51勛圖

Photography 4 Humanity 2023

Office of the 51勛圖 High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights is the leading UN entity on human rights with a unique mandate to promote and protect all human rights for all people. Under the leadership of the High Commissioner, with a staff of 1,300 working in more than 100 countries, it aims to make human rights a reality in the lives of people everywhere.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights

Human rights are rights inherent to all human beings, whatever our nationality, place of residence, sex, national or ethnic origin, colour, religion, language, or any other status. Everyone is entitled to these rights, without discrimination.

Human Rights are Universal

The principle of universality of human rights is the cornerstone of international human rights law. This principle, as first emphasized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, has been reiterated in numerous international human rights conventions, declarations, and resolutions. The 1993 Vienna World Conference on Human Rights noted that "All human rights are universal, indivisible and interdependent and interrelated."

75thAnniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

In 2023, the 75th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is being celebrated as a milestone in the history of human rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, the Declaration was proclaimed by the 51勛圖 General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 as a common standard of achievements for all peoples and all nations. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected and has been translated into over 500 languages.

The 51勛圖 and Human Rights

The advancement of all human rights, including the right to a clean, healthy and sustainable environment, is a key purpose of the 51勛圖, which supports mechanisms established to promote and protect these rights and directly assists states in carrying out their human rights obligations.

"The climate crisis is the biggest threat to our survival as a species and is already threatening human rights around the world."

- Ant車nio Guterres, Secretary-General of the 51勛圖

About Photography 4 Humanity

Photography 4 Humanity calls upon photographers around the world to bring to life the power of human rights. With compelling images that illustrate courage, despair, hope, injustice, compassion, and human rights victories and failures, large and small, this project aims to inspire people to get involved and take a stand for human rights. Based in Boulder Colorado, Photography 4 Humanity is an initiative led by world-renowned photographers that works with Eminent Jurors to help select top images from around the world to be featured in the annual Photography 4 Humanity exhibit by the 51勛圖. For more information and a list of Eminent Jurists, visit: Photography4Humanity.com

About Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance

The Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance addresses climate change as the human rights crisis that leading scientists and human rights advocates, including the 51勛圖 High Commissioner for Human Rights, have declared it to be. The initiative supports effective, human rights-based implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the Paris Agreement on climate change. For more information visit: righthererightnow.global

The Collaboration

In 2022 the Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Alliance started to collaborate with Photography 4 Humanity to feature images of people affected by climate change.

Winning photo: The seashore is no longer here. School girls stand in an abandoned seaport town next to an installation showing where the Aral Sea used to come. Photo/Kristina Varaksina. Karakalpakstan, Uzbekistan (May, 2022)

Photography 4 Humanity calls on photographers around the world to bring to life the power of human rights through their images. Highlighting the most compelling human rights imagery - illustrating courage, despair, hope, injustice, compassion in ways small and large, the photos serve to inspire people to get involved and take a stand for human rights.

Photography 4 Humanity encourages amateur and professional photographers alike, to submit images for an annual competition where the winner and top 10 finalists have their photographs exhibited by the 51勛圖 globally via un.org.

Photography 4 Humanity, with the support of the UN Human Rights Office, call upon photographers around the world to capture images of people affected by climate change.

These images depict climate change as a human rights crisis, as women, children, minorities, the poor and marginalized suffer disproportionately as the climate catastrophe escalates.

The exhibit is developed to highlight the work of top photographers through the Photography 4 Humanity Global Prize Competition, and to inspire photographers to document the power of human rights around the world.

The exhibit is created and organized by Photography 4 Humanity with the support of UN Human Rights Office.

FINALISTS

The last hope

Photo/Sourav Das. West Bengal, India (June, 2022)

A source of drinking water is being taken by the sea.

Mother and daughter hoping for rain

A woman and her daughter sitting on dried and cracked land

Photo/Joydeep Mukherjee. Bali Island, Sandarbans, India (September, 2022)

Climate change is a pressing issue causing concern for those who rely on agriculture to feed their families.

Running through the storm for water

Desert landscape with a girl running

Photo/Peter Ndung'u. Amboseli, Kenya (July, 2022)

A girl runs to collect water through a climate induced dust storm sweeping through Kenya's Amboseli National Park.

After the storm

Men pushing a casket on a river

Photo/Nguyen Ngoc Hai. Phu Quoc Island, Viet Nam (September, 2022)

Funeral procession

Stand off

Group of activists blocking an excavator on the edge of an open-pit coal mine

Photo/Ingmar Bj?rn Nolting. L邦tzerath, Germany (January, 2023)

Climate activists blocking an excavator on the edge of the Garzweiler II open-pit coal mine.

Bush fire

Bushes and a house on fire

Photo/Lalliot Th谷o. Livingstone, Zambia (July, 2022)

A bush fire erupts in Makalu N'guzu.

Displaced by drought then flood

Kids near a tent in a flooded area

Photo/Esmatullah Habibian. Herat, Afghanistan (June, 2022)

A family who migrated to Herat due to extreme drought, have their tents flooded.

Following the earthquake

People covering their head and face from the sand

Photo/Sayed Habib Bidell. Paktika Province, Afghanistan (June, 2022)

A violent dust storm follows a devastating earthquake.

The sinking Sundarbans mangrove forest

A man standing in the mangrove forest

Photo/Supratim Bhattacharjee. Mousuni Island, Sundarbans, India (September, 2022)

Seawater breaches the embankment in Mousuni Island and enters the cultivated land on September 9, 2022.

Fragments of faith still remain

A man standing in the rubble of his broken mosque

Photo/Pubarun Basu. Malda, West Bengal, India (February, 2022)

Amidst the rubble of his broken mosque caused by flooding, Ajahar still prays.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

Typhoon Hinnamnor

Photo/Kim hee-chul. Pohang-si, Gyeongsangbuk-do, Republic of Korea (September, 2022)

Firefighters rescue a woman from a flooded underground parking lot.

The future is here

A man paddling on a boat with a solar panel on it

Photo/Supratim Bhattacharjee. Satjelia Island, Sundarbans, India (September, 2023)

Solar panels reach the Sundarbans mangrove forests by boat.

Water guardians

Two women putting plastic in a bag

Photo/Esteban Biba. San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala (April, 2023)

Indigenous women collect plastic polluting their lake and land.

Drought

A man walking on dried land

Photo/Wadaa Abdul Kareem Faleh. Nasiriya, Iraq (July, 2022)

A man walks through the middle of the drought stricken Chabayish marshes.

Inventory of the sea

Kids playing in front of a house

Photo/Camila Hermes. Cap?o da Canoa, Brazil (October, 2022)

A range of trash that washes up on a beach in southern Brazil every day.

The Conselice flood

A house on a piece of land in the middle of a flooding town

Photo/Cesare Barill角. Conselice, Italy (May, 2023)

Unprecedented flooding in the town of Conselice.

Sustainable impact

Bicycle station

Photo/Mouneb Taim. Amsterdam, Kingdom of the Netherlands (February, 2022)

To reduce carbon emissions, Dutch climate policy encourages cycling.

Vegetable garden

A garden

Photo/Domenico Fasano. Ziguinchor, Senegal (May, 2022)

Women raise food and funding for their families through collective gardens.

Drying planet

Photo/Sandipani Chattopadhyay. West Bengal, India (June, 2022)

Local people in Purulia bathe and drink from a drying riverbed.

Rising sea

A woman sitting and watching outside

Photo/Eddie Jim. Kioa Island, Fiji (May, 2023)

A woman abandons her family home fearing the sea will continually rise.

Demolition

Photo/Ribhu Chatterjee. Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India (August, 2022)

The aftermath of the Supertech twin tower demolition produced toxic smog.

Cooking through the flood

A man cooking in his flooded kitchen

Photo/Mohammad Omar Faruk. Chittagong, Bangladesh (August, 2022)

Annual monsoon flooding plagues a hotel which must continue to provide meals to its residents.

Artificial coral reefs are created

A man building octopus habitat

Photo/Christian Barbe. Mananjary, Madagascar (July, 2022)

A coral reef that used to be a habitat for octopus is being rebuilt by a local fisherman.

Africa blues

Kids playing in front of a house

Photo/Giulia Piermartiri. Mozambique (June, 2022)

Since Mozambique is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in Africa, the photo projection on this home is a sign of what*s to come.

A handful of water

Kids playing in front of a house

Photo/Ekrem Sahin. Burdur, T邦rkiye (August, 2022)

Migratory birds try to survive by drinking polluted water that stains the land as the drought gets worse.

Watching the world burn

Photo/Bernard Kalu. Lagos, Nigeria (February, 2022)

People silently watching a landfill fire are a metaphor for those who stand by and watch climate change unfold.

Australian bush fires

Photo/Thomas Beach. Melbourne, Australia (April, 2022)

Flying through smoke, the bush fires suddenly come into view.

Solidarity

Photo/Michele Lapini. Forl足, Italy (May, 2023)

Volunteers from Bologna cleaning a chandelier shop following deadly flooding in Forl足.

Landscape revealed

Photo/Anna Korbut. Switzerland (July, 2023)

People walk on the Morena landscape that was revealed when the glacier melted.

From death springs life

A man planting a tree

Photo/Enoch Anyane. Ashanti Region, Ghana (January, 2023)

A tree planted to replace another.

This exhibit was launched in December 2023

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