Arts, Sports and Human Rights
Arts and sports are powerful vehicles for human rights expressions, engagement, and transformation. From performances and visual storytelling to physical endurance and collective actions, both fields offer universal languages that connect people across cultures and backgrounds.
Exploring Creative and Athletic Expressions for Human Rights, Dignity, Justice and much more
The arts and sports have long been powerful channels for expressing the human condition, confronting injustice, and building bridges across differences. At the Global Campus of Human Rights, we believe that creativity, movement, and expression are not only cultural or recreational acts — they are fundamental tools for defending and promoting human rights. By integrating arts and sports into our academic and outreach activities, we invite diverse audiences to engage with human rights through emotional, visual, physical, and participatory experiences.
Arts
Arts can challenge dominant narratives, amplify the voices of the marginalised, and spark empathy and reflection. It communicates what words sometimes cannot, enabling new ways of seeing the world and of imagining justice. Whether through visual arts, music, theatre, or literature, our projects foster dialogue across cultures and disciplines, bringing human rights issues to life in accessible and evocative ways.
Sports
Similarly, sports holds the power to unite communities, transcend political and social barriers, and promote values such as fairness, respect, equality, and inclusion. From grassroots activism to global competitions, athletes and sports organisations are increasingly using their platforms to stand up for human rights and advocate for positive social change. By highlighting this intersection, we aim to elevate sport as a meaningful arena for civic engagement and ethical leadership.
Through partnerships with artists, performers, athletes, curators, educators, and human rights defenders, the Global Campus promotes interdisciplinary initiatives that combine aesthetic experience with civic responsibility. Whether it’s a marathon for solidarity, a concert for peace, an art exhibition on freedom, or a workshop using movement and storytelling to educate about rights, we believe that both arts and sports help us rethink how we relate to one another — and to the world we want to create.
Conferences
including Arts & Human Rights topics
Dialogues and debates at the intersection of cultural production and human rights advocacy.
Partnerships
with Koen Vanmechelen Studio, Berengo Foundation and more
Exhibitions blending contemporary arts and human rights storytelling in Venice and beyond.
Artivists Awards
Recognising outstanding artists and creators who use their work to advocate for human dignity and justice.
Musicians for Human Rights Concerts
Live performances that amplify messages of freedom, peace, and solidarity.
Live Illustrations
On-the-spot visual storytelling during key events to capture the emotional and thematic essence of human rights discussions.
Sports, Peace & Human Rights Awards
Celebrating athletes and initiatives that use sports as a platform for inclusion, equality, and advocacy.
Publications
We are visually and conceptually rethinking human rights through creative expression in our publications and promotional materials.
EMA Students’ Human Rights Festivals
Celebrations of culture, music, theatre, poetry, and debate by students from the Global Campus EMA Programme.
Summer School in Cinema, Human Rights and Advocacy - Screenings
Film showings and discussions on critical human rights issues.
Photo exhibitions
We organize visual contests, photo exhibitions in our premises and in other venues using photography as main artistic expression.
Venice Marathons
The Global Campus participates in the Venice Marathon Solidarity Village together with many of our local and regional partners
Performances
We host, both on our premises and in other venues, a variety of performances on human rights issues, using dance, theatre, poetry, music, and other forms of artistic and emotional expression.
WHAT TO READ
Pioneering Climate Justice Education in Moldova and the EU Neighbourhood
Development of Human Rights Education and Research at the National University of Timor-Leste (2019-2022)
Our Human Rights, Our Future! An Introduction to Human Rights in Southeast Asia
