Voices invites us to reflect on our rights during a moment of political uncertainty surrounding the Human Rights Act in Britain.
Developed by Lilli Tranborg and Laura Campbell, artists and MFA students at Oxford Brookes University, and presented as part of Oxford Human Rights Festival (17-26 March 2023), Voices is a participatory art project exploring human rights through voices-as-research. Explore and take part in Voices in Modern Art Oxford’s Café throughout the week of the festival, and follow online this spring to hear more from the artists.
About Voices
Voices is a creative research project which platforms and celebrates audience ‘voices’ about our rights through instigating a public conversation about the Human Rights Act 1998. The current act protects 16 rights, freedoms and prohibitions of harm of people living in the 47 countries of the Council of Europe. Voices responds to recent proposals by the UK government to revise the act and asks what this might mean for UK citizens by collecting creative data to generate a shared dialogue surrounding the future of human rights in Britain.
What do you think should be a human right?
The Human Rights Act 1998 currently protects:
- The right to life
- The prohibition of torture
- The prohibition of slavery and forced labour
- The right to liberty and security
- The right to a fair trial
- No punishment without law
- Respect for your private and family life
- Freedom of thought, conscience and religion
- Freedom of expression
- Freedom of assembly and association
- The right to marry
- The prohibition of discrimination
- The protection of property
- The right to education
- The right to free elections
- Abolition of the death penalty
Follow us online this spring to hear more from the artists as they continue to explore human rights.
Oxford Human Rights Festival (OXHRF) was initiated by students and staff at the Centre of Development and Emergency Practice (CENDEP), School of Architecture at Oxford Brookes University and aims to raise awareness of human rights issues through the arts. Discover the full programme at oxfordhumanrightsfestival.net