Opening Speech for RIGHT HERE, RIGHT NOW

Thank you all for being here tonight.

When we talk about human rights in 2026, it’s impossible to escape the feeling that we are talking about something fragile. Something that more and more people, not least some of the world’s most powerful people, want us to believe belongs to another period in time.

The international order that many of us grew up with – built after the Second World War around international law, institutions, and the idea that every human being possesses certain universal rights – suddenly feels less stable than it once did.

Wars are fought in open violation of international law.
Authoritarian leaders openly mock the idea of universal rights.
And even democracies – including our own – are increasingly debating how far those rights should really extend. Across Europe, and not least here in Denmark, politicians from across the political spectrum are questioning international conventions and the institutions meant to protect them.

So: It is fair to say that the ground beneath the Universal Declaration of Human Rights from 1948 is shaking.

And if that is the case, then it becomes even more important that we actually know what these rights are.

But here we encounter another problem:

A recent study from the Danish Institute for Human Rights shows that while most Danes say they support human rights, more than 50 percent, more than half the population, cannot name a single specific right.

If people believe in rights but do not know what they are, then something is clearly missing.

That is one of the key reasons why we have decided to start the HUMAN:RIGHTS project together with Kunsthal Charlottenborg and Human Rights Watch, with generous support from the foundations Frececo and Dreyers.

At CPH:DOX, we believe that documentaries have a unique ability to make complex issues understandable, to bring distant realities closer, and to show us how political principles shape real human lives. 

And the films at this year’s festival really prove that point. 10 of them, all of them new films premiering in the festival, have been nominated for our Human:Rights Award, which we hand out in collaboration with the Danish Institute for Human Rights. 

But those 10 nominated films are not alone in focusing on human rights at CPH:DOX 2026. The very core of the project is a film programme with the title Right Here, Right Now in which we present 30 films, each reflecting one or more of the 30 articles in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Not as abstract principles.
But as lived realities.

Stories about people – about dignity, injustice, courage and resistance.

At the end of today’s event, we will show a short video highlighting all 30 films in the Right Here, Right Now programme – a glimpse into the stories and experiences you will encounter throughout the festival.

Our aim with screening these films is to move people, touch them, make them feel, but also to basically make all of us wiser about our universal rights – because knowing them is the first step toward upholding them.

But the challenge we are facing may actually be even bigger than a lack of knowledge.

A new survey conducted for Amnesty International here in Denmark shows that four out of ten Danes say they are afraid that publicly criticizing authorities could have personal consequences for them.

Think about that for a moment. 

Not in an authoritarian state. 

But here.

In one of the world’s most trusted democracies.

If people are afraid to use their freedom of expression – even when the law protects it – then something fundamental is at stake. 

Because freedom of expression is not only written in laws and conventions.

It also depends on whether people actually feel able to use it.

That is why we do not only screen films here at CPH:DOX.

Throughout the festival we host hundreds of talks, debates and conversations where artists, activists, experts and ordinary people meet.

To question. To disagree. To open up difficult conversations. And to listen to each other. 

Because when we watch these stories unfold on screen, when we sit together in the dark and then step into the light to talk, disagree, and listen, we are reminding ourselves, and each other, that these rights are not relics of the past; they are living tools we can still sharpen and defend – right here, right now.