Irish Arts and Human Rights Festival
Friday 10 to Sunday 19 October 2025
“In Solidarity: An International Celebration of Arts and Human Rights”
The Irish Arts and Human Rights Festival is an annual, international festival organised by Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality and Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based international organisation working to improve the security and protection of human rights defenders at risk. It is held in partnership with a range of other Irish organisations working on human rights and social justice. This year’s festival runs from 10 – 19 October, with the theme ‘In Solidarity: An International Celebration of Arts and Human Rights’.
The festival aims to promote 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. The extraordinary work of human rights defenders in Ireland and around the world, past and present, and the role of the arts in promoting human rights will be showcased and highlighted at the festival, aiming to celebrate and unite community connections, artists, human rights organisations and human rights defenders.
The festival will showcase world-class and diverse acts, artists and speakers, including up-and-coming 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 installations, and more.
Front Line Defenders is hosting and co-sponsoring multiple events during this year's festival - please see details below. See the full festival programme here.
Memorial Monologues: The Path of Memory Part 2 by Mary Moynihan
- Multiple live performances at Iveagh Gardens and Smashing Times Arts and Human Rights Centre (see below).
Memorial Monologues: The Path of Memory Part 2 by Mary Moynihan is a new world premiere scripted from the words and stories of five brave and inspirational women human rights defenders from around the world who were murdered because of their peaceful work defending the rights of others.
Created as a promenade, ‘walk-in-the-park’ show with theatre, poetry and music, the performance features five of the stories of women human rights defenders including those who are commemorated at the Memorial to Human Rights Defenders in the Iveagh Gardens, Dublin. They are FannyAnn Eddy (1974-2004), LGBTIQ+ activist, Sierra Leone; Daphne Caruana Galizia, (1964-2017), journalist, Malta; Teresa Magueyal (1958 – 2023), a woman searcher of disappeared people and human rights defender, Mexico; Rosemary Nelson, (1958-1999), human rights lawyer, Northern Ireland and Marielle Franco (1979-2018), politician and human rights activist, Brazil.
Memorial Monologues: The Path of Memory Part 2 by Mary Moynihan is presented by Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality and Front line Defenders as part of the Irish Arts and Human Rights Festival 2025.
Seven performances take place with six outdoor performances at the Iveagh Gardens, Dublin, on Friday 19 September, 17:00; Friday 10 October, 13:00; Saturday 11 October, 13:00 and 15:00, and Sunday 12 October, 13:00 and 15:00. If the weather does not permit outdoor performances at the Iveagh Gardens, the show relocates to the Smashing Times Arts and Human Rights Centre, 30 Sandycove Road, Dublin A96V9P1. You will receive an email a day in advance with confirmation of venue.
One indoor performance takes place at the Smashing Times Arts and Human Rights Centre, 30 Sandycove Road, Dublin, A96V9P1 on Friday 10 October, 19:00, as part of the launch for the annual international Irish Arts and Human Rights Festival 2025.
Find out more and register here
The Art of Changemakers Multidisciplinary Exhibition with artists Mary Moynihan and Aisha Hamdulay
16 September 2025 - 11:00 until 25 October 2025 - 16:00, at dlr Mill Theatre, Dundrum
The Art of Changemakers multidisciplinary exhibition by artists Mary Moynihan and Aisha Hamdulay features photography, poetry, and storytelling and is a visual and poetical reflection on the stories of Human Rights Defenders today. The Art of Changemakers highlights the stories of the five inspirational Human Rights Defenders honoured in 2025 with the Front Line Defenders Annual Award for Human Rights Defenders at Risk.
Artists Mary Moynihan and Aisha Hamdulay have created a series of artworks to accompany the stories of the five human rights defenders. Artworks by Mary Moynihan consist of photography, poetry and text and a series of artworks inspired by statements from the ‘Universal Declaration of Human Rights’. Artworks by Aisha Hamdulay consist of photography and poetry. The artistic work and stories are a celebration of the work of human rights defenders and a reflection on peace, equality and human rights.
The exhibition runs from Tuesday 16 September to Saturday 25 October 2025 at the dlr Mill Theatre, Dundrum, (Tuesday to Saturday, 11am – 4pm, closed for lunch 1.30-2.30pm daily). The exhibition is a collaboration between Smashing Times International Centre for the Arts and Equality and Front Line Defenders with the dlr Mill Theatre, Dundrum, for the annual international Irish Arts and Human Rights festival.
Human Rights Open Mic
16 October 2025 - 19:00 - 22:30 at Curveball, Button Factory, Curved Street, Temple Bar Dublin, D02 RD26
Join us for a night of poetry and music related to themes of solidarity, human rights and social justice. We will have special guests featuring curated poetry and music for the night, which will be announced closer the event, and the floor is also open for anyone who would like to sign up to perform.
If you are interested in performing, please email with subject line ‘’open mic sign up’’ to events@frontlinedefenders.org.
Find out more and register here
Mother City Film Screening and Discussion
18 October 2025 - 12:30 - 16:00 at Pearse Centre, 27 Pearse Street Dublin, D02 K037
Exploring Cape Town’s history with Apartheid, the story of Mother City follows a social movement over a few years fighting for affordable housing to make the city more inclusive for people of colour.
The event aims to spark discussion and draw parallels between housing issues and movements in Cape Town and Dublin, and more broadly, Ireland.
Find out more and register here
Interview with Lana Estemirova on her book ‘Please Live: The Chechen Wars, My Mother and Me’
18 October 2025 - 18:30 - 20:00 at Pearse Centre, 27 Pearse Street Dublin, D02 K037
Speaker
Lana Estemirova – Daughter of human rights defender Natalia Estemirova, a former Memorial board member murdered in Chechnya for her human rights work in 2009. Lana Estemirova is a graduate in international relations from the London School of Economics and is a journalist and the presenter of the "Trouble with the Truth" podcast.
Full Event Details
‘Please live’ were the words fifteen-year-old Lana meticulously texted to her mother on 15 July, 2009. At that moment, woman human rights defender Natalia Estemirova was already kidnapped outside their apartment block in Grozny, Chechnya; she was murdered on the same day for her continued stance for the truth. Lana Estemirova’s book “Please Live” tells a story of being ordinary in extraordinary setting. War permeates Lana’s childhood memories, the history of the Chechen people, and the life of her mother, Natalia Estemirova, a teacher turned human rights defender. “Please Live” is a testament to courage, loss, and motherhood, a story of two women sharing a life together at war, making daily sacrifices and resisting growing pressure in their own way. Natalia Estemirova was also featured in previous festival event Memorial Monologues which tells the story of 4 human rights defenders who feature on the Memorial Monument in the Iveagh Gardens in Dublin and this will also feature again at this years festival with new defender stories.
This event will be promoting the human rights defender by sharing a story of a life of a woman human rights defender, told by her daughter. This event will tell her story & how she became a dedicated human rights defender, intent on exposing the war crimes, kidnappings, bombings, torture and murders committed by Russian military forces and then Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of the Chechen Republic. Natalia Estemirova’s life, assassination, and the impunity that followed it, helps to understand the non-existing accountability of Putin’s Russia told by her daughter and author Lana Estemirova.
Lana's book “Please Live”will be on sale in hardback at the event for €20 (cash sales only) & can also be bought online:
Speakers:
Lana Estemirova is the daughter of human rights activist, Natalya Estemirova, a former Memorial board member murdered in Chechnya for her human rights work in 2009. Lana Estemirova is a graduate in international relations from the London School of Economics and is a journalist and the presenter of the "Trouble with the Truth" podcast.
Caelainn Hogan is a writer and journalist from Dublin. Her first book Republic of Shame investigates the ongoing legacy of Ireland’s religious-run, state-funded institutions that incarcerated women and children. She has written for The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, National Geographic, The Guardian, VICE, Harper’s, The Washington Post, The Dublin Review and more.
Photo by Ruth Barry
Find out more and register here
From Mexico to Ireland; a discussion on corporate responsibility & Human Rights
19 October 2025 - 13:30 - 15:00 at Pearse Centre, 27 Pearse Street Dublin, D02 K037
Speakers
- Grecia Eugenia Rodríguez Navarro, Zacatecas Mining Conflict Observatory
- Sofia Larriera Santurio, Business & Human Rights Advocacy Officer with Front Line Defenders
- Aideen O'Dochartaigh - Dublin City University: Expert in sustainability accounting and responsible business
- Jorge Moran - Latin America Solidarity Centre
Full Event Details
From Zacatecas, Mexico comes a voice that refuses to be silenced. In her words are rivers, forests, and the courage of communities standing against the weight of extraction and corporate power. In Dublin, her story meets ours in a call for solidarity – a shared struggle to hold power to account and imagine a future where people and the planet are put over profit.
Around the world, communities are resisting destructive extractive projects that threaten their ancestral lands, access to water, livelihoods and the planet. In Mexico’s state of Zacatecas, one of the country’s most heavily mined regions, women human rights defenders (WHRDs) face intimidation, environmental devastation, and shrinking civic space as they challenge powerful corporate interests.
In this panel, the WHRD Grecia Eugenia Rodríguez Navarro (Zacatecas Mining Conflict Observatory) will share her testimony of resistance and resilience from the front lines. Her story will be the starting point for a broader conversation linking local struggles in Latin America (and other regions from the global south) with the responsibility of the Global North, including Ireland and the European Union, to ensure that companies based here respect human rights and the environment abroad.
We will explore the urgent fight to defend the EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) — a landmark law meant to hold companies accountable throughout their global operations — now under threat from deregulation efforts in Brussels. The discussion will address what’s at stake, why public awareness matters, and how people in Ireland can take action. This event invites the audience to connect with those in the front lines of the global struggle for justice and protecting the planes, and to see their role in shaping fairer, safer supply chains.
Find out more and register here.
Due to the success and growth of the festival, the name has changed from the Dublin Arts and Human Rights festival to the annual international Irish Arts and Human Rights Festival. The festival has grown in size with events now taking place in a range of counties across Ireland as well as online, and the new name reflects the fact that this is an all-island festival featuring events from across Ireland, Northern Ireland and internationally.
The Pearse Centre is wheelchair accessible via a load-in door from Cards Lane (off Townsend Street) to the ground floor reception.
Please contact the Pearse Centre if you have any questions or want further information in relation to accessibility at the venue.
