ABOUT

HART is a registered majority-black directed and staffed human and artistic rights non-profit organisation based in Johannesburg, South Africa. We focus on research and advocacy, and run a protective residency for at-risk African human/artistic rights defenders.

Named after freelance South African photojournalist Anton Hammerl (pictured above) who was killed on assignment in Libya in 2011, HART has its origins in the 2012 formation of the Southern African Cities of Refuge Project in the wake of that year's General Assembly of the International Cities of Refuge Network (ICORN), a constellation of cities which provide safe haven to persecuted creatives. The Project’s aim was to establish similar safe havens in Southern Africa.

Over the next three years, the Project built relations with PEN South Africa (its parent body, PEN International, vets ICORN Guest creatives), AFDA: The School for the Creative Economy, and the South African Holocaust and Genocide Foundation. Over 2016-2018, the Project relocated two at-risk human rights defenders to alternate countries in the region – one of them with funds provided by the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) – and consulted to ICORN on a third case of a persecuted creative.

In 2019, after negotiations with Protect Defenders European Union (PDEU), the Project was formalised as the Hammerl Arts Rights Transfer (HART), named after Anton Hammerl (our logo represents Anton's favourite hat). HART was legally registered it as a non-profit organisation (NPO number: 2019/382592/08) with its own bank accounts - and that December, HART ran the logistics for the annual Safe Havens global artistic freedoms summit when it was held in Cape Town.

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In 2020, HART was a founding member of the continental Amani: Africa Creative Defence Network, and in 2021 of the global Safe Havens Freedom Talks (SH|FT) artistic freedoms ecosystem. Over 2020 - 2021 HART ran the Covid-19 research team on African responses to the pandemic for Accountability International, and added the Ubuntu Hub City of Johannesburg to its strategic partners. In 2021, HART ran its first protective residency Fellowship for an at-risk African creative.