Minority Artists, Voice, and Dissidence

International Art Contest for Minority Artists

Second Edition 2023

Recognizing Minority Artists Working on Intersectionality Themes

ANNOUNCEMENT

Concept note: العربية | 中文 | English | Français | русский | Español

On the occasion of the Zero Discrimination Day celebrated globally on 1 March 2023, and to launch the start of Racial Justice Month, part of OHCHR’s year-long commemoration of the 75^th anniversary of the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the UN Human Rights Office (OHCHR) joined forces with the non-governmental organizations Minority Rights Group International and Freemuse to organize the Second Edition of the International Art Contest for Minority Artists. The 2023 edition invited applications from minority artists working on intersectionality themes.

The First Edition of the International Art Contest for Minority Artists was organized in 2022 and focused on the theme of statelessness. The catalogue and summary of winners is available here.

The Second Edition celebrates minority artists who have exposed, explored, and/or addressed matters relating to intersectional forms of discrimination through their artwork. It aims to raise awareness on the human rights of individuals and groups belonging to minorities and facing compounded forms of discrimination.

From 1 March 2023 to 15 May 2023, minority artists were invited to submit up to five works of art related to intersectionality and intersectional forms of discrimination.

Applications have been assessed by a dedicated Judges Panel. The Judges Panel selected three minority artists to receive non-hierarchical awards, as well as one minority artists or art project to receive the Minority Youth Artist Award.

The award-winners will be announced on 2 November 2023 at a hybrid Ceremony organized in Geneva. On this occasion, a visual exhibition and a catalogue featuring the awarded artists and their art will be publicly launched.

Full details of the 2nd edition (2023) of the International Art Contest for Minority Artists are included in the concept note.

The Second Edition of the International Art Contest follows up the 2022 of the UN Network on Racial Discrimination and Protection of Minorities on intersectionality, racial discrimination and protection of minorities. 

Results of International Art Contest First Edition 2022

Recognizing Minority Artists Working on Statelessness Themes

Versions in العربية | Français | Pусский | Español

On the occasion of the International Day Against Racial Discrimination 21 March 2022, the UN Human Rights Office (ohchr.org), the UN Refugee Agency (unhcr.org), the non-governmental organizations Freemuse (freemuse.org) and Minority Rights Group International (minorityrights.org) joined forces to launch a contest for minority artists who have exposed, explored, and/or addressed matters relating to statelessness through their artwork.

The contest was organized to support minority artists’ work on statelessness and to increase the visibility of their artwork, while raising awareness on the human rights of stateless individuals and groups belonging to minorities. The contest was adjudicated by a dedicated Judges Panel involving minority artists from various contexts worldwide, as well as involving the UN Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights:

• Khadim Ali, Pakistani artist based in Australia and belonging to the Hazara ethnic minority
• Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo, artist and former OHCHR Person of African Descent fellow based in Switzerland
• Yuliya Lanina, Russian-born and US-based multidisciplinary artist of Jewish background
• Aline Miklos, Roma artist from Brazil/Argentina and OHCHR Senior Minority Fellow
• Alexandra Xanthaki, United Nations Special Rapporteur in the Field of Cultural Rights

On 3 November 2022, at a gala hybrid event in Geneva and online, on the basis of decisions by the Judges Panel, awards were provided to three minority artists working on statelessness themes: 

• Zahra Hassan Marwan (artist and author)
• Jean Philippe Moiseau (plastic and recycling artist)
• Abdullah (photographer and videographer)

Four further minority artists received honourable mention:

• Brang Li (painter and visual artist) 
• Amin Taasha (painter and visual artist)
• Naser Moradi (painter) 
• Mawa Rannahr (painter)

A full catalogue of the artists work is available: HERE

The catalogue also includes biographies of the 5 members of the Judges Panel, information on minority statelessness and the right to nationality, and details of global action to end statelessness.

Further information, including as concerns process and criteria for the awards, is available at: international art contest Recognizing Minority Artists Working on Statelessness Themes.

The Minority Artists, Voice and Dissidence series brings together minority artists from diverse contexts to present artwork on the freedom of artistic expression. The series aims to strengthen OHCHR and the UN system’s recognition of minority art and artists as powerful players in discourse and action on human rights—and to deepen engagement with them. 

The first event of the Minority Rights, Voice and Dissidence series—Human Rights, Art and Protest: Voice and Expression in U.S. Minority Communities in the Time of the Pandemic—was held in February 2021. It focused on artists from across a range of minority communities in the United States, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.  
 
The 2nd Human Rights Gallery of the Minority Rights, Voice and Dissidence series—Speaking Truth to Power: Religious or Belief Minority Artists, Voice and Protest—took place in May 2021. The focus was on religious or belief minorities worldwide, including in circumstances where artists may be threatened by anti-blasphemy or anti-apostasy laws, as well as by other forces limiting civic space.

A 3rd event— Human Rights Re-Imagined: A Virtual Art and Activism Tour -- focussed   on minority visual artists from a plurality of mediums, contexts and geographies, with due regard for gender and minority diversities.