Bangladeshi student wins UN award on drawing competition

A Bangladeshi student has won the first prize in the "Kids for Human Rights" international drawing competition, reports UNB.

Sixth-grader Saied Muhammad Zareef Saleh secured the top prize in the "How I can defend or promote human rights" category. The 12-year-old is a student at Scholastica School in Dhaka's Uttara.

Eight other young creative artists from Australia, Bolivia, Canada, Iran, Portugal, Thailand and the United States also won prizes in the competition.

The contest was organised by the United Nations Information Service in Geneva, the Gabarron Foundation and the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

More than 17,000 children who took part in the competition, expressed their visions of human rights and personal commitment to defending them in their works, said a press release issued from Geneva on 10 December.

Bangladeshi Saleh won the top prize for his drawing of people protesting against human trafficking and calling for the right to move freely, to vote, and to education. The jury said it was "evocative of some of the greatest challenges being faced today."

Prima Rungruang, 12, from Thailand won the second prize and Macarena Diaz, 10, from Bolivia, came in third.

Madie Crawshaw, 14, from Australia won the top prize in the "A human right I feel strongly must be defended" category. The drawing of Adebola Adewale, 14, from the US was deemed the best in the "A human rights defender I admire" category while the work of Barad Memar Kermani, 10, from Iran won the third prize.

The winners' creations will become part of the art collection of one of the first museums in the world dedicated to children's art, set up by the Gabarron Foundation.

An exhibition of the children's winning artwork opened at the United Nations in Geneva on 10 December, while another will open at Kanal Centre Pompidou in Brussels on 19 December.