamity and injustice, act with altruism and passion in the hope of fraternity. You do not know Neta Efrony, an Israeli woman who, for six years has been documenting the human ordeal at the Kalandia checkpoint. You do not know Mildred, one of the Rough Aunties, a group that helps the physically abused in her community find words for their shame and fear so to triumph over it. You may have heard of Rebiya Kadeer, but I am almost certain that you cannot imagine making the choice she had to make.

Malraux said: “The 21st century will be spiritual or it will not be” (le XXIe siècle sera spirituel ou ne sera pas). In the face of these people and these films, we can begin by saying that our century will be one of awareness, or it will not be. We can begin here, at this Festival today, by bearing witness.