Drawing Competition
For the third year in a row, the European Commission launched an international drawing competition on gender equality on International Women's Day 8 March 2009. This competition called on children in third countries to express their vision of gender equality through a drawing. The selection of the 14 winning drawings took place on 23 June in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde of Belgium and Mr Koos Richelle, Director General for EuropeAid Cooperation Office at the European Commission.
Press release - Launch of drawing competition on Gender equality 
[65 KB] 
The jury was made of 49 primary school pupils of the European School in Brussels. An exhibition of the winning drawings will be inaugurated in autumn 2009 at the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. 25 000 children from all over the world have submitted their drawings and expressed their views on gender equality following the competition launch on 8 March 2009.
2009 winners of the gender drawing competition
Pictures and video of the selection event of the winners on 23 June 2009 in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde of Belgium
Save the dates!
- 8 March 2009 - International Women's Day - Worldwide launch of the competition
- 15 May 2009: End date for submission to the competition
- 23 June 2009: Selection of the winning drawings by a jury composed of European children, in the presence of Her Royal Highness Princess Mathilde of Belgium and Koos Richelle, Director-General of EuropeAid
- 26 November 2009: Inauguration of the exhibition in Morocco on the occasion of the International Day for the Elimination of the Violence against Women
Competion documents
Information Brochures for Schools [135 KB] 
Arabic version [185 KB]
Rules of the Competition [17 KB] 
Calendar [16 KB]
Background
Since the creation of the European Economic Community in 1957, the principle of equal treatment between women and men has been an integral part of the EC Treaty. On the occasion of the International Women's Day in 2007, the EU launched the first edition of the Drawing Competition on gender equality to increase the awareness of gender issues among children all over the world. Since then almost 60 000 children from all corners of the globe, aged 8 to 10, have participated in the competition.
Two drawings in each region will be selected by a jury of European children. Both winners in each region will be awarded a prize of 1.000 € each. The winning drawings will be included in a booklet which will be distributed in the schools of the participating countries and in the European schools having participated to the competition.
