Art Competition - Human Rights Day (Deadline 9th Dec 2020)

We are calling on students to submit original artwork in celebration of Human Rights Day (10th December). All submissions will be included in an online exhibition on UCL WASH Society’s blog to form part of our fundraising efforts for Water Aid UK. Two winners will be chosen at random and rewarded with a £20 Pizza Pilgrims voucher or a £20 National Book Token according to their preference. 

Submissions can take any form, from photos, paintings and sculpture to comic strips. The UK government will double every donation to charities until 4 February 2021 which means that donations raised by the online exhibition will reach even more communities in need of clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene. So please consider donating to our fundraiser here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/wash-society-ucl 

 

Deadline: Midnight (UK time), Wednesday 9th December 2020 

Prizes: 1x £20 Pizza Pilgrims voucher and 1x £20 National Book Token (or equivalent if you don’t live in the UK) 

Submission: Please send us (a photo) of your submission via e-mail or upload it to WeTransfer and send us the link. Our e-mail address is su.washsociety@ucl.ac.uk. You don’t have to be a student at UCL. 

Share art, be part of our online exhibition and donate for change. 

 

More about the competition: 

In celebration of Human Rights Day, UCL WASH Society is organising an art competition and fundraiser for WaterAid UK! 

As well as honouring the continuous efforts for human rights protection around the globe, we want to mark the 10-year anniversary of water and sanitation being formally recognised as vital human rights by the UN General Assembly. Clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene should be a normal part of everyone’s daily life. Without all three, people can’t live dignified, healthy lives. With all three, people can unlock their potential, break free from poverty and change their lives for good. The impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have exacerbated the challenges many people all around the world have to face daily: entrenched, systematic, and intergenerational inequalities, exclusion and discrimination. It is therefore more important than ever to stand up for human rights and support vulnerable communities all around the world. 

We believe that making art is a great way to think about human rights in a way that empowers us. Making art helps us understand the struggles of others, whether they live nearby or further away, at our own pace. It doesn’t matter whether this is the first time you pick up a pencil or whether you’re an experienced sculptor. We would love to see how you interpret the theme of human rights in your own way. We accept all kinds of submissions, as long as they can be sent to us digitally. All art works will be part of our online exhibition on our blog. 

You can find some examples from Water Aid's Art for Change campaign below:

 

Background Information: 

The UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims the inalienable rights which everyone is entitled to as a human being - regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.  

Over the last 10 years, millions have gained access to clean water and decent toilets and close to half of the world’s developing countries have amended their constitutions to include water and sanitation as human rights. But there is still a long way to go as millions of people are still being forced to live without access to these basic services due not only to a lack of resources and technologies, but also the inequitable power relations that exist in our world. 

Globally, 785 million, that’s 1 in 10 people, still lack access to clean water close to home and 2 billion – 1 in 4 people – don't have a decent toilet of their own. In Nigeria, about 60 million people (30%) lack access to basic water supply services, about 100 million (54%) lack basic sanitation and about 150 million people (84%) lack basic handwashing facilities with soap and water. Worse still, well over 70,000 children under 5 die every year from diseases caused by the nation’s poor levels of access to clean water, decent toilets and good hygiene services. Furthermore, only 14% of schools, 7% of health facilities and 14% of motor parks and markets in the country have combined basic water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facilities. Levels of access to water, sanitation and hygiene service in rural communities are even more worrisome, making this segment of the population far more vulnerable. (Source: wateraid.org)