Art has over the years been used as a creative form of expression of ideas, messages, information, advocacy and protests through poetry, music, dance, drama, graffiti, paintings, drawings, crafts, to mention but a few. Human Rights though inherent, their realization have suffered with the passing of time. The law attempts to remedy the oversight by stipulating measures to ensure the protection and implementation of human rights, however I believe the arts can be utilized to realize human rights. Art has the capacity to inspire change, empathy, action and awareness of human rights, as it provides a platforms for activists, advicates and marginalized persons and voices to be heard, through amplifying their experiences, stories and violations. Conversely, though the arts can be amplify human rights, in the wrong hands they can be a weapon against human rights that is through aiding the violation of other people’s rights, image and character and as such must be exercised within a legal and constitutional framework. This article seeks to provide the author’s perspective on the relarionship between art and human rights.

Arts and human rights bear a co-dependent relationship: Art flourishes in a freedom friendly environment. It is therefore evident that societies that exercise human rights based in democracy provide legal and institutional frameworks in which the arts blossom and thrive as artists are protected from oppression, persecutions and arbitrary arrests and imprisonment. The protection and implementation of the arts is highly dependent on the fundamental human freedom of expression as encapsulated in the various international instruments and agreements such as: Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR); Article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights; Article 13 of the American Convention on Human Rights; Article 10 of the European Convention on Human Rights; Article 23 of the Southeast Asia’s ASEAN Human Rights Declaration.

On the other hand, the realization and implementation of various human rights is higly dependent on the freedom of expression that is usually exercised through the arts. For instance, in music, Lucky Dube through his music tackled various societal issues relating to human rights such as apartheid and its challenges as the need for unity through his songs such as “I am a prisoner”, “Together As One”: in relation to visual art, Pablo Picasso’s Guernica (1937) highlighted the horrors of war becoming an anti-war statement additionally, Kristen Visbal’s “Fearless Girl” statue acts as a call for gender equality through women empowerment, ro mwntion but a few.

It is noteworthy that even though the freedom of (artistic) expression is not absolute, various States use excessive force and measures to clamp down on artists which include but not limited to journalists, musicians, comedians. The universal language of the arts which if leveraged is a powerful means of promoting and achieving human rights is under siege in most countries and States. For instance, some staunch Arab countries as well as Uganda serve as a notorious hotbeds for this violation, even when the expressions are not in violation of other persons human rights and security of said countries. There is indeed an institutional loophole in various countries in maintaining a working relationship between the arts and human rights.

It is indeed crucial to establish and maintain a fair interplay if the relationship between art and human rights if there is to be fulfilment of human rights in society.

Marie Patricia Natakwa