The Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize has always shown how creativity can be a powerful force for social change. And that change, organisers say, is needed more than ever as the city limps through its fifth wave of Covid-19. “Hong Kong has always been a pressure-cooker environment but the pandemic has exacerbated that,” says Melanie McLaren, director of the Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize 2022. The prize, which was established in 2013 by Justice Centre Hong Kong, a non-profit that helps refugees and vulnerable migrants, usually centres on the theme of refugee and migrant rights, but this year’s competition – titled “Colours of Humanity” – also explores the topic of LGBTQI+ rights and inclusivity. The title aims to highlight diverse experiences in the community, McLaren says, and the organisers are hoping that there will be more artworks and submissions coming from different sectors of Hong Kong this year. “We’re shifting the focus to ‘colours of humanity’, to promote a hopeful future – and we’re hoping the prize itself will be a healing experience,” she says. Entries are open until May 15. McLaren encourages those from marginalised and minority communities to enter, and stresses that you do not have to be a professional artist to compete. “Historically, it’s been professional artists who produce these amazing works, but we want to encourage artists without formal art training to enter,” she says. Hers was the only Western art that adorned Mao Zedong’s personal rooms The annual event is co-hosted by the European Union Office to Hong Kong and Macau, with support from the Goethe-Institut Hongkong. Past winners include Terence Li, who scooped the prize in 2021 with Green Walls , an 11-minute video about a Sri Lankan girl struggling with multiple asylum-claim rejections. Magus Yuen Kam-wa’s Hong Kong Symposium 2019 – a photo showing a flower in a gas canister, a statement about the city’s social unrest in 2019/20 – took the prize in 2020 . Other winners include Elva Lai, for a photography project about Hong Kong people’s shared history as refugees; Xyza Cruz Bacani , for her photo series on the city’s domestic workers; and Ducky Tse Chi-tak , for his pictures on ethnic minorities and labour rights. In 2014, Katie Vajda won with her piece Can You See Me Yet? that questions the treatment and visibility of domestic workers in Hong Kong, while Christy Chow’s De-stitching – a commentary on sweatshop workers – won in 2017. McLaren says shortlisted artworks over the years have helped more people understand the plights of minority communities, such as the 14,000 refugees and asylum seekers in Hong Kong. For this particular group, the pandemic has added an extra layer of hopelessness to what was already a bleak picture, she says. Hong Kong does not grant asylum as it is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention. Instead it offers non-refoulement, the assurance that asylum seekers will not be sent to a country where they may be persecuted or tortured. Some claimants, however, remain in limbo in the city for several years. They are not allowed to work and rely on HK$1,200 (US$153) grocery shopping vouchers the government provides each month, McLaren says. The allowance can only be spent at ParknShop. “We’ve heard stories of refugees putting their children to bed at 5pm so they don’t have to feed them dinner, and reports of adults drinking baby milk formula,” McLaren says. She hopes that their voices will be among those reflected through this year’s entries. Shortlisted artworks for this year’s Hong Kong Human Rights Arts Prize will be exhibited in June at the Goethe-Institut Hongkong in Wan Chai (subject to local health regulations), and through an immersive 360-degree online walk-through accessible via the Justice Centre Hong Kong and Goethe-Institut Hongkong’s websites. Exhibited works will be available for purchase via auction, with proceeds supporting the Justice Centre. On top of the main prize, there is also an InkluVision Award, supported by Goethe-Institut Hongkong, for an artwork that advocates an inclusive society, and a Justice Centre Choice Award. Artists can submit works via justicecentrehkartsprize2022.artcall.org. The deadline for submissions is 5pm on May 15.