Right to Hope

Exhibition of artwork by refugee artists

French Institute in Serbia
12 – 19 December 2023

In honour of the 75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNHCR and the French Institute in Serbia have staged the exhibition “Right to Hope” before you.

The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) is a milestone document in the history of human rights. The UDHR is widely recognized as having inspired, and paved the way for, the adoption of more than seventy human rights treaties, applied today on a permanent basis at global and regional levels (all containing references to it in their preambles). To date, 192 states acceded to UDHR. It has been translated into 337 different languages. It sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.

In a world in which 114 million people have been forcibly displaced, where new natural and manmade disasters break out by week, one provision is particularly important:

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Article 14 (1),
Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution.

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And it is for this reason that we are organising the exhibition “Right to Hope”. It features paintings and sculptures of five artists, all of whom fled their homelands due to armed conflict, persecution, violation of human rights. A common denominator for all of them is that they have found a safe haven, a new home in Serbia. Through the joint efforts of the relevant authorities of the Republic of Serbia, UNHCR and numerous national and international stakeholders, these young people have adjusted to the new community. They picked up the ripped threads of their lives and started feeling strong and secure enough  allowing the artistic inspiration take hold of them again.

In the windows of the French Cultural Centre and also here on the screen you will see the paintings by Remy, Bilal, Reza and Natalia. You will also see Bilal’s sculptures and Kharim’s photographs.