International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN)

Articles by International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN)

ICORN: Promoting free expression in a challenging global context

“Although we have been far from able to offer protection to everyone who needs it, ICORN has, so far, welcomed 21 writers, artists, and journalists as ICORN residents in 2023.”

Iranian lawyer, poet and activist Sedigheh Vasmaghi on trial for threatening national security

Dr. Vasmaghi could face a prison sentence. While she refused to attend a hearing at the Revolutionary Court, she shares her public defence statement ahead of the court’s decision on Monday 10 August.

“Doctors, nurses and facts are lifesavers”: Three women journalists on press freedom during COVID-19

Exiled journalists from Azerbaijan, Bahrain and Yemen speak to ICORN about the challenges of reporting the truth when governments are using the pandemic to justify surveillance and impose harder restrictions on the press.

Milagros Socorro: “To see your country destroyed day after day fatigues the soul”

Journalist and ICORN writer-in-residence Milagros Socorro continues to write and fight against corruption and authoritarianism in her native Venezuela.

Suite based on story of cartoonist Mr. Eaten Fish to be played at Sydney Opera House

Cartoonist Ali Dorani, aka Mr. Eaten Fish, spent more than four years in an Australia-run detention camp for refugees on Manus Island. Jazz singer Elly Hoyt and bassist and composer Geoff Gascoyne have written an 18-minute suite of music based on his story.

Iraqi artist and human rights defender Ahmed Falah finds refuge in Norway

A single cartoon drove Ahmed Falah to five years uncertainty in exile in Jakarta. Now one of Iraq’s most influential and controversial cartoonists, he is safely in Norway with the ICORN programme, where he can continue to work freely without fear of persecution.