Taufan Hidayatullah, Indonesia

From the Cartoonist: “The cartoon I submitted shows someone becoming happy after an incandescent bulb lights up. This object becomes a symbol of democratic principles, which can be the best choice if carried out appropriately for a community. But in fact upholding the principles of democracy is not easy, as can be observed in many developing countries, including Indonesia. There are a lot of obstacles in the application of democratic principles, such as corruption, money, politics, dishonest public officials, poverty, etc. These obstacles, symbolically, I have pictured as the rats eating the table.

I believe cartoon art can be a medium to convey opinions freely and critically.”

Taufan Hidayatullah is a lecturer at the Faculty of Design at Universitas Komputer Indonesia in West Java, and a former illustrator and cartoonist for Metro Newspaper Bandung.

Farrukh Akhrorov, Tajikistan

From the Cartoonist:“Even in the most totalitarian countries, the government is trying to introduce democratic institutions. But the problem is that these institutions do not develop the society, and create mechanisms to control and impact on the citizens. Invisible threads are used to manage these democracies, down to the basic mechanisms of such ‘democratic’ processes.”

Farrukh Akhrorov is a media consultant, organizer, author, and director and chairman of the Media Group & Mercy journalists’ association.

Georghe Matei, Romania

From the Cartoonist:“My drawing is satire, because, unfortunately, in our world there are still places where democracy is relative. There are places where the leaders of a ‘democracy’ use weapons against their own people!”

Georghe Matei is an editorial cartoonist for Curierul National newspaper. He first started publishing his works in 1986 in the humor magazine Urzica.

Ilya Katz, Israel

From the Cartoonist:“I found the theme of the cartoon competition very interesting. The idea of my work is ‘do not feed the corruption’ – those who offer bribes support the spread of corruption.”

Ilya Katz is a graphic designer and cartoonist.

Karim Rathor, Pakistan

From the Cartoonist:“Corruption is a severe problem not only in one country – it is the problem of the entire world.”

Karim Rathor is a cartoonist for The News International.

Gautama Polanki, India

From the Cartoonist:“I've always loved to draw, and my parents did everything they could to nurture this tendency of mine. Even when I was a preschooler, my father plied me with scribble pads and sketch pens, never once losing hope as my radiantly confident ‘Pollock’ phase dragged on for years. Eventually, in high school, I was drawing passable caricatures of my teachers, and that was thrilling. Around this time, I also encountered The New Yorker, Punch, and Mad Magazine. In other words, I was fortunate to have been exposed to some first rate cartoons and cartoonists from very early on.”

Gautama Polanki is a PhD student in literary theory at EFLU Hyderabad.

Basir Ahmad Hamaid, Afghanistan

From the Cartoonist: “Regardless of politics and any political group membership, I focused for my cartoon on the decade from 2001 to 2011, which started with new hopes, desires, and new aspects. But unfortunately we were witness to a day-to-day increase in the already high rates of violence against women. The cartoon shows that while the decade started with new hopes for female rights [in Afghanistan], it was only a dream or a set of slogans.”

Basir Ahmad Hamaid is a finance/funding officer for the Mazar-e-Sharif Office of Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Deepak Ramola, India

From the Cartoonist: “I wanted to highlight through this editorial cartoon that all the rights, laws and amendments for women are just a smokescreen, and in reality everyone knows the unspoken truth of gender inequality still prevailing. Women, despite all the laws, are still considered second class citizens within the confinement of the four walls of their homes. The cartoon emphasizes the sarcasm of the word “equality.” The picture depicts a typical “Balance” (“tarazu” in Hindi) used very commonly in India which symbolizes an honest measurement.

The law books might have made the beam balance appear equal but the fact is that women are still not able to avail those rights and advantages.”

Deepak Ramola is a final year mass media student and actor in Mumbai, India.

Alberto Barreto, Colombia

From the Cartoonist: “Women truly sustain the world, that that was why I represented ‘Atlas’ holding up the planet.”

Alberto Barreto is a graphic designer at the National University of Colombia and cartoonist for the El Tiempo newspaper.

There are no restrictions on who can participate in this competition – it is open to participants of all ages, professional and amateur cartoonists. Participants may submit cartoons in all three categories and a maximum of two cartoons per each category. Submissions must be original, unpublished work.

Maximum file size:

Hard-copy versions: A4 (210 X 297 mm ) or A3 (297 X 410 mm) and Letter (216 × 279 mm)
Digital versions: Minimum resolution of 300 dpi and dimensions of 600 pixels wide and 400 pixels high (must be suitable for printing).

By participating in this competition you allow CIPE the right to publish your submissions online and in print. CIPE will provide proper credit to the authors. This use includes, but is not limited to www.cipe.org  website, the CIPE Development Blog, CIPE’s social media tools, and other publications and resources.

First place winners in each category will receive $1,000
Second place winners in each category will receive $500
Third place winners in each category will receive $300

Submissions are accepted until Sunday, April 17, 2011.

Submit your cartoon here.