Welcome to the annual Irish Arts and Human Rights Festival 2025
Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality and Front Line Defenders, and a range of partners, present the seventh annual Irish Arts and Human Rights Festival from the 10 to 19 October 2025. The festival features exciting and innovative events that promote equality, human rights and diversity throughout Ireland, Northern Ireland and internationally. The aim of the festival is to showcase and highlight the extraordinary work of human rights defenders in Ireland and around the world, past and present, and the role of the arts and artists in promoting human rights today.
The artistic curator for the festival is Mary Moynihan, Artistic Director, Smashing Times and the human rights curator is Laura O’Leary, International Events and Promotions Coordinator, Front Line Defenders. The festival is a hybrid programme delivered over 10 days and hosts an exciting blend of events happening in-person and online, featuring Irish and international artists and guest speakers, reaching audiences locally, nationally, and internationally. There is something for everyone interested in the arts for equality, rights and diversity.
The festival promotes human rights and justice for all, and the vision of a world where all people are treated equally, with dignity and respect – linking the arts to civil society, active citizenship and politics, aiming to celebrate and unite community connections, artists, human rights organisations and human rights defenders.
The festival showcases world-class and diverse acts, artists and speakers, including up and coming artists and performers. It brings arts and human rights together through interdisciplinary events which include workshops, theatre performances, musical performances, visual arts, exhibitions, film screenings, panel discussions, poetry and literature events, historical memory performances, live art, digital art and more.
Join us to illuminate stories of courage and inspiration and to share stories of ordinary people who stand up for human rights. We bear witness to, and remember the past, explore the present and celebrate the future linked to equality, human rights and diversity for all.
At the heart of the festival are a commitment to equality, diversity and human rights, a commitment to human connection and shared experiences and a commitment to building diversity, inclusion, democracy and peace. The aim of the festival to bring together the arts and human rights and to create a dynamic hub both onsite and online building synergies between cutting-edge creative arts practice, activism, human rights, and communities supporting established and emerging voices and innovative ideas for action in relation to the promotion of equality, human rights and diversity. We want to entertain, inspire, challenge, and support action for positive and peaceful social change and to foster an inclusive, multilingual, and culturally diverse environment, creating a space where connections are made, inclusivity and peace are transformed and risk-taking, experimentation and collaboration are promoted. We want to work together to build a sustainable arts infrastructure dedicated to the arts for equality, human rights and diversity, across Ireland, Northern Ireland and internationally.
Festival Events