Cartoon Movement

United Nations Human Rights Cartoon Project

This year, the world celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). To celebrate this, we have partnered with the United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) and invited cartoonists around the world to illustrate the 30 articles of the UDHR.

We have received over 500 cartoons. Out of all these submissions, we have selected two cartoons per article. We now invite you to vote for your favorite(s) per article in our official selection newsroom.

The cartoons that illustrate the 30 articles best will be shown in an exhibition to celebrate 70 years of human rights.

To vote, you will need to register (it's free, and we do not use your email or other data for any other purposes). The voting period will last until October 20th.

 

An Open Letter to Mark Zuckerberg

Cartoonists have fallen victim to Facebook moderation (or in stronger terms: censorship) more and more in recent months. Here are two (1,2) recent examples of cartoons that were removed from Facebook, probably because they include symbols that refer to Nazi Germany.

Even more serious is a recent cartoon by Thai cartoonist Stephff about Myanmar and the Rohingya that was deleted by Facebook. In this instance the most likely scenario is that the cartoon was removed because it was reported by someone who did not agree with the opinion stated in the cartoon. This does beg the question: did this cartoon cross a line (by showing graphic violence), or is this a case of censorship by Facebook, removing critical journalistic content? We think the latter. Stephff has written an open letter to Facebook, which was also published by Thai newspaper The Nation:

 I have been a daily political cartoonist since 20 years now . On Thursday evening I received a notice from Facebook that I have violated Facebook rules by publishing on my Facebook page 'Stephff Tribal Art' the cartoon above , therefore it was suppressed and I am asked to comply with 'Facebook rules' or else.

There was no possibility to argue - no button I could press to defend myself against this serious misunderstanding . What are these 'Facebook rules' exactly? That we cannot complain about a genocide in the making because some ultranationalist, xenophobic Burmese netizens have complained to Facebook? What about those same netizens who are spreading a campaign of hatred against the Rohingyas with the help of their compatriot cartoonists? What about all these racist Burmese people who have come to insult me on my page each time I have published a cartoon about the Rohingya tragedy?

What is exactly Facebook's policy? To stop the people who try to bring some substantial fight against bad things happening in this World and allow only people who publish pictures of their lunch?

Why don't you employ real people with a brain to judge if a cartoon is racist or if - on contrary - it fights against racism. Because apparently your stupid algorithms are far from being able to tell the difference. I can't believe you are siding with the very same people who are supporting the oppression and killings of the Rohingya people. Is this the 'better World' Facebook is trying to build where we cannot criticize harshly a genocide in the making?

Statement About Prophet Muhammad Cartoon Contest

After receiving numerous threats of violence, condemnations and calls for a boycott of Dutch products on our Facebook page, we feel we need to make an official statement regarding the Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest organized by Dutch right-wing politician Geert Wilders later this year.

Because we are a cartoon organization located in the Netherlands, some people presume we support this initiative. We do not.

This cartoon contest is asking cartoonists to draw the Prophet Muhammad. Depictions of the Prophet are considered blasphemous by many Muslims. Geert Wilders claims that this competition is to show that freedom of speech should never bow down to region.

 

Screenshot from Facebook: some of the comments we have received.

 

We agree. With the last statement, that is. We don’t agree with this competition. To us, Wilders’ initiative has much in common with the Holocaust cartoon contest organized a few years back by Iran. In both contests, cartoonists are asked to mock a specific subject with the aim of insulting a specific group of people. In the case of Iran, the aim was to insult Jews; in the case of Wilders, the aim is to insult Muslims. In both these contests, cartoons are wielded as a political weapon, to attack a specific group. Cartoons should never be used in this way.

However, we do agree that free speech overrides religion. And we strongly condemn the threats we have received by people who feel insulted over what is, in essence, a few lines on paper. In this case, these lines haven’t even been drawn yet.

Islam, like other religions (or any institution that wields power) is a legitimate target of satire, if that satire is aimed at exposing wrongs and injustices. And satire should never be afraid to be blasphemous to achieve this aim. We have no problem with depicting the Prophet Muhammad in a cartoon, if that cartoon is a legitimate criticism of Islam. But Mr. Wilders is not aiming for a meaninful critique of religion, or to start a thoughtful debate about religion and satire. He’s simply out to insult Muslims. And that’s something we do not want to be a part of.

The Cartoon Movement

New Cartoonists from Jordan, Uzbekistan and Italy

We are expanding our global community of cartoonists with talented artists from Jordan, Uzbekistan and Italy!

 

Mahmoud Rifai - Jordan

Mahmoud Rifai is a cartoonist from Amman, Jordan. His work has been published in various Jordanian daily newspapers. He has also worked as animator and art director for various studios and production companies. He is the Secretary of the Jordanian Cartoonist Community. Check out his Facebook page to see more of his work.

 

Muzaffar Yulchiboev - Uzbekistan

Muzaffar Yulchiboev is a cartoonist from Tashkent, Uzbekistan. He graduated from the National Institute of Arts and Design in 2016 and current works as a theatrical painting artist in a theater, in addition to working as a cartoonist. He has won several awards with his cartoons.

 

Maurizio Boscarol - Italy

 Maurizio Boscarol is a cartoonist and graphic journalism (making longford comics) for online and print publications.

New Cartoonist: Mohsen Zarifian

Mohsen Zarifian is an award-winning freelance cartoonist from Iran. He has been a professional cartoonist since 1991, collaborating with many major newspapers and magazines in Iran.

New Cartoonist: Adrian Palmas

Adrian Palmas is an award-winning cartoonist from Argentina. His work has been published by media in Argentina and the United States.

New Cartoonist: Amin Montazeri

Amin Montazeri is a illustrator, designer, animator and cartoonist from Tehran, Iran. His work has been awarded several times and has been featured in numerous exhibitions in Iran and abroad.

New cartoonist: Olivier Ploux

Olivier Ploux is a graphic designer and illustrator from France. Visit his website to see more of his work.

Cartoon Project - 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

This year, the world celebrates the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Universal Declaration of Human rights was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948 and is a milestone document in the history of human rights. It was the first document setting out the fundamental human rights to be universally protected and the Declaration recognizes the inherent dignity and the equal and inalienable rights of all members of the human family as the foundation of freedom, justice and peace in the world. Around the world, we see that human rights are increasingly under pressures and space for civil society, journalists and cartoonists is shrinking. It is therefore imperative that we continue to work together to make sure that the next generation is educated about their rights and the Declaration and what better way to do that than through cartoons.

The United Nations Human Rights Office (OHCHR) and the government of the Kingdom of the Netherlands together with the Cartoon Movement wish to celebrate this momentous occasion by launching a cartoon contest.

The project

This project is not only open to Cartoon Movement cartoonists, but to all cartoonists around the world. Everyone is invited to draw a cartoon for every article (or multiple articles) of the Universal Declaration. The cartoon can relate to any aspect of the respective article. Multiple cartoons will be drawn per article and an open voting process will then determine what cartoon best represents the content of the right contained in the article.

Once all the cartoons have been prepared, an online platform (Facebook) will be created. On this platform all cartoons will be displayed and OHCHR and the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in collaboration with the Cartoon Movement and several schools around the world, will ensure that younger people (age 11 – 19 years) vote for the best cartoon for each article. The cartoons will also be distributed via the respective social media channels of OHCHR and the Kingdom of the Netherlands to invite everyone who is interested to vote to do so. When several cartoons per article receive a similar number of votes the organizers of this project will help select the winning cartoon.

The winning cartoon per article will be printed and an art exhibition will be organized in The Hague or Geneva in the fall of 2018. This exhibition will be co-sponsored by the OHCHR, The Netherlands and the Cartoon Movement.

Further instructions

As the aim of this project is to reach out to younger generations and raise awareness about the importance of the UDHR, it is important for the cartoons to be:

-Understandable for younger people between 11 – 19 years of age;

-Understandable for people with different cultural and political backgrounds from all regions of the world and therefore not limited to one conflict, world leader or situation;

-Understandable for persons that do not speak English (or do not speak the language used).

-Add the article you are illustrating clearly in the title or description of your cartoon.

-IMPORTANT: As the objective is to unite around the Declaration and illustrate its principles, the cartoons should not mention any specific countries, political figures or issues that would go against the values of the United Nations. The organizers reserve the rights to preselect for the voting process only the cartoons complying with these recommendations.

Submitting cartoons

Cartoons can be upload to our project newsroom UN Human Rights. If you are not a registered member of Cartoon Movement you will need to make an account. After you have an account you can upload your cartoons via this link, selecting the subroom 'UN Human Rights' from the drop-down menu.

This project will open for submissions between Tuesday June 12 and Friday July 20.

Prizes

For the exhibition 30 cartoons will be determined by popular vote as best reflecting the articles of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. For each selected cartoon the artist will receive 100 euro.

Articles of the UDHR (shortened)

Art. 1: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Art. 2: Everyone is entitled to all rights and freedoms in the declaration, without discrimination.

Art. 3: Everyone has the right to life.

Art. 4: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude.

Art. 5: No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Art. 6: Everyone has the right to recognition everywhere as a person before the law.

Art. 7: All are equal before the law.

Art. 8: Everyone has the right to an effective remedy by the competent national tribunals.

Art. 9: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrests, detention or exile.

Art. 10: Everyone is entitled to a fair and public hearing by an independent tribunal.

Art. 11: Everyone charged with a penal offence has the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty.

Art. 12: No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with his privacy.

Art. 13: Everyone has the right to freedom of movement.

Art. 14: Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

Art. 15: Everyone has the right to a nationality.

Art. 16: Men and women of full age, without limitations, have the right to marry and to found a family.

Art. 17: Everyone has the right to own property.

Art. 18: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion.

Art. 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Art. 20: Everyone has the right to freedom of peaceful assembly and association.

Art. 21: Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country.

Art. 22: Everyone, as a member of society, has the right to social security.

Art. 23: Everone has the right to work, to free choice of employment and to just and favourable conditions of work.

Art. 24: Everyone has the right to rest and leisure.

Art. 25: Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family.

Art. 26: Everyone has the right to education.

Art. 27: Everyone has the right freely to participate in the cultural life of the community.

Art. 28: Everyone is entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this declaration can be fully realized.

Art. 29: Everone has duties to the community in which alone the free and full development of his personality is possible.

Art. 30: Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any State, group or person any right to engage in any activity aimed at the destruction of any of the rights set forth herein.

For more information, including the full text of the Universal Declaration, please visit this page.

For more information of the campaign on the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, please visit www.standup4humanrights.org

Life as a Cartoonist in the Digital Age: Our Audience is Bigger than Ever, Our Earnings at an All-Time Low

By Tjeerd Royaards

It’s great when a cartoon goes viral. It’s what every cartoonist hopes for: to have your image reach a massive audience, and to hopefully get them thinking on the subject you want to draw attention to with your cartoon.

Two weeks ago, I was very fortunate to have one of my cartoons go viral. Mamadou Gassama, an undocumented immigrant in France, rescued a small child hanging precariously off a balcony. After this heroic act, Mamoudou was (deservedly) rewarded with citizenship. Although I did not want to take away from his heroics I did want to create a cartoon that highlighted the way we think about immigrants in general. We seem to only accept them when they behave like Superman.

And it seems the image struck a nerve. In the end, I received close to 50K retweets and 75K likes on my personal account alone. It’s safe to assume the cartoon has been seen by millions. The cartoon was picked up by many, many media outlets, the vast majority of whom did not ask for permission, nor have they offered any financial compensation for the use of this image.

It’s symbolic of the life as a cartoonist in the digital age: our audience is bigger than ever, our earnings at an all-time low. This cartoon got me 75,000 likes, but only about 175 euro in reprint fees. Republications include many media websites, TV shows and even a Dutch newspaper. Het Parool printed a Twitter screenshot because I wasn’t willing to provide them with a high resolution cartoon for free. They now refuse payment stating they are merely 'quoting' the cartoon.

I took some time to chase some of the bigger online media down to ask them to purchase a license for use. A week later, I have yet to receive a response from all but a few.

 

Dutch newspaper Parool reprints the cartoon after my explicit request to buy a license.

Examples include Belgian newspaper Le Soir, Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia and French TV:

A French TV show features my work without asking me.

I do not want to seem like a whining artist, and I'm certainly not looking to get rich, but this practice of using content for free is so wide-spread that it’s threatening not only my livelihood, but that of all creators anywhere who post their stuff online. I need Twitter to connect with my audience and I love it when people share my work. But is it so unreasonable of me to expect media companies to pay a reasonable fee when they want to use my work? They’re not only profiting from my work in terms of eyeballs, likes and clicks, when they post it to their website they are also generating ad revenue with my work, none of which will ever line my pockets.

The saddest aspect of this practice is that media are actively contributing to their own demise. Not paying for good journalistic content means that professional content makers like myself will be forced out of business. It seems that while content is king, content makers are doomed to a life of destitution.

Good migrant, bad migrant? pic.twitter.com/SDGxx0BTrt

— Tjeerd Royaards (@Royaards) May 29, 2018