Anniversary – an act of memory drew attention to the importance and relevance of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) to a deaf audience.

The UN has translated the UDHR into over 380 spoken languages, but never before into British Sign Language (BSL) or any other form of sign language.

The European Commission of Languages estimates half a million people in the EU use national sign language as the first language, many more as a second or third language. Reversing the usual order of things, and making visible these often unseen languages, this performance presented a collective recitation primarily in sign languages with a text translation for the hearing audience. It featured solo, collective and multi-lingual recitations from memory of the entire UDHR. There’s more information at www.actsofmemory.net