The Irish Council for Civil Liberties marked International Human Rights Day (10 December 2010) by raising the curtain on its 2011 Human Rights Film Awards.

The 2011 ICCL Human Rights Film Awards invites individual film students, filmmakers, and/ or those with a strong interest in human rights to submit an original short film focusing on a particular human rights issue in or related to Ireland.

The aim of the Human Rights Film Awards is to provide film students, filmmakers and those working in human rights with an opportunity to contribute to human rights discourse in Ireland, grappling with issues which affect some of the most vulnerable members of Irish society through the medium of film.

Over the past two years, the competition has produced shortlisted films of outstanding quality which cast light on a range of human rights issues in new and creative ways. The 2011 competition aims to continue this trend, while also widening its reach to younger people in second-level education (see the Human Rights in Under a Minute Challenge and the Human Rights Films in Schools Project).

Full details are available on www.humanrightsfilmawards.org