Kenyan Film Wins First Prize in the Second Pan-African Film Festival on Violence against WomenDecember 1st 2008 DAKAR, Senegal â€" Kim Longinotto has won the first prize at this year’s edition of the Pan-African Film Festival devoted to gender-based Violence (GBV) for her two-hour long documentary entitled “The day I will never forget”. The film explores the widespread practice of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C) in Kenya. It focuses on the young girls and women who have been or are being subjected to this practice, as well as their parents and relatives, and allows them to discuss their experiences. The film also highlights the legal efforts by victims and the civil society to stamp out FGM/C in that country. The film festival, organized by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund, the Senegalese Government, civil society and other partners, aims at raising awareness of GBV and help ending it. The festival coincides with the “International Day for Elimination of Violence against Women”. The second prize went to Senegalese filmmaker Pape Demba Ndiaye for “Say say bi” (Rape), a film about the exploitation and rape of naĂŻve young in-school and out-of-school girls by an older man. The third prize was won by Khalil Gueye, from Senegal, for “Les âmes brisĂ©es” (broken spirits), about the victims of sexual violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Speaking during the award ceremony, Dr. Edwige Adekambi, Deputy Representative of UNFPA in Senegal, described gender-based violence as the most common but the least punished crime in the world. “Gender-based violence is a violation of human rights,” she said. “It poses serious health problems that have grave economic and serious implications. This film festival is but one step towards breaking the culture of silence that surrounds gender- based violence, and encouraging public dialogue and action against the scourge.” In a message to festival participants in Theâtre National Daniel Sorano, the Minister in charge of Family, National Solidarity, Female Entrepreneurship and Microfinance, Mrs. Awa Ndiaye, described violence against women as an impediment to poverty reduction and the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. She called on all stakeholders to join the government in the fight against gender-based violence; notably to prevent it and to care for its victims. Globally, as many as one in three girls and women has been beaten, forced into sex or abused by someone she knows. Others have been coerced into early marriage and/or female genital mutilation/cutting. Gender-based violence reflects and reinforces inequities between men and women and compromises the health, dignity and safety of those who survive the abuse. In Africa, many rapes go unreported because of the social stigma suffered and an unsympathetic legal system. Victims are often blamed or told to keep the issue within the family. UNFPA is working with governments, other UN agencies, non-governmental organizations and civil society to end this culture of silence and ensure that voices of the victims are heard. Source: UNFPA 1 December 2008 |