Heidelberg, Germany, December 5, 2011 – In celebration of the international Human Rights Day, December 10, the human rights organization FIAN International invites people worldwide to participate in an art contest: Stop Impunity – Hunger on Trial, which aims to highlight prevailing impunity of violations of the human right to food, leading to chronic hunger and malnutrition.

Of the almost 1 billion people suffering from chronic hunger and malnutrition today, the majority live in rural areas in the Global South, as small-scale peasants or pastoralists, with women and indigenous people being particularly affected .

“We are concerned about the persistence of gross violations of the right to food and the near-total impunity enjoyed by their perpetrators,” describes Flavio Valente, Secretary General of FIAN. “Hunger is a consequence of impunity and it is the lack of accountability that allows for the impunity of human rights violations.”

One of the many cases of impunity of the human right to adequate food documented by FIAN addresses the plight of more than 2,000 villagers in Mubende, Uganda, who were forcedly evicted by the Ugandan army to make way for a coffee plantation, owned by a subsidiary of the German-based Neumann company.  In the ten years since their eviction the people have not received any compensation and no effective remedy has been found.

The Ugandan activist Peter Kayiira is currently visiting a number of European countries to speak about the pending case. One high point of his tour will be a meeting with members of the European Parliament today, accompanied by a symbolic collection of signatures from parliamentarians in support of the art contest.

For the international art contest, FIAN, together with the worldwide peasants’ organization La Via Campesina, invites activists to send in their art work visualizing the issue of impunity and right to food violations. Videotaped pantomime, photo-collections, recordings of a direct action or demonstration or own song, graffiti, stencils or an impressive landscape, printed or painted t-shirts, banners, walls or tattoos and others will compete to be one of  three selected art pieces that will help convey FIAN’s message: “Stop impunity – Fight for the right to food” in 2012.

Background information:

The Art contest Stop Impunity – Hunger on Trial is launched by the international human rights organization FIAN International, http://www.fian.org, and supported by the worldwide peasants’ organization La Via Campesina, http://www.viacampesina.org .

Participants submit their work via http://www.stop-impunity.org. Participation is free to all people 18 years of age and older. The contest includes two categories for submission – photography and video.

A public online voting will take place between February 10 and March 15, 2011. From the ten art pieces that receive the most votes, a jury will select three winners. First prize is 1000Euros, second prize 400Euros and third prize 100Euros. The top three winners will also be exhibited during a public screening on the occasion of the International Day of Peasant’s Struggle,  April 17, 2012, and used by FIAN and La Via Campesina to promote the right to food and the fight against impunity on their websites, reports and during public events.

Read the Press Release in pdf at http://www.fian.org/news/press-releases/stop-impunity-hunger-on-trial-fian-launches-international-art-contest/pdf

More information with Anton Pieper at FIAN International Secretariat, Tel. +49-6221-65300-55, pieper[at]fian.org

Wilma Strothenke
Coordinator Communication
********************************
FIAN International Secretariat
Willy-Brandt-Platz 5/ D-69115 Heidelberg Germany
Tel +49(0)6221 65300 56/ Fax +49(0)6221 830545
Postal Address: PO Box 102243/ D-69012 Heidelberg Germany
e-mail: strothenke [at] fian.org/ http://www.fian.org

FIAN is an international human rights organization that has been advocating the realization of the right to food for more than 20 years. FIAN consists of national sections and individual members in over 50 countries around the world. http://www.fian.org

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