Hay Festival Colombia Digital

Democracy: the least imperfect system of government developed by societies. How can it be improved? Why is it so important to defend it? Three specialists will talk about one of the key matters for the future of humanity. With the political scientist Ivan Krastev (Bulgaria), Chairman of the Centre for Liberal Strategies in Sofia, Bulgaria, and a permanent boardmember of the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna; the Ukrainian writer and activist Victoria Amelina; and Carole Cadwalladr (United Kingdom), British investigative journalist with The Guardian, famous for uncovering the Cambridge Analytica and Facebook scandal. In conversation with Moisés Naím.

Simultaneous interpreting from English to Spanish available

Maria Ressa (Philippines), is the journalist that won the Peace Nobel Prize in 2021 for work denouncing Duterte's regimen, corruption and and brutality; she will be presenting her latest book, How to Stand Up to a Dictator: The Fight for Our Future, a call to the world to raise awareness about social media misinformation and a passionate manifesto about the importance of the freedom of press to ensure democracy's health versus abuse of power by those who control media, said Rodrigo Duterte o Mark Zuckeberg. In conversation with Lydia Cacho.

Simultaneous interpreting from English to Spanish available

James Rhodes (United Kingdom) is neither a pianist or a writer. Besides being one of the most eminent renovators of classical music on an international level, he is the author of one of the most impactful memoirs of recent years: Instrumental, where he exposes the child abuse he suffered and praises the healing power of music. A Save the Children ambassador and tireless campaigner for the improvement of laws that protect childhood all around the world, Rhodes will talk to Lydia Cacho, another great example of international activism, in a conversation that promises to be both revealing and significant.

Fighting Women is a compilation of interviews of Spanish women who took part in the civil war. Some took up arms and fought at the front, others participated in organizations such as POUM, Mujeres Libres or other anarchist groups. All of them fought against the nationalist forces and for women’s emancipation, and together they achieved social progress such as free, legal abortion. They started a revolution, and to do so they not only had to fight fascism, but sometimes also their own brothers-in-arms. The great impact of these testimonies invites us to reflect on a struggle that belongs to another time and yet is relevant today. Diego Rabasa (Mexico) talks to the film director Ken Loach (United Kingdom) and Isabella Lorusso (Italy), about this extraordinary message of rebellion and justice.

Oleksandra Matviichuk (Ukraine), a lawyer and activist with the Center for Civil Liberties, winner of the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize together with Memorial and the activist Ales Bialiatski; and the artist and writer Victoria Amelina (Ukraine), will talk to Catalina Gómez Ángel about their country, the war that has changed the life of its inhabitants irreversibly and how to continue working in the midst of war.

Simultaneous interpreting from English to Spanish available

The writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievich (Belarus), winner of the 2015 Nobel Prize for Literature, is a specialist in Soviet and post-Soviet history. She is the author of outstanding works including The Unwomanly Face of War, Voices from Chernobyl and Secondhand Time. Mariana Katzarova (Belarus) is the founder of RAW in WAR, an initiative that supports women journalists and human rights activists who work in regions in conflict. Katzarova has worked in such areas in Bosnia, Kosovo and the North Caucasus, and for a decade was the Russia investigator for Amnesty International. She has also led the UN’s Human Rights Monitoring Mission. At this event, these extraordinary figures will talk about the urgent need to investigate matters related to human rights, particularly in conflicts involving, or within, Russia.

Event in Russian with English and Spanish subtitles


Learn more about the great writer and journalist Svetlana Alexievichwith our BONUS TRACK

Indian essayist Pankaj Mishra joins Ukrainian philosopher Volodymyr Yermolenko to explore the ways Russia's assault on Ukraine has forced Europe to confront its colonial past and present. Chaired by Ukrainian journalist Sevgil Musaieva.

Bektour Iskender and Panjak Mishra will join remotely

Closed captions are available for this event in English and Spanish. Click on the "cc" icon in the video frame to select.

Babyn Yar, a ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, was the site of massacres carried out by Nazi Germany's forces during its campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. On 29–30 September 1941 alone, some 33,771 Jews were killed. Other victims of massacres at the site included Soviet prisoners of war, communists and Romani people. An expert panel gathers to remember the tragedy and honour its victims.

Participants:
Dr. Paul Robert Magocsi (he will join remotely), Chair of Ukrainian Studies, University of Toronto; Board Member, Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (Toronto, Canada). Dr. Vladyslav Hrynevych, Senior Research Fellow at the Institute of Political and Ethnic Studies, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine (Kyiv, Ukraine). Dr. Ihor Schupak, Director, Tkuma Ukrainian Institute for the Study of the Holocaust and of the Museum of Jewish Memory and the Holocaust; Board Member, Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (Dnipro, Ukraine). Dr. Yegor Vradiy, Assistant Director of the Tkuma Ukrainian Institute for the Study of the Holocaust and of the Museum of Jewish Memory and the Holocaust (Dnipro, Ukraine).
Moderator: Oksana Forostyna, Europe's Futures Fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna (Kyiv, Ukraine).

Victoria Amelina was a novelist, essayist and poet, and a friend of the festival, who died following a Russian missile attack in June 2023. After the invasion of Ukraine by Russia, Amelina trained as a war crimes researcher, travelling to areas liberated from Russian occupation and listening to and recording the testimonies of witnesses and survivors.

In memory of Amelina, PEN Ukraine’s executive director Tetyana Teren, program director of Lviv BookForum Sofia Cheliak and human rights lawyer Oleksandra Matviichuk talk to journalist Christina Lamb about Ukrainian women’s fight for justice. They share their future vision of the country, how victory for Ukraine will not happen without just punishment for war criminals, and why women need to be at the centre of it all.

Oleksandra Matviichuk will join remotely

Adrenalina is a documentary about the Coahuila Youth Integration Centre. Teenagers and children who have stayed there offer their testimony and act in dramatic works through which they represent the realities that led them to be at the centre. The result is a view of both individual responsibility and also of systemic catastrophe, with the children using their own words and tools to express a fragile setting rarely seen in art, one that allows us to see the deep wounds that violence has caused in our country.

Duration of the documentary: 29 minutes

Mark Muller Stuart QC is a leading barrister specialising in international law, terrorism and human rights litigation. He has been a member of the Queen's Counsel since 2006 and advises numerous international law organisations.

He has also written a number of books and reports on human rights and conflict-related areas, having conducted international missions in Afghanistan, Sudan, Palestine, Iraq, Oman, Bahrain, Syria, Libya, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, India, Cuba, Colombia, Zimbabwe, South Africa and Afghanistan. He is co-founder of the Delfina Arts Foundation, as well as founder and executive director of Beyond Borders, an international platform based in Scotland that works to break down borders between peoples and help facilitate wider international cultural exchange, dialogue and reconciliation.

Álvaro Gil Robles is a prestigiuos Spanish politician and lawyer, former Ombudsman and the first Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe. He has held several positions in important official bodies, among them, candidate of the European Court of Human Rights, integrating the Selection Committe, the body in charge of the Peace Agreement between the Government and the FAR, and selecting the magistrates of the special jurisdiction for the Peace Process of Colombia with President Juan Manuel Santos. He has written several books and articles in his field of expertise, including: Los Nuevos Límites de la Tutela Judicial (The New Limits of Judicial Protection). He is the President of the Valsain Foundation for the promotion and defence of democratic values, founded with a group of friends with significant work in the dissemination of these values.

Event in English with simultaneous translation into Spanish