Youth In Action: A Snapshot of Democracy

2012 Global WYMD Photo Contest Winners

Here are the results for the second WYMD Global Photo Contest, Youth in Action: A Snapshot of Democracy! Young individuals from all around the world sent in over a hundred photograph entries—and thousands of votes for their favorite semi-finalist photos. With the voting over and all the votes counted, we are pleased to present the winners from the three contest categories, Emerging Human Rights Defenders, Democracy in My Life and Challenges to Democracy.

These three finalists win an opportunity to attend one of the largest global gatherings of democracy activists, scholars, policy makers, and donors—the Seventh Assembly of the World Movement for Democracy in October 2012.

Congratulations to Mehman Huseynov, Marcin Gwizdon, and Aderemi Adegbite! You can see their winning entries below:

photograph by Mehman Huseynov, Azerbaijan

"I live in Azerbaijan where I never saw democracy. The fundamental freedoms of democracy are freedom of expression, freedom of media, freedom of assembly, property rights, etc. These freedoms and rights are restricted in Azerbaijan. Sometimes, you see people’s rights violated, but you cannot speak or write about it. In this photo, the police have covered the mouth and the eyes of the man so that he can neither see reality, nor speak about it. This is how democracy exists in Azerbaijan."

photograph by Marcin Gwizdon, Poland/United Kingdom

"Students’ performance on the streets of Córdoba, Argentina. The photograph was taken during the Day of Remembrance for Truth and Justice (Spanish: Día de la Memoria por la Verdad y la Justicia) commemorating the victims of Argentina's Dirty War. The photos above the students depict "desaparecidos" (the disappeared) and the line on the wall (taken from the Argentine National Anthem) reads: "Hear, mortals, the sacred cry” (Spanish: "¡Oíd, mortales!, el grito sagrado")."

photograph by Aderemi Adegbite, Nigeria

"When millions of Nigerians came out to condemn the fuel subsidy removal, the young boy was not sleeping at home, he came out with his parents to exercise his civil rights."

Thank you to all photographers, judges, and voters around the world! You can click here to view the results of last year's photo contest, 2011 Youth In Action: A Snapshot of Democracy.

Follow @WYMD to keep up with all our events and news.

This contest was made possible with the generous support of thethe Hurford Foundation.