UNIQUE images by Bentham artist Chris Robinson were unveiled in Paris as part of an historic commemoration of human rights.

The three-day commemoration was organised by international movement Amnesty International in conjunction with The Body Shop, to mark the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights adopted in Paris in 1948.

The event included a portrait exhibition featuring unique thumbprint images of 12 human rights defenders, including four completed by campaiging artist Chris. He was one of several artists from around the world commissioned by The Body Shop to create a portrait as part of the store's Make Your Mark campaign.

The campaign ran in 34 countries, and over six months customers to The Body Shop left three million thumbprints as a pledge of their support for human rights.

Chris was asked to get involved by The Body Shop following his exhibition "Looking for Burma", which has travelled from Lancaster to the Euro Parliament in Amsterdam. Chris, who is part Burmese himself, organised the exhibition to raise awareness of the Burmese culture and its struggle for democracy.

His thumbprint portraits were among several unveiled in Paris, during a launch attended by The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick and Amnesty International Secretary Pierre Sane. The launch was also attended by some of the defenders themselves, and Chris was delighted to be able to meet Croatian Mirjana Galo, the subject of one of his portraits.

Mirjana belongs to a Croatian human rights organisation and helps to run a centre offering humanitarian aid and legal advice to returning refugees of all nationalities. Members of the group have been threatened and attacked while their premises have been subjected to a series of attempted arson attacks.

"She really is a peace maker," commented Chris. "She is trying to resettle all the different groups and wants to use the portrait to promote her cause."

Chris was initially commissioned to do two portraits featuring members of a Burmese entertainment group. The pair were arrested after a performance in which they sang satirical songs about the country's generals and told jokes about government co-operatives. They were charged with intending to spread false news and the two comedians were sentenced to seven years in a labour camp. Chris used a million and a half thumbprints to create the huge portraits, which measure 12 foot by 18 foot in total.

His fourth portrait was of a Zambian journalist who was imprisoned in March 1996 for writing a newspaper article criticising a speech by the country's vice-president denouncing freedom of assembly. He was jailed for 24 days and released, but still faces up to 40 charges of defamation and libel.

As part of the three-day commemoration, Chris was also invited to see UN General Secretary Kofi Annan officially accept on behalf of the UN 10 million pledges of support for the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The pledges came from 105 countries around the world, collected by Amnesty International members and The Body Shop customers.

The event also featured the first ever world summit of human rights defenders, but one of the highlights for Chris was a human rights concert starring Radiohead, Alanis Morissette and Peter Gabriel among other top stars.

The concert, which brought the three day commemoration to a close, was opened by Anita Roddick and featured a speech from the Dalai Lama.

"Twenty-five-thousand people turned up and the atmosphere was tremendous," said Chris. "They had my thumb print portraits on the back drop and projected film of me making the portraits up.

"Anita Roddick is very committed to human rights and without people like her none of this would have happened," he added.

For his next project, Chris is intending to travel to a Karen refugee camp near Burma. The Karens were our allies in the Second World War and are now suffering hardship at the hands of the Burmese military. Chris hopes to work with a Karen nurse on a medical and educational project in Thailand, making and providing basic school equipment, bringing in medical supplies and making wooden legs for those maimed by land mines. Anyone who can make a donation to help buy these supplies should contact Chris on 015242 61790.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.