Ensure you don’t miss our annual Poetry Competition deadline! Young people in the UK have until 18th December 2022 to submit their poems.
The competition is open to anyone in the UK aged 11 to 18 at the time of entering. Winners will be announced on or around GMD 2023 event on 15th January.
The competition is held every year as part of GMD. Entrants are encouraged to reflect on the theme of ‘protecting humanity from genocide’ in their poems. Poems should be respectful of the topic.
First Prize: Paid trip to Bosnia with an accompanying adult in July covering the date of the annual Srebrenica or other memorials. Includes flights, accommodation and meals. Winners will visit key sites in the war with a guide to the events that took place.
Second Prize: £50 IHRC Bookshop voucher.
Third Prize: £25 IHRC Bookshop voucher.
All winners will be awarded a certificate of achievement. In addition to individual prizes, IHRC will be offering a prize to the school which has entered the most entries. The winners of the 2023 school prize is a screening of the IHRC documentary ‘Forgotten Genocide’ with a Question and Answer session with the film’s producer.
All entrants should read the Rules carefully before entering here. The Terms and Conditions for the competition and its prizes can be found here.
Please note that due to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, the main prize may be postponed, changed or substituted for one chosen by the organisers.
JUDGES
Each year a panel comprising poets, artists, community figures and an IHRC officer judge the poems. Previous judges have included poets Narjis Khan, Sanasiino, Zainab Ali, Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan, Mizan the Poet and Ibrahim Sincere and community figures like Bruce Kent. Each year’s judging panel will be announced after the judging has taken place.
PREVIOUS WINNERS:
A compilation of winning entries is available to buy and download as a PDF here or in hard copy here. A substantial schools discount is available for bulk orders. All profits from sales will be donated to the IHRCT Rohingya Fund.
Winners
Reminiscence by Aferdita Hasani
Who Am I by Frano Vainio-Doiseul
Runners Up
We’re not the Same by Athisham Husain-web
Genocide through History by Jasper Bardsley
The Calm Before the Storm by Elise Scotney
I still remember the days by Saba Ahmadzadeh-Noughani
So Great is Humanity by Joshua Couchman
The sub human by Ifrah Bukhari
My Hazara People by Shukria Rezaei
Word.Paper.Blood.Wall by Muskah Walizadeh
Highly Commended
Blood in the Water by William Bloomfield and William Moss
