Picture It! Cartoon competition for gender equality

25 February 2015 - UN Women together with the European Commission, the Belgian Development Cooperation and UNRIC, have launched a Comic and Cartoon Competition on Gender Equality. The Competition is part of the UN Women campaign “Empowering Women – Empowering Humanity: Picture It!” Residents of an EU Member State aged 18 to 28 years old are invited to submit their drawings.

The brief asks the comic illustrators to “show us what comes to your mind when you reflect on women’s rights and empowerment. Unleash your creativity to illustrate the relationship between women and men and positive changes you want to see.” It suggests that artists seek inspiration from the 12 Critical Areas of Concern of the Beijing Platform:

Among the submissions five finalists will be invited to Brussels to the Competition Awards Ceremony in summer 2015. The winner will receive 1000 EUR, the runner up will receive 500 EUR, and there will be three third place prizes of 200 EUR. The submission deadline for the competition is 20 April 2015.

Find more information on the Competition and join the global movement for gender equality. The campaign taps into a growing movement of women working in what has traditionally been a heavily male dominated industry. It's part of the 20th anniversary celebration of the historic Fourth World Conference on Women that took place in Beijing in 1995.

Affirmed by 189 countries, the outcome of the Conference, the Beijing Platform for Action is considered to be the most comprehensive blueprint on women’s rights. It calls upon governments to ensure equality and non-discrimination under the law and in practice.

Twenty years on, the Beijing promise is only partially fulfilled, and social justice inaccessible to too many women. This anniversary opens new opportunities to galvanize political will, reconnect, regenerate, and mobilize the public.