Hello! My name is Emilija Novaković, and I’m a third-generation Young European Ambassador (YEA) from Serbia. Together with my fellow YEAs: Jovana Jaćimović from Montenegro, Suhel Ahmeti from Kosova, Amina Hodžić from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Olta Shehu from Albania, and Gent Salihi from North Macedonia, I participated in the Sarajevo Film Festival (SFF) Human Rights Day programme this year.

The Human Rights Day programme has been implemented for three years now, and I’ve heard nothing but the best from the YEAs who have participated in previous years. This year’s programme was organised by the Institut za razvoj mladih KULT and the YEA team, and it mainly took place at the Europe House in Sarajevo. The Institut za razvoj mladih KULT had their own participants, who were a diverse group representing the voices of youth from various places in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Occasionally, we had some activities together with the group from the ‘Dealing With The Past programme’, which had participants from all over Europe.

Our agenda was full, and I had a wonderful time in Sarajevo. We had the opportunity to talk about statelessness with the UNHCR, and we talked to Almin Zrno about his exhibition Pleonexia II – Stolen Future, which we had previously explored at the Europe House. Together with the group from the ‘Dealing With The Past’ programme, we remembered the history of Sarajevo during our memory walk with Nicolas Moll, and we visited the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina as well. We had a lecture about the cost of democracy and its impact on the natural environment and how sometimes people get together to protect those things. We had a UNW panel in which we got to hear more about feminism, femicide, and freedom in the region.

We watched the film Milk, and we talked to Stefanie Kolk about the film, the milk, and her career-changing paths. A local film called The Sky Above Zenica discussed the cost of democracy and human lives, and it made a great impression on me. I’m very thankful I got to talk to the activist from that film and to learn more from the whole process. An animated film called GAIA was inspired by Sarajevo, and we got to talk to Nermin Hamzagić and Enis Ćišić about the creative and animation process of the film. From WB6, we moved on to Lebanon and Greece, thanks to the films Diaries from Lebanon and Avant-drag! I got to learn so much about other cultures, history, etc. During the conversations with Myriam El Hajj and Fil Ieropoulos, we found out more about the creative thought and the process of filming that went into these two films, considering that one is about the political situation in Lebanon and the other is about being a drag queen/king in Greece.

Our YEA Olta Shehu was a moderator of a panel called “Human Rights in Times of Uncertainty”, and the panellists were: Samir Lemeš (Professor at the Polytechnic Faculty, University of Zenica, and one of the activists from the film The Sky Above Zenica), Dino Abrazović (Professor at the Faculty of Political Science, Sarajevo), and Damir Šagolj (the Pulitzer Prize winner), and we got to learn so much and talk about very important topics.

I have so many good memories from this trip, and it was truly my honour to represent the YEA network in Sarajevo. After being a part of the SFF Human Rights Day programme, I now strongly believe that art can change how we look at things and how we portray human rights in our everyday life.