“The right to health is a fundamental human right”

You have just taken up your post at this renowned festival, the FIFDH. What will be your main missions?

Irene Challand: The challenge for me is to manage to maintain the imposing impact that the festival has internationally, but also to promote its deployment to an ever-wider audience in French-speaking Switzerland and beyond. I would like this event to be as close as possible to the current questions of society, that it serve to mobilize and stimulate reflection among people from different backgrounds. Knowing that we live in a world that sometimes goes upside down, that the state of climate emergency is permanent and that the world order is completely called into question, the subjects are numerous!

What are the themes that mark the current generation of filmmakers and activists, and which will be at the heart of the 2023 edition of the Festival?

The question of global warming is really essential, that of identity too, in particular digital identity and the future human rights of the digital universe. It also seems important to me to address the theme of what I call the “blind spot” of geopolitics: those countries that are going through tumultuous situations related to human rights but about which we don’t talk much. I am thinking in particular of South Sudan, Somalia, Haiti, Yemen, Turkey, Egypt, Syria… We are also going to work, through the Forum, its debates and its films, around the concept of humiliation. We tend to underestimate the impact that it can have on the individual level, but also on society and politics. In short, this edition will aim to strengthen respect and dialogue between each other. I would like the festival to serve to question the “factory” of human rights.

The defense and promotion of human rights is also the right to health…

Yes, the right to health, whether physical or mental, is a fundamental human right. This is a concern that is all the more important as each conflict in the world weakens it. Every year, health is on the agenda of the FIFDH, which shares close ties with numerous NGOs such as Médecins Sans Frontières, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Health Organization… The film The man who mends women by Thierry Michel, for example, had a worldwide echo. It put into perspective the rapes in Kivu (Democratic Republic of Congo) and the exceptional commitment of Dr. Denis Mukwege who has since received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Do you think we are well off in Switzerland when it comes to health?

Switzerland is an extremely privileged country in this area and has a rather exceptional health system, with a quantity and quality of care accessible to all. I do think, however, that it is important to avoid developing a two-speed medicine. I lived in Germany for ten years, where dental care, for example, is included in basic insurance. It is a model that we could draw inspiration from in order to further improve the system of overall access to care in Switzerland.

How do you relate to your own health?

I’m extremely active professionally and tend to be a little over-absorbed and overwhelmed, not prioritizing what should be essential activities for a good balance. But I do my best to achieve this, especially with physical activity: I cycle every morning, I walk a lot, I swim at least seven months a year.

Do you pay attention to your diet?

I try as much as possible to be in harmony with my environment. I was a vegetarian for a long time, in reaction to the food industry and the intensive breeding of animals, and I have been trying for thirty years to consume locally and if possible from integrated and/or organic production. I think that as a consumer, I have the power to choose and therefore to have an impact on the ecosystem and on my health. Besides, I’m a hedonist, I can’t resist delicious food and wine!

Are you prone to stress, especially when approaching an important event like the festival?

It’s a management that will come naturally, in collaboration with the entire FIFDH team. Like the mechanism of a watch, the preparation and setting up of the event will have to be very precise in the detail of each of the days and the requirements. In short, daily mini-performances for ten days… with short nights! But I imagine that the body is carried by an overdose of adrenaline which helps to stay zen.

How did you get through the Covid crisis? Has it impacted your relationship to medicine, science, medical information…?

This period, in my opinion, was revealing of inequalities and social fractures, both in Switzerland and elsewhere in the world. It also helped develop a certain attitude of humility and modesty in relation to what human beings know… or don’t know! Nothing is ever acquired, we do not master everything. This is a lesson that we must remember and apply on a daily basis.

What can we wish you for the 2023 edition of the FIFDH?

That the wonderful team – made up in particular of 200 volunteers and around forty employees – can welcome the thousands of festival-goers expected. May Geneva once again be a place of dialogue with an international dimension, to strengthen ties and exchanges in a context of resonance with the main session of the UN Human Rights Council which will take place in parallel with the FIFDH. Finally, I hope that in the spring of 2023, the world will have a few fewer conflicts… it’s wishful thinking, but after all, to be alive is to remain optimistic!

Appeared in Planète Santé magazine N° 47 – December 2022