(Credit: Children of the Enemy/FIFDH)

📽️ The ‘Children of the Enemy’ that nobody wants to see. Despite repeated calls from international bodies and NGOs, many states still refuse to repatriate thousands of children trapped in camps in northern Syria. The documentary Children of the Enemy, to be screened as part of the International Human Rights Film Festival from 4 to 13 March in Geneva, tells the story of Patricio Galvez, a Swedish musician, who went in search of his seven grandchildren, orphaned in the Al-Hol camp.

🗳️Human Rights Council approves commission of inquiry into rights violations in Ukraine. The resolution, co-sponsored by 68 member states, condemns Russia's invasion of Ukraine and calls on council members to urgently establish an independent international commission of inquiry, constituted by three human rights experts, to look into rights abuses on the ground in Ukraine.

♀️ The number of women in parliament barely budged last year. In its annual report on women in parliament, the Inter-Parliamentary Union said that the global average of female parliamentarians inched forward by only 0.6 percentage points to reach 26.1 per cent by the end of 2021. This was the same pace of progress as in 2020 and 2019. On the upside, five countries achieved gender parity or a greater share of women in the parliaments.

📌 8 March | Gender Lens Initiative for Switzerland (GLIS) webinar. Hosted on International Women’s Day, this one-hour webinar will provide a comprehensive overview of how gender lens investing is being advanced in Switzerland through the GLIS initiative, launched a year ago.

📌 8 March | Supporting women human rights defenders in conflict and post-conflict situations. Women human rights defenders are crucial agents and leaders of change. However, due to their gender, they face particular obstacles and security risks, which this Human Rights Council side event will explore.

📌 9 March | Human rights and counter-terrorism: a conversation between Judge Kipfer and UN special rapporteur Fionnuala Ní Aoláin. They will address the human rights and humanitarian law implications of multilateral counter-terrorism measures, including sanctions, with a focus on the recent mandate renewal of the Ombudsperson to the ISIL and Al-Qaida Sanctions Committee.

For more events, visit the Genève Internationale website.