Yves Daccord, president of the board of the FIFDH foundation, said he regretted the withdrawal of Swiss government support from international Geneva. (Keystone)

Geneva human rights film festival grapples with Swiss funding uncertainty. Switzerland has so far remained silent on whether it will continue funding Geneva’s human rights film festival next year. Yves Daccord, who chairs the festival’s foundation board, warns that a broader retreat by the federal government from international Geneva would come “at the worst possible time”.

🎥TOP PICKS. Running until 16 March, the festival will bring more than 162 films and events to choose from and over 260 personalities to the stage. So where to start? Here are some of the highlights from the first days.

Civilian strength. The event will explore the resilience and resistance of civilian populations in times of war. On Friday, Khartoum, a documentary produced by a collective of Sudanese filmmakers who meet five citizens in search of freedom, will open the festival at the Grütli cinema.

Palestinian struggle. Among documentaries not to miss is A State of Passion, which traces British-Palestinian surgeon Ghassan Abu Sittah’s round-the-clock work in Gaya. Following a screening on Saturday, the doctor will be joined by UN Palestinian rights expert Francesca Albanese for a discussion about Israel’s attacks against the health infrastructure and personnel.

Star guest. On Saturday at the theatre Espace Pitoëff, Sea Shepherd founder Paul Watson, who was recently released from detention in Greenland, will talk about being an activist in an era of criminalisation.

Global governance rethink. Following Saturday’s screening of The Veto, a documentary that delves into the Security Council’s gridlock, Heba Aly, former managing director of The New Humanitarian who now coordinates a coalition seeking to reform the UN charter, will question today's global governance structure in a panel called The end of the UN? She’ll be joined on stage by ambassadors Antonio Patriota of Brazil and Switzerland’s Jürg Lauber.

📅OFFICIAL AGENDA. Now, on to the debates taking place at the Human Rights Council.

UN rights chief Volker Türk will present his global update on the state of human rights this morning. With so many conflicts escalating across the globe and aid budgets on the chopping block, onlookers will be closely following where he will place the focus and whether he will react strongly to the US decision to hang the international aid and development sector out to dry overnight.

👉Read more about who's getting the axe: Who’s losing US foreign aid? What we know so far

UN torture expert Jill Edwards will present on Tuesday her report on the global practice of hostage-taking as torture. Among the central examples in her report are Israeli hostages taken by Hamas on 7 October 2023, which UN-backed experts have labelled a “war crime”. Last December, she visited the targeted Israeli kibbutz communities and spoke to their families. She also went to Ramallah, where she met with Palestinian civil society.

The report, however, fails to mention over 4,000 Palestinians being illegally held in Israeli prisons without charge, something that Palestinian rights advocates have criticised her silence on.

Behind the scenes. States will also begin negotiations on some of the 30 draft proposals the council is set to consider in a month's time.

📌GENEVA CONVENTIONS MEET. Switzerland has finally set a date for a conference in Geneva on the situation of civilians living in the Israeli occupied territories, confirmed for Friday 7 March. It comes after the UN General Assembly tasked Switzerland with holding the meeting last September, as the depositary state of the Geneva Conventions.

— Kasmira Jefford and Michelle Langrand