UNESCO Regional Youth Contest for Human Rights in Eastern Africa 2026 – YOA

Deadline: March 21, 2026

Applications are open for the UNESCO Regional Youth Contest for Human Rights in Eastern Africa 2026. The UNESCO Regional Youth Contest for Human Rights in Eastern Africa invites youth aged 18–35 from Eastern African to creatively advocate for human rights as “Everyday Essentials” beneath the 2025 Human Rights Day marketing campaign.

Through essays or poems, movies or animations and inventive artwork, contributors are inspired to advertise UNESCO’s 5 core human rights schooling; freedom of expression, data and privateness; scientific progress; cultural participation; and entry to water and sanitation utilizing modern, moral, and context-related approaches, together with digital instruments and AI.

Awards

• Prizes for the most effective Essay/Poem/Video/Animation
  • A spherical journey (for every class) from the home nation of the applicant to take part in a convention organized by UNESCO or a companion (in 2026 or 2027), together with lodging;
  • A UNESCO Certificate; OPPORTUNITY to make a presentation of the Essay/Poem throughout a devoted session;
  • Publication of the Essay on the UNESCO Website.
• Prizes for the 2nd and third greatest Essays/Poems/Videos/Animation
  • Cash awards of respectively $1,000 USD (2nd) and $500 USD (third);
  • A UNESCO Certificate of participation;
  • Opportunity to take part in and contribute to a web based occasion organized by UNESCO;
  • Publication of the Essays/Poems/Videos on the UNESCO Website.
• From 4th to thirtieth chosen Essays/ Poems/Videos/Animation
  • A UNESCO Certificate of participation;
  • Publication of the Essays/Poems/Videos on the UNESCO Website.

Eligibility

• Be a youth aged between 18 – 35
• Be a nationwide from any of the 13 Member States lined by the UNESCO Regional Office for Eastern Africa (Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania, Somalia, South Sudan and Uganda).
• Language: English or French (for Essay/Poem); English, French or Swahili (for video). If you utilize Swahili kindly add caption in English.
• Essays/Poems should be authentic, modern and unpublished. Already revealed works in addition to plagiarized entries will likely be disqualified. If you utilize quotations, please embody the reference on the backside of the essay/poem (references should not included in the phrase depend).

Style and Format

• The Essay could also be in educational, literary, dissertation or inventive writing type, and should be typed and comprise a title. It needs to be submitted in PDF or MS Word. Font: Arial; Font Size: 12; Line and Paragraph spacing: 1.5, Word Count: 1500 – 2500 phrases most.
• The Poem could also be in inventive writing type and should be typed and comprise a title. It needs to be submitted in PDF or MS Word. Font: Arial; Font Size: 12; Line and Paragraph spacing: 1.5, Word Count:
• Fully AI-generated contents for Essays and Poems will likely be excluded. In case of use of AI, embody a separate observe clearly outlining which part(s) was(have been) AI-generated.
• Braile and Signed English (signal language) submissions are equally inspired.

Application

ALL submissions MUST be uploaded on the application kind by the 21 March 2026 at 23:59 p.m. EAT, coinciding with the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, and the World Poetry Day.

Click here to apply

For extra data, go to UNESCO Regional Youth Contest for Human Rights.