December 2023: Bringing together authors from Uganda, Mexico, the Philippines, Nigeria, Bangladesh, South Africa and the United States, among others, this timely anthology gives voice to queer people facing a barrage of anti-LGBTQ+ legislation and bigotry worldwide. From Uganda's Anti-Homosexuality Act to Florida's Don't Say Gay law, governments everywhere have been drawing inspiration from each other as they target their own queer communities, all the while claiming that queerness is something foreign and invasive. The storytellers collected in this book come together to push back on those silencing efforts, insisting that their voices, at least, cannot be censored or erased.
January 2024: The International Human Rights Art Movement presents the 2023 Literary Magazine Collected Works.
If art is a window, consider this magazine a direct line—a can and string mechanism—to a fellow human, a world away. The beauty of the International Human Rights Art Movement is that we are not just another soldier in the fight for global human equality; we are a peaceful space for human connection and reflection. We envision a world where artist activism is honored as a human right, and a source of social change.
The IHRAM magazine was created with a simple goal: to celebrate and uplift up-and-coming authors from all over the world; each of the authors in this anthology contend with their identities in the context of their environments, providing readers with their unique perspectives on issues of human rights.
July 2023: From Africa with Love: Voices of a Creative Continent. Explore a tapestry of themes on love, death, race, women’s rights, politics, and the profound beauty of existence. From an enchanting underwater world imagined by an eight- year-old to the raw realities of life across the African continent, features writers and artists offering thought-provoking glimpses into the human experience. Each word and brushstroke create powerful ripples of awareness, celebrating Africa’s extraordinary talent, and promoting understanding and transformation.
From Africa with Love: Voices of a Creative Continent weaves together literary expressions and artwork that showcase the indomitable human spirit.
October 2023: This collection of twenty-eight breathtaking poems, five epic short stories and a series of beautiful illustrations on the Sudanese conflicts and war in general is one of the International Human Rights Art Movement’s contributions to advocate for human rights and social justice.
In many ways, this anthology calls to mind John Pepper Clark’s poem titled “Casualties” published in 1970. The needless and senseless conflicts in Sudan have rendered all of us casualties. The collection provides readers across the globe a chance to have a closer and clearer glimpse of the stark realities occasioned by the horrors, atrocities, human rights abuses and war crimes committed by the Sudanese Armed Forces, SAF and the Rapid Support Forces, RSF, who are locked in an insane struggle for supremacy.
May 2023: Iranian Women Speak: Voices of Transformation presents brilliant women authors, artists, and humanitarians expressing their fervent hopes for justice and freedom. As Iranian-born Caroline Reddy notes in her introduction: "As artists, our mediums—the oil pastels, charcoal, marble, wood, clay, glass, ink, movement, pen to paper—are the peaceful weapons we wield." They express themselves not through violence or despair, but with beauty, sincerity and an honest yearning for freedom, peace and justice in their home country. This book uplifts voices and spreads a crucial message of the struggle for human rights in a time of unrest.
August 2022: IHRAF African Editor Mbizo Chirasha curated and edited this important folio, an exhibition of brave, candid, and militant voices, voices calling for freedom, freedom from autocracy, independent from manipulation, liberation from pseudo-revolutionary movements, corruption-oiled ideological imbeciles sniffing damning propaganda in political corridors, turning political seats and presidential castles into butchers and looting machines. This collection sends a powerful message to African political, economic, and cultural leadership. The Voices will sanitize the unrepentant legions we call leaders into morality and sanity. “There is beauty in the works of this book and at the same time great pain. But what moved me most was the Courage of these writers. Most highly recommended.” Susan Tepper, Cervena Barva Press
April 2022: In this folio, we gather together voices under siege, to show how even in the most horrifying of times, beauty, sincerity and emotional vulnerability can point the way toward a deeper connection with ourselves, and with each other. In the face of this vile onslaught, these Ukrainian writers have opened their hearts and souls to us. They bring the highest form of human creativity to us: the sublime. The combination of a vulnerable pain, and beauty. We have included the work of 23 different Ukrainian creators.
October 2022: The International Human Rights Art Festival’s literary magazine was created with a simple goal: to celebrate and uplift up-and-coming authors from all over the world whose writing centers on social justice and activist themes. This books collects poems, short stories and essays, from authors in every continent (save Antarctica). In it, you will read about female perseverance through insurmountable odds, musings on masculinity and gender, out- cries against interpersonal prejudice and systemic racism, and elegies for people whose lives were taken unjustly through conflict and war. Each of the authors in this anthology contend with their identities in the context of their environments, providing readers with their unique perspectives on issues of human rights.
January 2022: As writers, our primary responsibility is to reflect and interpret happenings in our society; we must also pro- vide inspiration and guidance in our writings. Our job therefore, is to inform, to explain, to narrate, to entertain and to persuade. The function of a committed writer is also to reveal the world so that every reader loses their innocence and assumes all of the writer‘s responsibilities in front of it. The major aim of this anthology is to combat violence against women, using writ- ing for sensitization and awareness. Also, the anthology aims at changing community attitudes to violence against women.
December 2021: IHRAM International Fellow 2021 Shashi Kadapa presents: “Narratives on Women’s Issues: Women Power,” with women writers from Papua New Guinea to Ghana to Mauritius to Ghana exploring how women can exercise their power for positive social change.
Check out Yoko Morgenstern’s piece “THE TREE OF HOPE” HERE!
July 2021: At the end of 2020, IHRAM and the African Secretariat held the “EndSars Poetry Competition,” to bring together creative voices fighting against police brutality in Nigeria. The slogan calls for the disbanding of Nigeria’s “Special Anti-Robbery Squad,” which is accused of many documented abuses. More than 100 submissions were received from all over Africa.
July 2021: IHRAM International Fellow 2021 Shashi Kadapa presents: “Narratives on Women’s Issues in India: Domestic Violence,” offering a collection of writing by Indian women, from all over that country, exploring this painful issue. Published June 2021
July 2021: The African Secretariat of the International Human Rights Art Movement (IHRAM) ran the “2021 African Human Rights Essay Competition.” The scope of the submissions came from all across Africa, related to this year’s topic: Human Rights Abuse and Violations in Africa. We publish the best of the submissions here.
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The Malady and the Remedy
“Activism works. So what I’m telling you to do now is to act, because no one is too small to make a difference.”
It is line with and in response to the above witty saying by Greta Thunberg, a Swedish activist and Amnesty International Ambas- sador of Conscience, that this masterpiece has stormed the literary world, to question and quench the issues of human rights abuses and violations in Africa.
A collection of twenty essays, this anthology was birthed out of mutual quest by some concerned and ardent minds, who are interested and are determined to make a difference in the ‘stories’ of human rights in Africa, and, in fact, in the world at large. These humans were committed to rooting out the noxious and lethal malady called ‘Human Right Abuse’ which has eaten deep into the root, the soul, the freedom and the general existence of humanity, both in Africa and in the entire world in general.
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End Sars Rhythms
Literature and arts owe society the duty not just to entertain and educate but also to document the history of the people as well as mirror and x-ray the society. The collaborative efforts of the Society of Young Nigerian Writers, SYNW, and the International Human Rights Arts Festival, IHRAF, to harness the thoughts, feelings and responses of Nigerian artists and creative writers and the international writing community on the theme of police brutality, assault and battery by organizing a national poetry contest tagged #EndSARS National Poetry Competition, 2020 is indeed timely and commendable. The bold step to pub- lish some of the outstanding entries is no doubt as important as that of collation, selection, recognition and award of very remark- able pieces from deserving participants in the EndSARS National Poetry Competition, 2020.
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Narratives on Women's Issues in India I: Domestic Violence
It is with great pleasure, honor and sadness (due to the import- ant but painful subject matter) that the International Human Rights Art Festival presents this collection on domestic violence in India. This powerful volume explores this horrific crime, including several first person accounts. The stories explore the silent predator that is domestic violence. It represents a physical assault that destroys the well-being of victims. All of the pieces are timely, important and very impactful.
India is the second largest country in the world, teeming with different ethnicities, religious practitioners and extremely varied lifestyles. The ten writers featured are based in different regions of the vast land, representing this human array. This variety of views assures inclusiveness among the stories. However, the sad but common thread binding the stories is the misery that women face.
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Narrative on Women's Issues II: Women Power
The theme and objective of this volume is to highlight the manner in which women use their power and position to help others.
Thirteen writers have contributed their work to this volume and I sincerely thank them. A wide diversity is seen among the writers in terms of geographic origins and ethnicity. Our writers come from India, Japan, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Bangladesh, U.S., Mauritius, and Papua New Guinea. In effect, we have spanned the globe. The anthology represents the collective voices of writers from emerging and developed economies.
The diversity helps us to understand and come to terms with the varying level of struggles, and the glimpses of success as more women use their power to effect change. The context of tribulations and triumphs vary in their magnitude and impact. Of course, the works also point to the universality of the struggle for positive social change, and the challenges women share across geography, ethnicity, and religion.
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Get Consent
The major aim of this anthology is to combat violence against women, using writing for sensitization and awareness. Also, the anthology aims at changing community attitudes to violence against women. This project is also an experimentation challenge given to members of the Nigerian Society of Campus Writers (NSCW) whose membership cuts across different universities, polytechnics, monotechnics and colleges of education.
Rape and sexual violence against women are currently the two major problems militating against the growth and development of youths in Nigeria. These twin vices are like epidemics gaining popularity and causing restlessness and concerns for Nigerian parents and governments, both at the local, state and federal levels. In 2015, UNICEF reported that one in four girls and one in ten boys in Nigeria had experienced sexual violence before the age of 18. According to a survey by Positive Action for Treatment Access, over 31.4 percent of girls reported that their first sexual encounters had been either rape or forced sex of some kind. Hopefully, with this anthology, we believe we have made our modest input and contributed our quota in the fight against rape and sexual violence against women.