Rabat to Gather Cinephiles and Activists for Night Focused on Active Citizenship

Rabat is set to host a powerful white night of cinema and debate centered on human rights and active citizenship.

Fez– On July 4, Rabat will host the 13th edition of the White Night of Cinema and Human Rights, an annual cultural gathering that turns the city into a stage for open-air screenings and critical conversations.

Organized by the Mediterranean Meetings Association for Cinema and Human Rights (ARMCDH), this year’s edition is anchored in a powerful and timely theme: active citizenship.

More than just an artistic event, the White Night is a platform where cinema meets civic engagement, and where films spark serious questions about justice, dignity, and individual as well as collective responsibilities.

According to the ARMCDH’s official announcement, the event aims to explore how citizenship, when genuinely practiced by both individuals and institutions, can serve as a vehicle for legitimate social aspirations.

The program kicks off at 4 p.m. at the Cherif El Idrissi amphitheater in the Faculty of Letters in Rabat. A panel discussion will open the evening, gathering leading voices from the institutional, academic, and civil society spheres.

Among the confirmed speakers are Driss El Yazami, President of the Council of the Moroccan Community Abroad; Abderrazzak El Hannouchi, activist and expert in civil society; Leila Rhiwi, a women’s rights advocate; Fouad Chafiqi, Inspector General at the Ministry of Education; and Youssef Laaraj, another prominent activist.

The discussion will be moderated by sociologist and university professor Khadija Berady from Ibn Tofail University in Kenitra.

This year’s debate will take a deep look at Morocco’s progress in promoting human rights and responsible citizenship, two decades after the Equity and Reconciliation Commission and fourteen years into the life of the 2011 Constitution.

It will ask hard questions about how far the country has come in making dignity and justice tangible for all citizens, and in translating constitutional promises into lived realities.

Another key topic on the table is the evolving notion of citizenship in the digital age. As social media becomes both a tool for mobilization and a source of polarization, the conversation will reflect on the ways digital spaces are shaping civic identities and public discourse.

As night falls, the cinematic part of the event will unfold on the esplanade of the National Library of the Kingdom of Morocco.

The screenings begin at sunset and continue until dawn, transforming the city into an open-air movie house under the stars.

A curated selection of nine films, both short and feature-length, fiction and documentary, will be shown.

They come from eight countries including Morocco, Palestine, Lebanon, the UK, Spain, Peru, and France. Each film tells a story of resistance, identity, or struggle, highlighting universal battles for human dignity and civil rights, whether in courtrooms, classrooms, or communities.

The event is held in partnership with institutions such as the Heinrich Böll Foundation Rabat, UN Women Morocco, the French Institute, the Moroccan Cinematographic Center, the Embassy of Spain in Morocco, and others. Together, they support a night that reaffirms cinema’s ability to question, provoke, and unite.