The Competition
Nearly everybody knows that a heart symbolizes love and a dove means peace - but what about human rights? There are 7 billion people living on this planet, all of them are carriers of human rights – and yet we have no way of transcending all borders to communicate this universal bond.
The initiative “A Logo for Human Rights” has now filled this gap! As a universal symbol, the Human Rights Logo can help to draw attention to human rights violations and give a voice to those fighting for their rights. A logo is easily recognizable and helps people to identify with human rights. A logo carries its message across all language borders, fast and without words – given today’s information-overload on TV and through the internet, this is more important than ever.
Since the start of the initiative on 3 May 2011, people from all over the world have participated in the competition. They sent in their own suggestions and rated the ideas of others. The result was impressive: 15.375 logo submissions from over 190 countries.
From the 100 top-rated designs, a prominent international jury (including human rights defenders such as Aung San Suu Kyi, Ai Weiwei, Muhammad Yunus, Michael Gorbatchev and Jimmy Carter) chose the Top 10, out of which the internet community selected the winning logo. In the process, everyone was invited to choose his or her favourite logo and motivate others to do the same, thereby creating a human rights logo for the people by the people.
On 23 September 2011, the Human Rights Logo was unveiled in New York. The winning design is by Predrag Stakic of Serbia and combines the shape of a hand with that of a bird. It is now available to everyone at no cost as an open source product for the promotion and protection of human rights.