Oslo Freedom Forum, 2017

Drawings of dissidents and activists

The world is full of conferences and forums where speakers share their knowledge and/or passion to large groups of people. I have been invited to live-draw and speak at many.

But no conference I have ever attending compares to Oslo Freedom Forum. This is my second year attending the forum, held in Oslo, Norway (and there are also smaller events globally as well). A three day summit, OFF is incredibly inspiring: most of the speakers are people who are activists or dissidents from all over the world. Many you will not have heard of, others will be familiar names. Some of them run organizations that help freedom fighters, some are heads of state, others are individuals who escaped dictatorships, oppression and persecution. Many have — and still do — risk their lives for their beliefs and for speaking out. They do so not just for themselves and their families, but for the rest of us as well. They humble us with their bravery.

OFF is run by the New York-based non-profit Human Rights Foundation and was founded in 2009 as a one-time event and has taken place annually ever since. One of the key objectives of the conferences is to bring together notable people, including former heads of state, winners of the Nobel Peace Prize, prisoners of conscience, as well as of other public figures in order to network and exchange ideas about human rights and exposing dictatorships.

I encourage you to go to their website and watch the videos and learn more. Here are my drawings from the 2017 Oslo Freedom Forum. I drew them in real time as they spoke at the forum and tweeted out the images immediately, hoping to bring attention to their causes and to their amazing bravery. It’s the least I can do.