The concept of establishing a network of cities providing refuge to persecuted artists, writers, and journalists originated in the 1990s. Key figures behind the initial concept, including Salman Rushdie and the late Czech president and playwright Václav Havel, envisioned what they called the International Parliament of Writers.
Since 2006, the responsibility for the initiative has been assumed by the Norwegian non-profit organization ICORN. Prague officially became the 86th city to join the network on Tuesday.
“Since we started in 2006, we have protected more than 300 persecuted writers and artists, who can be everything from novelists, poets, journalists, but also cartoonists and lately also non-verbal artists,” ICORN Director General Helge Lunde, present at the signing of the agreement, said.
“It's all about freedom of expression, so we're speaking about people who are not able to express themselves freely in their home country due to their professional activities, and it's up to the cities of ICORN to step up and help them,” Lunde added.
ICORN operates as a city-driven network, meaning each member city is responsible for covering the costs of housing, living expenses for the artists in question, and assisting with their social integration.
Poland has three ICORN cities of refuge, Katowice and Krakow in the south and Wrocław in the west.
The City of
Prague has committed to hosting one artist, expected to arrive by the year's end and selected from a list of candidates provided by ICORN. Lunde explained that given the current political climate, the individual could originate from virtually any part of the world.
“At the moment, the world is not a very easy place to be for people with free minds. It can be countries in the Middle East, such as Yemen, Syria, of course Palestine, if we are able to get people out of there,” Lunde said.
“And then of course Iran, Iraq, but also many African countries, Latin America, but even countries in Europe, namely Belarus and Russia. There are many countries where writers and artists have really big troubles if they want to speak exactly what is on their mind,” he added.
