We're proud to be partnering with the with the Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe this year. Throughout 2021, we will support the various publications of the Commissioner with cartoons about human rights issues. You can see the first cartoon here.

The Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent and impartial non-judicial institution established in 1999 by Council of Europe to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the 47 Council of Europe member states.

Check out our first cartoon, about the right of journalists to be protected at public assemblies, here:

Erin McDermott is a published editorial cartoonist, design artist, and filmmaker from Charlotte, NC in the United States. She graduated CalArts with a BFA in Character Animation and has worked on projects such as the Oscar winning short, 'Hair Love,' by Sony Pictures Animation. Erin's passion for cartooning blossomed after taking a political cartooning class with Washington Post cartoonist Ann Telnaes. Check out her website to see more of here work.

Our April newsletter is out! You can read it online to find out our latest news and last month's most popular cartoons. And if you would like to receive our newsletter in your inbox every month, you can subscribe here.

Here below you can find the Swahili translation of our comic Making ends meet around Virunga, produced for the Centre of Public Authority and International Development (CPAID) of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). Download a PDF of the the French version here.

We have a bunch of online events coming up in May that may interest you, if you're at all into editorial cartooning (we assume you are, since you are reading this blog). So, save the date for:

May 3 - Evergreen Satire (on World Press Freedom Day)

Together with the Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision we are working on a project to give new relevance to historical editorial cartoons. We'll have more details about this project soon, as we are working on a big event in September. On May 3, we will kick off the project on Instagram at 5.30pm CEST with a guest expert, talking about the similarities and differences of cartoons that were made a century ago and cartoons that are drawn today. More details will follow soon.

May 7 - Cartoonist 2 Cartoonist

Join us on Instagram on Friday May 7 at 6.30pm CEST for the second episode of Cartoonist 2 Cartoonist, where CM editors Tjeerd Royaards and Emanuele Del Rosso will give constructive feedback on a selection of cartoons that were submitted for review.

If you'd like a chance to have your work reviewed, you can send it to [email protected]

May 19 - LOL: The Limits Of Laughter

This is the second online event of Cartoons in Court, a three-year research project coordinated by the Institute for Advanced Study at Central European University about legal controversies around cartoons and humor. During the event, the researchers will present their progress. We are also delighted to have a special guest: Bob Mankoff, cartoon editor for the New Yorker for 20 years, will join us and offer his insights on the limits of satire and (self-)censorship.

Join us on May 19 between 4pm CEST and 5.30pm CEST. More details will follow soon.

For the second edition of Cartoonist 2 Cartoonist, we are again open to submissions by cartoonists of all levels (aspiring and established) who would like to receive feedback on their work. The format is simple: about once a month, CM editors Emanuele del Rosso and Tjeerd Royaards go live on Instagram to discuss a selection of the cartoons that were submitted, giving constructive criticism meant to help the cartoonist improve his or her work.

Check out the pilot edition here to see what C2C is all about. You can send your cartoons to [email protected]

Nicoletta Santagostino (pen name Nicocomix) is an Italian illustrator. Graduated from the Academy of Fine Arts in Genoa, she publishes her work on several websites as well as designing book covers and exhibition posters.

Ali Şur is a cartoonist and caricaturist from Bodrum in Turkey. He published his first caricature in 1981. His cartoons are wordless and deal with broad topics such as war, migration, and poverty.

No matter what part of the world political cartoons are from, they have a few things in common. One common trait is that they are not good at nuance. Cartoons see the world in black and white, right and wrong, justice and injustice. This is perhaps why the chessboard is such a popular symbol among cartoonists. Like cartoons chess divides reality in black and white.

And there is another division that defines chess. The divisions between the pawns and more valuable pieces. Chess divides the world up into expendable pawns, and pieces of varying degrees of power. Just like how many cartoonists view and portray the world. So it's no surprise we see the chess board used as a metaphor for inequality and in injustice is many cartoons. Here are some of our favorite examples:

German artist Rainer Ehrt divides the world into two sides of a chess board.

We do our best to make sure it stays that way, according to Jean Dobritz...

...and Makhmud Eshonkulov.

Hasan Abadi shows what civil war looks like using a chess board.

Bombs become chess pieces in this cartoon by Anne Derenne.

And refugees become the expendable pieces in iMerlo's work.

The pandemic is a big game of chess, according to Zach.

Cuban artist Miguel Morales Madrigal agrees, but has a different analysis of who is his most by corona.

In partnership with the Centre of Public Authority and International Development (CPAID) of the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), we produced a series of six comics on public authority in different countries across Africa.

This comic, based on research by Dr Naomi Pendle and drawn by South Sudanese comic artist Tom Dai, looks at the peace process and the role of the army in South Sudan between 2005 and 2020.

You can read the full comic below or download the PDF here.