2025 was ILA’s first full year of operations. Our annual report presents our work in legal protection, resettlement, cultural programming and international advocacy.
Established in Geneva in October 2024, Initiative pour la Liberté Artistique (ILA) works with its sister organization, Artistic Freedom Initiative (AFI), to support artists facing censorship, persecution or forced displacement, and to strengthen legal protections for artistic freedom.
2025 at a glance
- 120+ artists supported through legal assistance
- 57 artists assisted with relocation and integration
- 5 cultural events produced in Switzerland
- 6 submissions to UN human rights mechanisms
- 2 side events organized during UN Human Rights Council sessions
Legal protection and resettlement
ILA assisted artists with asylum applications, humanitarian visas and talent-based immigration routes. Among the cases completed in 2025 was the relocation of former Afghan Minister of Culture and Information Tahir Zuhair and his family to Germany, under the country’s Federal Admission Program. Resettlement support, mainly in Germany, covered housing, professional development and connections with artistic institutions.
Cultural programming
The Heritage and Exile concert series, presented in Geneva and Lausanne, featured female artists from Iran, Ukraine and Afghanistan: Niaz Nawab, Maryna Krut, Mashal Arman and Elaha Soroor. The series brought together diaspora communities, cultural institutions and Geneva’s international human rights community.
International advocacy
ILA delivered three oral statements at the UN Human Rights Council and co-hosted side events with Amnesty International, Human Rights First, ARTICLE 19, Open Culture! and the Hungarian Helsinki Committee. It also contributed to the Universal Periodic Review and to OHCHR consultations. At the European level, ILA coordinates a civil society coalition calling for a European Artistic Freedom Act and acts as penholder on the draft legislation. It also joined the advisory board of the Council of Europe’s Free to Create initiative. With AFI and a Slovak partner, ILA published Early Warning: The Politicization of Slovak Arts and Culture.
Looking ahead
In 2026, ILA will expand its work in all program areas and develop new heritage initiatives. These include the Wahdat Library Preservation Project, which aims to safeguard an archive of Afghan publications spanning more than 150 years, in partnership with the Universities of Basel, Harvard and Stanford.
We thank AFI, our partners, volunteers and supporters, and above all the artists whose work guides ours.
