Cartoon Movement

Human Rights Day

December 10 was Human Rights Day, a day we celebrated with cartoon exhibitions in The Hague and São Paulo. This year marked the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Earlier this year, we organized a cartoon contest together with the United Nations Human Rights Office.

Out of over 500 submissions from around the globe, 30 cartoons were selected; one for each of the articles of the UDHR. These cartoons were on display at the Peace Palace (which was turned blue for Human Rights Day) in The Hague and at the Public Defender's Office in São Paulo.​

Together with Hague Talks, we invited Mexican cartoonist Guffo at the Peace Palace to tell about his work, and about the importance of cartoons in the fight for human rights. We also made this video:

But December 10 didn't mark the end of this project. Instead, it was the launch of a new contest, this time not just for cartoonists. For this new contest we're asking people around the world the question: What action do you take to support human rights?

New cartoonist: Engin Selçuk

Engin Selçuk is a cartoonist with a focus on gag cartoons. He started publishing his work in newspapers and magazines in the 1990s and has won over 40 awards since. He lives in Izmir, Turkey.

World Press Cartoon 2019

The 2019 edition of World Press Cartoon, one of the most prestigious cartoon contests in the world, is now open for submission. Visit the WPC website for the rules of submission and to download the entry form and identification label. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2019.

Submissions must be published in newspapers or magazines, published on a regular basis and on sale to the public. Since last year, WPC also accepts cartoons that have been published online in ‘professional online publications of recognized journalistic nature’.

We’re very happy that Cartoon Movement is recognized as such, meaning that all the cartoons published on Cartoon Movement by our official cartoonists are eligible to participate. One of last year's winners was in fact a cartoon published on Cartoon Movement.

New Cartoonists from Russia, Morocco and Bahrain

We’re happy to announce yet more cartoonists have decided to join our community:

Mikhail Zlatkovsky - Russia

Mikhail Zlatkovsky has been a cartoonist since 1971. He won more than two hundred awards worldwide and is considered by his peers as one of the greatest among them.

Imad Sanouni - Morocco

Imad Sanouni is an editorial cartoonist from Casablanca, Morocco. Visit his Facebook page to see more of his work.

Sara Qaed - Bahrain/UK

Sara Qaed is an artist, designer, and former teacher. She is originally from Bahrain and now lives in the UK. She received her bachelor in Interior Design and her MA in Fine Art. Check out her Instagram to see more of her work.

New Cartoonist: Nawar Khalil

Nawar Khalil is a cartoonist from, Damascus, Syria. Visit his Facebook page to see more of his work.

Tjeerd Royaards Wins Dutch Cartoon Award

CM editor and cartoonist Tjeerd Royaards has won the Inktspotprijs, a prestigious cartoon award in the Netherlands given to the best cartoon published in the previous year ('Inktspot' is a pun on the Dutch words for ink (inkt) and mockery (spot)). The award was given to Royaards for Good Migrant, Bad Migrant a cartoon that was first published on Cartoon Movement. The cartoon, about the French illegal migrant that saved a child, went viral last May.

A section of the 100 best Dutch cartoons, including the winning cartoon, can be seen in an exhibition that is simultaneously showing on three locations in the Netherlands: the central library in The Hague, the main library in Amsterdam, and the Limburgs Museum.

The exhibition also features work from CM contributors Jean Gouders, Benjamin Kikkert, Emanuele Del Rosso, Moshe Gilula, Gezienus, Hajo, TRIK, Maarten Wolterink and Bart van Leeuwen.

If you can’t take it to one of the exhibition, the selection of 100 cartoons can also be viewed in an online catalogue here.

New Cartoonist: Camdelafu

Camila de la Fuente, known as @Camdelafu, is a Venezuelan/German journalist & cartoonist who lives in Mexico City. She has lived most of her life in Venezuela under the Chavista-Madurista dictatorship. During that time she got involved in the Student Movement that led most of the street protests that were violently repressed by the regime with hundreds of dead, wounded and imprisoned protesters. In 2014 she migrated to Mexico both for working opportunities and security. Her work is recognized for using animated political cartoons (gif) as a way of expression, in addition to static editorial cartoons. She's Cartónclub’s (Latin American cartoon agency) Communications Director. Visit her website here.

Lector in Fabula - European Cultural Festival

We spent the weekend in Conversano, a town in southern Italy that hosts Lector in Fabula, an annual European cultural festival. Leading up to the festival, Librexpression, an organization dedicated to cartoons and freedom of speech, organized a cartoon contest with the theme power and information in the digital age. First prize was awarded to Nikola Listes from Croatia, and we're proud that second and third prize went to two of our members, Emanuele Del Rosso and Fadi Abou Hassan respectively.

In addition to the award ceremony, the festival also featured a cartoon exhibition of the best cartoons sent in for this exhibition and a panel discussing last year's news through satire, featuring Marco De Angelis from Italy, Tjeerd Royaards from the Netherlands and Doaa Eladl from Egypt.

(Photo by Francesco Paolo Gassi)

 

The winning cartoons

 

1st prize - Nikola Listes

 

2nd prize - Emanuele Del Rosso

 

3rd prize - Fadi Abou Hassan

 

Visit the website of Librexpression to see the 15 best cartoons, as selected by the jury. Here are some additional photos of the festival:

Panel discussion with Doaa Eladl, Marco De Angelis and Tjeerd Royaards. Photo by Mimmo Donghia.

 

Cartoon exhibition. Photo by Antonio Giancaspro.

 

The award ceremony.

 

Fadi Abou Hassan from Norway.

 

Doaa Eladl from Egypt. Photo by Mattia Ramunni.

New Cartoonists from Bangladesh and Romania

We are very fortunate to welcome two more talented cartoonists to our community:

Liviu Stanila - Romania

Liviu Stanila is a cartoonist and children’s books illustrator from Romania. He has won numerous awards for his work.

Asifur Rahman - Bangladesh

Asifur Rahman is a cartoonist from Dhaka, Bangladesh. He is currently working as a cartoonist for the Daily Samakal, a national daily in Bangladesh.

Pedro Molina Wins Courage in Cartooning Award

Nicaraguan cartoonist and Cartoon Movement member Pedro X. Molina has won this year’s Courage in Editorial Cartooning Award.

From the website of CRNI:

Pedro X. Molina of Nicaragua is a long-standing proponent of freedom of expression and a tireless ally of cartoonists in trouble elsewhere. Of late he has had cause to chronicle the deteriorating condition of society under President Daniel Ortega and his wife, Vice President Rosario Murillo. As citizens took to the streets to protest, in Molina’s own words, “several years of suffering electoral frauds, selective repression, attempts to censor the internet, mismanagement of environmental disasters and the enactment of a social security law that curtails the rights of current and future pensioners” the Nicaraguan government has embarked upon increasingly brutal crack-downs.

Human rights groups’ reports differ on the scale but it is apparent several hundred have died in the violence. Despite all the unrest and direct threats and attempts at intimidation by masked paramilitaries working for the regime, Molina has continued to produce hard-hitting cartoons confronting the abuses of the Nicaraguan government. The CRNI board feels that Pedro exemplifies exactly the courageous kind of cartoonist we wish to honor with our award.

The decision to recognize Molina this year is further evidence of the lurch toward authoritarianism that has gripped nations around the world and fits the pattern of cartoonists reporting – along with their colleagues across all mass media – an increasingly hostile environment to journalism and satire.