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Twenty years ago today, a remarkable organization was founded
Cartooning for Peace seeks to bring global understanding and dialogue through the art of editorial cartoons. I have been a member since it’s inception at the United Nations in 2006, and Ann Telnaes, my American colleague, was also there. Ann and I decided to do a video together to talk about that day, the importance of cartoons on the global stage. Together, we discuss their effectiveness as tools of communication and passion, and how the art form and its creators are at risk.
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Above, we are standing with co-founders Secretary General Kofi Annan and Le Monde cartoonist Jean Plantu. In 2006 at the time of our gathering, a video was created that identifies all the cartoonists. We came from France, Israel, Palestine, Kenya, Denmark, Mexico, the US and Japan.
Kofi Annan knew the importance and power of cartoons. He gave eleven of us a platform on the stage of the United Nations to talk about our work— gathering us was Annan’s response to the recent news of riots, death and distruction around the world following the 2005 Danish Cartoon Controversy. Both he and Plantu were deeply affected by what had happened, and Annan wanted to continue the dialogue about the power, and potential problems, that cartoons bring.
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“Cartoons make us laugh. Without them, our lives would be much sadder.
But they are no laughing matter: They have the power to inform, and also to offend.”
Kofi Annan (and Plantu), Nobel Peace Prize, at the symposium “Unlearning Intolerance”, New York, 16 October 2006
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CFP is composed of 374 cartoonists from 80 countries. We create drawings about