Manny Ansar, festival director and co-founder of Mali’s world famous ‘Festival au Désert’, will receive the Freemuse Award on Monday 3 June 2013 at the Geneva United Nations headquarters in Switzerland.

The award ceremony will take place in connection with a UN session on the right to freedom of artistic expression and creativity featuring artists and human rights advocates. At the session, Manny Ansar and Freemuse will speak on the situation in Mali and artistic freedom in general.

The session is hosted by the UN Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights, Farida Shaheed, who launches her report ‘The right to freedom of artistic expression and creativity’ to the public. Amongst the artists speaking at the event are also Senegalese rapper and producer Didier Awadi and Norwegian filmmaker and producer Deeyah.

More info: http://freemuse.org/archives/5981