Press release
Paris, the 20th of October
Cartooning for Peace strongly condemns the heinous assassination of Samuel Paty, professor of history-geography at the Collège du Bois d’Aulne, on October 16 in Conflans Sainte-Honorine (France).
It is not only freedom of expression but also the freedom to teach that are victims here of the most abject barbarity and intolerance. The savage assassination of a teacher, dedicated to opening the minds of his students by lecturing on freedom of expression, is not acceptable. Terrorism is unacceptable in itself. It is all the more so within the confines of the republican school, where secularism guarantees our freedoms, our cultural diversity and our social cohesion.
The attack of October 16 demonstrates the magnitude of the task and the long road that still remains to be traveled before such acts cease to recur. More than ever, Cartooning for Peace will continue to mobilize for education for freedom of expression and citizen debate among the younger generations.
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Created in 2006 on the initiative of Kofi Annan, Nobel Peace Prize winner and former Secretary General of the United Nations, and the press cartoonist Plantu, Cartooning for Peace is an international network of cartoonists committed to promoting, through the universal language of press cartoons, freedom of expression, human rights and mutual respect between people of different cultures or beliefs. Today chaired by the French cartoonist Kak, the 1901 law association is recognized as being of general interest.
Since its creation, Cartooning for Peace has been working in favor of media and information literacy and intervenes throughout the year with education professionals (teachers, documentalists, educators, cultural coordinators) to promote freedom of expression, tolerance, critical thinking, dialogue, living together and citizenship.
To this end, Cartooning for Peace offers educational kits (traveling exhibitions accompanied by an educational booklet) and regular meetings in schools and prisons. Previously trained to intervene in schools and prisons, the press cartoonists of Cartooning for Peace exchange with young people and prisoners during these workshops to free their speech, develop their critical thinking and debate on these essential themes.
Each year in France, approximately 500,000 students are sensitized in 3,000 schools.
Learn more on the educational kits of Cartooning for Peace here.
Download our press release: 2020-10-20-PR Cartooning for Peace
