The Human Frame
My work, as an actor and human rights campaigner, sits at the crossroads of human rights and the arts, exploring how creativity can reveal the deeper truths of what it means to be human. Through The Human Frame, I bring together artists, activists, and thinkers to explore how performance can become a form of resistance, empathy, and change.
The Human Frame
Witness Through Art: Maddy Crowther on Sudan, Genocide & the Power of Children’s Drawings
In this Human Rights Day special of The Human Frame, Łucja sits down with Maddy Crowther, co–executive director of Waging Peace and long-time human rights advocate dedicated to documenting atrocities and amplifying the voices of Sudanese communities.
Maddy shares the story behind one of the organisation’s most impactful initiatives, the Sudan Children’s Drawings Project, which began in 2007 and now holds over 600–700 drawings created by children who lived through conflict. These drawings, raw and unfiltered, have become critical evidence of war crimes and a tool for advocacy, informing public awareness campaigns and even parliamentary engagement.
Together, they explore:
✨ How the Sudan Children’s Drawings Project became a living archive of testimony
✨ The emotional and political weight of children's perspectives in documenting violence
✨ Maddy’s path into human rights work and the challenges of advocacy within the UK and global policy landscapes
✨ The ongoing humanitarian and political crisis in Sudan, and why it demands sustained international attention
✨ The importance of art, storytelling, and community voices in resisting erasure
Released for Human Rights Day (10th December), this episode honours the courage of Sudanese children, the resilience of survivors, and the critical work of those fighting for justice when the world looks away.
Follow:
🔗 Nuria's Instagram, Waging Peace's Instagram 📚 Prospect Magazine article where a former child artist was interviewed here. 🔗Resources: For instance, see Françoise Héritier, anthropologist & ethnologist, and commentary on a drawing, an interview with the person who 1st gathered the cohort of drawings from camps in Chad.
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Host: Łucja Hawking
Music: Yago Cardalda