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click through to know more about our plans: 1 | 2 | 3 | 4
September 02
Gearing up for 10/10/10

With only just over a month to go, we are announcing our program for 10/10/10, the World Day against the Death Penalty and we're doing it with style using the poster that Alain Le Quernec has made for us. Please spread the love.

 
We have already confirmed exhibitions in New York, Paris, Brussels, Geneva, London, Sao Paolo, Beirut, Seoul and more than 30 other cities. You can see the complete list of the locations in our official press release. We’d like to thank the United Nations, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament for their help in putting these all together.
We’re still looking for further locations; if you’re interested please get in touch.
 
There are many other updates about the petition from the Community of Sant’Egidio and the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty that we're relaunching, on our exhibitions and music events and on how you can take part of it. If you're interested to know the details, we advise you to read the full press release pdf, which is available in other languages too. Look for the "latest press release" box on the left side of the screen.
 
The founding premise of poster for tomorrow is that we have strength in numbers. From today we hope to make that a stronger proposition by inviting you to become a member of poster for tomorrow. The more members we have, the more weight we have when talking to institutions, charities, governments, anyone and everyone. And the more we can get done.  
 
For thirty euros a year you receive a copy of catalogue and a range of discounts from our sponsors. But more importantly you’ll be helping ensure that we can carry on our work and keep on raising issues that matter in the public eye. Log in and find more details in your account page.
 
BY Will
August 22
Google for Tomorrow
Google. The most important website (apart from ours) in the world. We’re trying to convince them to change their logo for 10/10/10, the World Day against the Death Penalty. 
 
Today we sent them a letter asking to support our cause. You can read it here. But to be able to convince them, we'll need your help.
 
So we’d like to ask you to create a logo especially for Google. You can use a poster you’ve already submitted to us as base, or do something completely new if you didn’t have the chance to participate to the poster competition. Each idea will be submitted to Google in support of our campaign.
 
We'll submit them all the logos we'll receive on the September the 21st, so the deadline for your entries in on September the 20th. If you can't make it on time, we encourage you to send your logo proposal on your own directly to Google.
 
To participate, just log in our website and scroll down in your account page to see the "Google for Tomorrow" button. Click on it and submit a proposal.
Be sure to use Google's official template as a base for your artwork. You can download the Google logo template from here.
 
Please read more about this initiative here.
BY Tommaso
July 26
Shirin Ebadi launches our new avatar initiative

We recently sat down with Shirin Ebadi, the Nobel peace prize laureate, to ask for her opinion on the death penalty and activism. You can read her answers below.

She also agreed to launch our new initiative to change your Facebook or Twitter avatar to a picture of yourself holding the “Death is Not Justice” logo.

It’s really easy to do, just download the logo here, print it and take a picture of you (or anyone else you want) holding it. See you on Facebook!

 

Poster for tomorrow: What is your personal motivation for campaigning against the death penalty? 
Shirin Ebadi: I'm against the death penalty as I am against any form of violence. It is simply barbaric. Moreover, there's always the chance of a mistake in the judicial process - a mistake that is impossible to reverse in the case of the death penalty. 

PFT: Why is it particularly important that people in "democratic countries" (like USA and Japan) that practice the death penalty campaign for universal abolition? 
SE: Because in these countries it is possible for public opinion to pressure the government to demand abolition. This is why it's important for the creative and cultural sectors of society to make the general public aware of the issue.

PFT: What can I do as an artist do to raise public awareness of this issue? 
SE: There are many books written about the death penalty and abolition but sometimes a picture or a cartoon or a painting can be much more effective than a book. People might not have the time or the opportunity to read books on the subject but a quick glance at a poster could have the same result.

 

BY Will
July 27
2094 posters received, thank you!

We’re delighted to announce that poster for tomorrow received 2094 posters for this year’s competition. The quality was exceptionally high and we’d like to thank everyone who entered; we hope, and we think, that we’ve amassed a body of creative work that can be of real use in the movement towards abolition. 

 
We’d also like to thank the associations who helped us the most to promote the competition: FIDH, Council of Europe and World Coalition Against Death Penalty. Thank you all very much! 
 
The online jury will start their work in August, before the live jury selects the final 100 posters in Paris in September.  All the posters will be made public on 10/10/10. 
 
But we don’t stop there, it’s a good news day all round; we’re pleased to announce that we have exhibitions already confirmed in New York (with the support of the United Nations) and Brussels (with the support
of European Union).
 
There are already 25 locations around the world that agreed to hold poster for tomorrow exhibitions on 10/10/10. We'll let you know more about it in an official update that we'll release in a couple of days. There's lots of new initiatives coming up, so please stay tuned!

 

BY Tommaso
July 19
Death is not Justice: Deadline postponed

We're postponing the "Death is not Justice " deadline three days, to give you a little bit extra time to participate. The reason why we're doing so is that we'd like to make sure that everybody who took the effort of designing a poster for the competition will be able to enter it. But many of you had technical issues in uploading their artworks.

Hopefully you'll be able to address those issues in the next few days, with some help coming from our side too – we're trying to handle all your requests as quick as possible.
In case you need assistance, don't hesitate dropping us a line or writing on our facebook page.

The new deadline is Thursday the 22st of July, at midday (12:00), Pacific Daylight time (GMT +7).

BY Tommaso
July 27
Free Sakineh!

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani is a 43 year old Iranian woman who was sentenced to death by stoning for alleged adultery.

Her son Sajad and her daughter Farideh started an international campaign that has been already successful enough to prevent the verdict from being carried out. The campaign has been extensively reported on the English newspaper The Guardian, we suggest you to read the available articles to know more about it.

Iran, aware negative publicity that such a display of cruelty brings, put an halt on the execution. However, the review of the verdict is not likely to put Sakineh free, and the death sentence may still be carried out by hanging - the most common execution method in the country.

Sakineh still needs your help. Please sign a petition, or join the cause on facebook to keep the pressure on Iranian authorities and free Sakineh.

BY Tommaso
July 07
Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner speaks to Poster for Tomorrow

Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner is the wife of Hank Skinner, a man who has spent the last fifteen years on Death row trying to prove his innocence.

Hank was convicted of murder on three counts in 1994 and sentenced to death in 1995. However there are numerous unanswered questions and untested evidence to justify his claim of innocence:

he was convicted only on the evidence of a state witness who later recanted her evidence; medical testing before the trial excluded him as a suspect; while key evidence from the crime scene, including the murder weapons, is still be tested for DNA. The state of Texas has denied two motions for this evidence to be tested. It's not sure why. These are grounds (at the very least) for reasonable doubt to be cast on Hank's conviction - a conviction, it should be remembered, that will see him lose his life.

Sandrine has been fighting against the death penalty for the vast majority of her life. She met Hank after being invited by the Lamp of Hope project (set up and run by Death Row prisoners) to correspond with a couple of prisoners on Death Row. After four years of correspondence they started to visit in 2000 and were married in October 2008. Sandrine was kind enough to take time out from her busy schedule to provide us with her perspective on Hank's case and the inherent injustice of the death penalty.

 

What made you become an active abolitionist?
A long, long time before I met Hank - before I turned 16, a 22 year old man was executed in France. I realized that my country had just cut a young man alive in half in my name and I couldn't believe that my country still engaged in such barbaric practices.

Why do you think the state are withholding DNA evidence in your husband's case?
The main reason is political. The courts do not want to set precedents to start off with. Despite the enactment of the Chapter 64 post conviction DNA bill passed in 2001 in Texas, hardly any Death Row prisoners have been granted relief and particularly not those with strong cases of wrongful conviction. The continued use of Death Penalty and Death Row prisoners for political propaganda by politicians cannot allow for innocence or cover-up to be revealed. Too many people have actively contributed in hiding or covering the truth in Hank's case, they have a lot to lose. The more time goes by, the harder it is to uncover it. A justice system which uses the perfect application of procedures doesn't care for the truth, this system has nothing to do with justice.

What is the reality of being married to an (innocent) man on death row?
Lonely, harsh and nerve-wrecking.

Do you think the recent (and highly publicized) executions in America will sway public opinion nationally or internationally?
This sort of coverage feeds both sides with various and renewed arguments for and against. Public opinion internationally doesn't need to be convinced that America is on the wrong side of the fence; in America it's still wrongly reported and documented by the media for people to listen and aptly comprehend the arguments against the Death Peanlty.

And what does it say that it takes a death for people to realize the gravity of the situation?
Most people who don't know anything about the prison system and the death penalty, the gravity of the situation doesn't touch them, they believe that it will never happen to a loved one, that they're immune from such dramatic situation, until the day it happens to them… The work done by victims' families and exonerees is vital to the abolition cause because people can relate to the horror of the human experience.

Can a legal system, or a country, call itself just if it practices the death penalty?
No, never. This kind of justice belongs to the Middle Ages, it's a barbaric practice and it will inevitably disappear. It is not a matter of whether it will happen, but only when it will happen.

What do you think it will take for abolition to actually happen?
It's going to take courage from politicians to take the politics out of justice. As long as politicians continue to seek public approval on this issue, they will keep hitting their heads against the same wall. Abolition is a moral choice for future generations while public opinion will constantly be swayed by one horrible crime or another. It is also going to take awareness and education on the part of the public; people need to realize that crime is instrumentalized for political purposes and that it has nothing to do with public safety.

And what can people do to make this happen?
People need to be curious, ask questions to their legislators and representatives, ask questions to the media which are mostly spreading politics rather than doing in-depth work on cases. People need to get involved within their communities, their counties, their state and their country.

Could you summarize your objection to the death penalty in one sentence?
The death penalty is torture and vengeance, it doesn't have a place in a civilized justice system.

And what will you be doing on 10/10/10?
I'll be in Paris, talking and participating at different events for the World Day against the Death Penalty. The theme this year is the USA, so I'll be able to share some of my experiences in Texas.

BY Will
June 18
Justice for Troy Davis
poster for tomorrow is taking part to Amnesty International campaign: "Justice for Troy Davis!"
 
Troy Davis, 40, who has always protested his innocence, has been on death row since 1991. He has already faced three execution dates in the past two years. In August 2009 the US Supreme Court ruled that he should be allowed an evidentiary hearing into his claim of innocence.
 
The evidentiary hearing will be held in a few days, on June the 23rd. For who's not familiar with the US legal system, an evidentiary hearing - which is not a trial - is a formal examination of charges, to receive testimony and make finding of fact as to whether evidence that could not have been obtained at the time of trial clearly establishes petitioner’s innocence.
This means that we have a chance to show to the US authorities that the public, at home as well as internationally, is very attentive and hopeful that the justice system will finally provide a fair process.
 
Amnesty International is organising a Global Day of Solidarity for Troy Davis on June 22, just one day before the hearing.
poster for tomorrow will be present at the event held in Strasbourg, France.
 
For more information about events in your area, please follow these links:
US and international (it will be updated constantly in the next few days):
 
 
Background information:
Troy Davis was convicted in 1991 of killing a police officer, Mark Allen MacPhail, in Savannah, Georgia in 1989. However, since the trial most of the witnesses the state relied upon to convict him have retracted their testimony.
Georgia is one of 35 US states to retain the death penalty. Since the USA resumed judicial killing in 1977, more than 1,170 men and women have been put to death there. Georgia accounts for 45 of these executions. 
 
More information about Troy's case can be found here. (ou ici en français).
 

 

BY Tommaso
June 17
poster for tomorrow in Paris and Nantes

Poster for tomorrow will be present at OFFF, Paris (24-26 June) and the 4th World Forum on Human Rights, Nantes (28 June - 1 July), putting up on display what we've been able to put together so far since our project started not even one year ago.

We hope that our presence at these events will foster useful collaborations in preparation for the next big event on our agenda on October 10 2010, World against Death Penalty.

If you thought about getting in touch with us to see what you might be able to bring to the project, please drop by and have a chat with us. Please check for more information about these events on our facebook page.

BY Tommaso
June 10
Death is not Justice: Official Call for Entries poster

You've been waiting for it and here it is, our call for entries poster. It might not be very timely, but it's better late than never...

We'd like to thank the author, Julian Naranjo, who designed the touching artwork.
Julian is renowned Chilean designer who runs a studio by his own name. We're happy to have him on board as a member of our online jury.
We hope you'll like the poster. It comes in a variety of flavours, for you to post, print and distribute. Thank you so much for your support!
 
Click on a format to download it:
Screen formats: 400x606 | 500x757 | 680x1030
Print formats: A4 | A3 | 25x35cm
BY Tommaso
May 15
FIDH endorses Poster for Tomorrow

 We are proud to announce that Poster for Tomorrow has been endorsed by FIDH, aka the International Federation for Human Rights.
FIDH was established in 1922, when it united ten national organisations. Today it consists of 164 human rights organisations in nearly 100 countries.

FIDH’s core mandate is to promote respect for all the rights set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights.

We're very pleased to be associated with them and with their help we hope we're a step closer to accomplishing our shared aim of universal abolition of the death sentence.

BY Will
May 13
Iran: Five political activists executed: Effective action urgently needed
Yesterday morning, on the 9th May 2010, five political prisoners were executed in the Evin prison in Tehran. Four of them were Kurdish (an ethnic minority in Iran) and had been condemned to death for involvement with PJAK, the Free Life Party of Kurdistan. Three had been condemned after a non-public trial held, while the fourth was allegedly tortured before being forced to publicly confess on TV. The fifth was executed for his (denied) involvement in bombings. Neither the relatives of the political activists executed nor their lawyers have been informed that they would be executed. 
 
“Members of the Baluch, Kurdish and south-Iranian Arab ethnic groups are frequently victims of summary trials and regularly sentenced to death and executed. These practices illustrate the Iranian authorities' total disregard for its own population, and for international human rights standards that they should uphold”, commented Mr. Karim Lahidji, Vice-president of FIDH (International Federation for Human Rights) and President of LDDHI (The Iranian League for the Defense of Human Rights). 
 
These executions represent a shocking, tragic, and indefensible abuse of justice and a horrific violation of human rights. This is why we must have a universal abolition of the death penalty. 
 
Our thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends of the five prisoners: Ali Heydarian, Farhad Vakili, Farzad Kamanga, Mehdi Eslamian and Shirin Alam-Hulee Mehdi.
 
 
BY Will
May 03
World press freedom day

Today, May the 3rd, has been designated by UNESCO as World Press Freedom day. A free press enables all of us to defend our rights by asking for accountability and transparency from governments and businesses and by exposing corrupt and criminal organisations.

According to Reporters Without Borders, 9 journalists have sacrificed their lives to defend this right since the start of 2010. That’s two journalists a month.

It's an ongoing battle that can have tragic outcomes in those parts of the world where governments are more oppressive. At times it's a subtler phenomenon that nonetheless has a tremendous effect in manipulating public opinion in more consolidated, or “liberal”, democracies.

The focus of our current poster competition "Death is not Justice" is the universal abolition of the death penalty. Although the link might not seem obvious, it's only through the free circulation of information that violations of a citizen's basic human rights, such as State ordered execution, can be brought before public attention and openly debated.

According to Amnesty International's statistics and projections, the death penalty is still largely undocumented in the countries where it is practiced with greater frequency, such as Iran and China. The impossibility to track the phenomenon with precise numbers - and names - poses an enormous obstacle to tackling the issue in an open manner.

On UNESCO's website you can find an interesting interview with Mónica González Mujica (as seen kneeling in the photo taken from amdoc.org, as she was being arrested in 1984), the latest World Press Freedom Award laureate.

Her inspiring investigative journalist work can be also found in Spanish on her association website, CIPER Chile (in Spanish), that promotes investigative journalism to empower Chilean society. 

BY Tommaso
April 22
Xiao Yong joins poster for tomorrow jury
When we were coming up with our live jury, we sent out a message to Xiao Yong, a Beijing based graphic designer that we greatly admire for his dedication in the design education and design awareness fields.
 
As we didn't hear back from him, we supposed he wasn't interested. But the delay in his reply was only accidental - blame tight working schedules for that.
So even if we already announced our live jury members, please let us make an exception for such a praiseworthy designer. Let's welcome Xiao in our live jury.
 
Xiao Yong is currently serving as a Icograda board member. He's a professor at CAFA, Central Academy of Fine Arts in Beijing, China and a visiting professor at University of Arts London. 
 
He has worked extensively for Chinese government institutions and designed the medals for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Xiao Yong was recognized as of the “Top 10 Chinese designers” in 2007 and his firm, XiaoYong Design, is one of the most influentials in China.
 
You can read more about him and see his works at: www.xiaoyong.com

 

BY Tommaso
April 10
Call for Entries opens
The poster for tomorrow competition for 2010 is now open for entries. This year we we're calling for universal abolition of the death penalty under the theme: death is not justice. 
 
We believe in design, and posters, as a medium to inspire social change.
What you create as an artist, graphic designer or art director can inform, provoke emotion and motivate people to action. It’s a great gift.
And a gift you can use to inspire change in the world. 
 
We believe the death penalty is a violation of human rights and that it has no place in modern society. And that’s what we want to change in 2010. We hope you’ll join us.
 
One poster is a start. But hundreds, thousands, become a movement that cannot be denied. 
 
Please download the complete call for entries in English here, or look for it in your own language in the links on the right.
More translations will be available soon.

 

BY Tommaso
June 17
New feature: user registration

We've been busy behind to scenes to prepare a whole new system to handle users and submissions on our website. It's a small revolution that will make participating to the contest a lot easier. It's also our first step to build a proper online community. 

From today is now possible for you, and for everyone, to register to the website and get an account. Once registered you'll be able to manage in a simple and reliable way all the relevant information about your profile and, most importantly, your submissions. 

This means you'll be able to change your personal information, keep track of your entries and be 100% sure that it's all safely in our database. 

Please click on the "sign up" link on the left corner of the top navigation bar and get ready for the release of our call for entries on April the 10th. 

Photos by Ouyea and Mioi

BY Tommaso
March 20
Happy Nowruz!

 In just half an hour or so it will be Nowruz around here, which marks the start of the Iranian new year (1389) - and spring!
Above there’s a persian poem celebrating this - please bear with us if we don’t add the translation, which would hardly do justice to the original.
So, happy Nowruz, and spring, to everybody.

BY Tommaso
March 18
Liberté, égalité, fraternité for tomorrow

We’re very happy to announce that just yesterday poster for tomorrow has been endorsed by the French Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs.

We hope this agreement will mark the start of a fruitful collaboration with one of France’s most important governmental institutions.

BY Tommaso
March 16
Show detained human rights defenders you care about them

Nowruz (from Farsi, literally "new day") is a non-religious festivity that’s celebrated on the first day of spring in countries like Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Tajikistan since some 15,000 years ago.
Amongst other things, celebration includes walking on hot coals.

This festivity is particularly important for Iranians, but many of them won’t be able to celebrate it because their loved ones are languishing in prison.

Amnesty International has launched an action to send greetings to Nowruz greetings to seven detainees - the number has been picked according to another ancient tradition related to the celebration.
Some of the detainees are human rights activists but others are scholars, journalists and one graphic designer. You can help these deserving people by letting them know they are not forgotten on a day so important for them. Just design them a nice postcard.

You can find the guidelines on how to send your greetings on Amnesty’s USA site. Please follow them correctly.

Photo by Bertil Vildet

BY Tommaso
March 12
World day against cyber censorship

Today’s the world day against cyber censorship, an initiative promoted by our partner organisation Reporters Without Borders. 

Internet censorship varies greatly from country to country, with the most oppressive governments being China, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Iran. It’s striking to see how the countries that practice this form of repression are often the same that enforce capital punishment.

To know more about the campaign, please read the official statement "Enemies of the Internet" on organisation’s website or read the coverage from Global Voices Online.

You can take part to the initiative by simply spreading around the logo of the campaign. Use it on your website or facebook profile. You may download it from Reporters Without Borders website.

 

BY Tommaso
February 02
Welcome to our new website

It’s the start of our activities in 2010. A new year, a new website, a new theme.

Today we’re launching our plans for 2010 at the World Congress against the Death Penalty in Geneva. Because that’s what we want to achieve this year - draw people’s attention to the injustice of (and hopefully abolish) the death penalty.

Our main man Hervé is in Geneva today presenting our project to hundreds of associations already working against the death penalty. We want to add our voices to theirs to make as much noise as possible this October on 10/10/10, the World Day against the death penalty, so people will listen to us. And we want to ask for your help.

Not just designing a poster either. This year music is going to be part of our activities as well. We also want to make more of our design events, and use them as a platform for people to stand together against the death penalty.

That’s a short(ish) summary of what we want to do this year. If you’d like to know more, please read our press release (here). You’ll find it in a selection of languages on your right hand side.

Speak to you soon,
Ciao,
Tommaso

BY Tommaso