CPH:DOX and Kunsthal Charlottenborg, one of Denmark’s most prominent art institutions and a key location for the festival, are entering a new collaboration in 2025, “using film, debate, art and education to demonstrate to audiences that human rights and discussions about them remain crucial.”
Over the next three years, the two bodies – together with partners such as Human Rights Watch Denmark and with support from the newly established Frececo Foundation – will focus on human rights through the new initiative HUMAN:RIGHTS, the festival writes. This initiative includes an exhibition, a thematic film program, numerous talks and debates, as well as educational programs for school classes – an agenda that seems more important than ever.
The festival writes how, on December 10, 1948 in Paris, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, ensuring freedom, dignity, and equal rights for all people. “The declaration was created in the aftermath of World War II, and 80 years later, human rights remain just as relevant.”
Says Niklas Engstrøm, Artistic Director of CPH:DOX: “Through documentary films, art, conversation, and debate, CPH:DOX and Kunsthal Charlottenborg have both the credibility and the platform to communicate human rights through real people and lived experiences. This collaboration ensures that the many nuances behind the legal articles come to light: that human rights are not only about protecting lives and freedom of speech or preventing torture, but also about the right to assembly, the right to equal treatment, and the right to education.”
The festival points out, however, that a Nordic survey conducted in December 2024 revealed that 53% of Danes could not name a single specific human right, while 83% of Danes expressed support for human rights—”indicating a need for greater awareness of what human rights encompass and why they exist.”
“A focus on human rights is more important than ever,” Engstrøm adds. “We aim to highlight this through documentaries covering everything from coercion in psychiatry and freedom of speech protections in Denmark to women’s rights and freedom of choice around the world. We are excited to reveal the films and guests that will be part of the HUMAN:RIGHTS program at CPH:DOX.”
Kunsthal Charlottenborg will serve as the central hub for the HUMAN:RIGHTS film screenings and debates during CPH:DOX, running March 19-30, 2025. Additionally, visitors will be able to experience a solo exhibition by Turkish visual artist Banu Cennetoğlu. One of the exhibition’s standout works, ‘right? (2022 – )’, features massive bouquets of gold letter-shaped balloons, each representing selected articles from the UN’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
“In a rapidly changing world facing major national and global challenges, we believe that the voice of art is essential in offering new perspectives and insights. We are excited to present a solo exhibition by Banu Cennetoğlu, whose work explores how the production and distribution of information shape our world. At Kunsthal Charlottenborg, she will connect everyday life with urgent global issues, drawing from her extensive private image archive in dialogue with critical examinations of the press and the UN’s human rights declaration,” says Henriette Bretton-Meyer, curator and managing director of Kunsthal Charlottenborg.
Alongside Banu Cennetoğlu’s exhibition, Kunsthal Charlottenborg will also present the Disobedience Archive, last shown at the 2024 Venice Biennale. This exhibition features video works addressing human rights, as well as the relationship between artistic practice and political action.
Both exhibitions will be open at Kunsthal Charlottenborg on March 19, the opening day of CPH:DOX.
Last year, CPH:DOX intensified its focus on human rights by introducing the HUMAN:RIGHTS AWARD in collaboration with the Danish Institute for Human Rights. The 2024 winner was Shiori Ito’s Black Box Diaries, a documentary highlighting the rights of female survivors of sexual assault in Japan and which is nominated for the 2025 Oscar for Feature Doc.
The award will be presented again in 2025, with nominees selected from the festival’s documentary program.
The full program of CPH:DOX will be announced on February 26.
