CHRA and Luma Foundation Organize Conference on Children’s Drawings As Evidence

On January 12–14, 2024, CHRA and the Luma Foundation will host a multidisciplinary array of practitioners, including lawyers, artists, curators, and academics, at Luma Westbau in Zurich, Switzerland to discuss the evolution of the evidentiary status of drawing by children. The conference takes its cue from the 2007 ruling by the International Criminal Court (ICC) to admit childrens’ drawings as contextual evidence of war crimes. Yet there is also a much broader history, dating back to at least the Spanish Civil War, of the use of drawings by children to mobilize aid and other interventions.

The in-person conference is open to the public and those interested in attending can register here.

Petrit Halilaj (center left) showing his drawing to Kofi Annan, then UN Secretary General, Kükes II, Albania, 20 May 1999

Schedule:

Friday 12 January

17:30 – Opening Remarks

18:00 – Artist presentation by Petrit Halilaj

18:30 – Discussion with the artist moderated by Thomas Keenan and Amy Zion

19:00 – Closing remarks

Saturday 13 January

10:00 – Opening remarks by Thomas Keenan and Amy Zion

10:20 – Zérane S. Girardeau, Déflagrations
(presentation in French with simultaneous translation)

10:50 – Olivier Bercault, University of San Francisco

11:20 – Bushra Rahama, Waging Peace

11:50 – 12:10 – Break

12:10 – Discussion moderated by Thomas Keenan and Amy Zion

12:45 – Lunch break

14:15 – Introduction of afternoon Panel

14:30 – Erkan Ozgen, Loading Artspace, Diyarbakir
(with consecutive translation, Turkish to English)

15:30 – Omar Al-Ghazzi, London School of Economics

16:00 – Iuliia Skubystka, Princeton University

16:30 – Discussion moderated by Thomas Keenan and Amy Zion

Sunday 14 January

10:00 – Final Session introduction by Thomas Keenan

10:15 – Film Screening: Alanis Obomsawin, Christmas at Moose Factory (1971) introduced by Amy Zion

10:45 – 13:00 – Roundtable discussion with all speakers and participants