United Nations 22nd International Children’s Painting Competition “Water: Where does water come from?”

With the International Year of Water Cooperation around the corner, the United Nations is inviting children to take part in the 22nd International Children’s Painting Competition with the theme “Water: Where does it come from?”. The International Children’s Painting Competition on the Environment is organized every year by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Japan-based Foundation for Global Peace and Environment (FGPE), Bayer and Nikon Corporation. The competition has been held since 1991 and has received more than 3 million entries from children in over 150 countries.

In 2007, Charlotte Sullivan from the UK won the competition. “[Taking part in] the competition has continued to influence my daily thinking and actions. I now care about my surroundings more passionately” Charlotte said at the beginning of last year’s competition. Other winners have also stressed the impact of the competition on their attitude to the environment. “Through the competition, children understand the importance of the environment and the importance of keeping it clean, not only at school, but also at home.” A. Prakash from India, winner of the 5th International Children’s Painting Competition said.

All children (age 6-14) are invited to submit their paintings to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) regional head office in Geneva (address below). Only entries that meet the following requirements will be taken into consideration:
1)     Paintings must be done on A4 OR A3 papers.
2)     Full name, age (day, month, and year), gender and full
        address, including phone and e-mail (in English), must be
        on the back of the painting.
3)     Style of painting is free: crayons, coloured pencils,
        watercolours, etc.
4)     Paintings that have been shown or accepted elsewhere
        will not be accepted in the competition.
5)     Paintings that show a particular person, an organization or
        a brand name will not be accepted.
6)     Do not include any words or descriptions in the paintings.
7)     Only hard copies of paintings will be accepted.
8)     You can submit more than one entry.

Children can submit their entries until Friday 15 February 2013. Regional winners will be announced on 22 April, 2013. Global winners will be announced on 5 June 2013 which is also World Environment Day.

Entries should be sent to:
UNEP - Regional Office for Europe
11-13 Chemin des Anémones
CH-1219 Châtelaine-Genève
Switzerland