On 25 November, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), Freemuse, the City of Geneva and Minority Rights Group (MRG) announced the 2025 winners of the fourth edition of the International Art Contest for Minority Artists. The contest was supported by the Centre des arts of Ecolint and the Loterie Romande. This year’s theme focused on Belonging, Place and Loss.

Photo by OHCHR/Petre Oprea

These awards raise the voices of minority artists from all over the world working on drawing attention to intersectional human rights issues. Awards were presented at a public ceremony at the Centre des Arts of the International School of Geneva.

Meena Varma, the Executive Director of the International Dalit Solidarity Network, was the Master of Ceremony for the event. Opening remarks were delivered by Centre des Arts of Ecolint; Joëlle Bertossa, Member of the Executive Council of the City of Geneva; and Nada Al-Nashif, UN Deputy High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo, Chair of the 2025 Judges Panel, and UN Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Minorities, Professor Nicolas Levrat, were then invited to announce the Awards and Youth Award of the 2025 Edition of the International Contest for Minority Artists.

The 2025 winners are:

Main Awards Alia Al-Saadi (dancer and choreographer, Syria)

 Youth Category

Claire Thomas, Executive Director of Minority Rights Group, joined Yvonne Apiyo Brändle-Amolo on stage to announce the four artists receiving honourable mentions.

View the work of these remarkable artists.

The ceremony was closed by a moving dance performance from Alia Al-Saadi, a congratulatory message to all the artists from Meena Varma and invitation to join the reception and view the exhibits at the Arts Center.

Photos by OHCHR/Petre Oprea

The contest itself was launched on 18 December 2024, to commemorate the adoption of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Persons Belonging to National or Ethnic, Religious and Linguistic Minorities. Previous editions of the International Contest for Minority Artists focused on themes such as Statelessness (2022), Intersectionality (2023) and Memory in the Present (2024).