There is a place for cartoonist also in United Nations, as a recent initiative firmly shows. United Nations Woman together with the European Commission, UNRIC, and Belgian Development Corporate recently announced the winners of a peculiar competition that took place at the beginning of summer this year.  Under the framework of the gender inequality debate, a competition has been set up and it has been addressed to young cartoonists and graphic students, aged 18 to 28 years.

Artists were asked to express their understanding of gender equality through an original drawing or cartoon, without using any word. The submitted works were judged by a commission of high experts in Arts, Illustration, and other relevant topics in the international panorama.

The best drawings were picked and officially announced this July allowing the winners to participate to the Final Conference in Bruxelles and to have their works exposed.

We should be proud and congratulate with Emilio Morales Ruiz, David Ibañez Guerrero and Samuel Akinfenwa Onwusa. The three first placed winners come from Spain, while other semi-finalists are also Polish, German and Finnish.

 It is worth looking at the final awarded works which are uploaded by the Organising Entities here. You can also read some data about artists’ biography and their own idea of gender gaps.

United Nations gave a huge opportunity for all those young talents that master illustration techniques to highlight this “minor” but incredibly popular and expressive art, in order to tackle an extremely serious current issue with a hint of irony and creativity.

Gender equality debate finds great support within the spanish national context, since statistics about women abuse and mistreatment are still quite high. Debate is still ongoing and it reached its peak during the Zapatero legislation, when the government faced harsh discussions with the conservative party about placing the gender equality topic on the top of the agenda. The following economic crisis restrained the financial possibilities and slowed down any cultural initiative or fund destined to fill the still existing gap between men and women.

Spanish citizens showed to be aware of the inequalities especially when it comes to domestic abuse and salaries. And also within the UN Gender Equality competiton they standed up by being more conscious and sensitive about women equal rights, causes of unbalances and their visible consequences on civil and modern societies.