Film Screenings There were two film screenings, both depicting the experiences of some of the most marginalised, persecuted and discriminated against populations on earth. They highlighted the strength, resistance and activism shown by members of these two communities who will stop at nothing to ensure the recognition of their rights and that the collective identity of their people lives on. “I am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts” Directed by Yusuf Zine, produced by Jamaal Azeez, supported and introduced by John Packer, the Neuberger-Jesin Professor of International Conflict Resolution, University of Ottawa, ‘I am Rohingya: A Genocide in Four Acts’ is a powerful documentary that chronicles the journey of fourteen Rohingya youth living in Canada, who take to the stage in order to depict their families’ harrowing escape from Myanmar. With no prior acting experience, the decision to re-enact the stories of their people became a courageous act of resistance, demonstrating to the world that they will not be erased, and they will not be silenced. “Hasta la Raiz” Filmed and produced by Juan Carlos Gonzales, ‘Hasta la Raiz’ is a documentary about the denationalisation of Dominicans of Haitian descent in the Dominican Republic, told from the perspective of three affected women. Imagine the country where you were born and raised tells you one day that you do not belong anymore because of your parents’ origins. You’d be forced to deny who you are, to hide your roots; you’d be excluded from civil life and condemned to live in poverty. ‘Down to the Root’ is the story of three women facing this reality in the Dominican Republic where a part of society rejects them while another embraces and fights alongside them on a journey toward the recognition of their rights, and a proud re-encounter with their identity. The viewing was followed by a Q&A with Reconocido Coordinator, Ana Maria Belique. ‘Protecting the Right to a Nationality in the Dominican Republic’ A panel session dedicated to this topic titled ‘Protecting the Right to Nationality in the Dominican Republic’ saw academics, activists and NGOs debate how to maintain international attention on the issue and make more meaningful progress towards a remedy for the arbitrary deprivation of nationality. In recent decades, the Dominican Republic (DR) has restricted the enjoyment of the right to a nationality for Dominicanborn descendants of migrants through its legal framework. On 23 September 2013, the Constitutional Court issued ruling TC/0168/13, ‘La Sentencia’, which retroactively deprived those born in the DR of their Dominican citizenship if their parents were irregular migrants at the time of their birth, even though they had been recognised as citizens according to the laws in effect between 1929 and 2010. This ruling affected an estimated 133,770 people born in the DR and has had a disproportionate impact on those of Haitian descent. 25