How would you feel if you were judged for something you didn’t do? To feel like you’re wearing a burden on your shoulders so heavy that it could crush you at any instance? This is how many Muslims feel when a new terrorist attack takes place somewhere in the world. It is true that terrorism is a problem, and a serious threat that needs to be resolved as quickly as possible, but this does not mean that “Muslim” is synonymous to “terrorist.”

A community, regardless of religion, ethnicity, or race, cannot and should not be judged for the deplorable actions of very few people. This is what one of the largest human rights organization, Amnesty International, is trying to say. The Nobel Peace Prize-winning organization teamed up with TBWA \ RAAD Dubai and created the “Skins of Peace” initiative, in an effort to highlight the fact that Arabs are not terrorists and Islam is not a religion that brings out the ugly side of all its people.

Through this campaign, the NGO pushes artists to redesign the empty covers of passports to express their personal view regarding the negative attitudes growing towards Islam. Starting from the premise that authorities mistreat these citizens in American and European airports, due to the origin of their travel documents, the Dubai-based agency came up with a touching solution that aims to deliver tolerance among people across the world.

Specially created to fight against human discrimination, the #skinsofpeace campaign invites artists all over the world to put their thoughts on a small piece of paper and change the traditional passport covers. Also, the campaign urges designers to donate their work to the official website of this peaceful initiative, while kindly asking them to include the #IslamMeansPeace hashtag on the front cover of the travel document skins.

The project’s travel documents deliver a really powerful message and include pacifistic quotes inspired by the holy book of Islam, the Quran, which are available on the campaign’s page. Moreover, in order to be understood by any representative or airport officials, all messages are written in English.

Plenty of creative artists have put their peaceful thoughts around the passports’ small pages, generating unique ideas and amazing illustrations, with more than 50 prints being donated to the organization so far. Out of the donated prints, the organization will choose the most popular ones, which will be available at major international airports and online retailers across the world.

Another brilliant passport design was carried out by Oslo-based design studio Neue when it presented a passport concept containing Norway’s iconic mountain landscapes printed among its pages. These remarkable images were not only beautiful, but also presented an unusual security measure: their functional design makes the illustrations change and take the form of the Northern Lights when put under UV light.

To make people overcome the fear of Islamophobia, Amnesty International USA searches and invites retailers and sponsors to join this heartwarming cause in order to take the voice of tolerance beyond the fictitious barriers imposed by today’s western society.

If “Skins Of Peace” with its illustrations describe the problems faced by the Arab world, Brexit represented another source of inspiration for creating new passport prints. Through a competition organized by design magazine Dezeen, participants were asked to paint new covers of the U.K.’s travel documents. Summarizing the events that have taken place recently, the prints’ purpose was to show Britain’s struggle in the process of finding its own identity.

With over 200 entries for the Brexit passport competition, Dezeen selected only 9 for the £1,000 big prize. The competition was won by London-based graphic designer Ian Macfarlane, who created an image that perfectly sums up the Brexit process: a document, whose colors change from traditional burgundy to dark blue, representing the passage from the current EU document to the old one, the pre-EU passport.

Credits:

Project: Skins of Peace

Client: Amnesty International, New York

Advertising Agency: TBWA \ RAAD, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Chief Creative Director: Walid Kanaan

Executive Creative Director: Fouad AbdelMalak

Creative Director: Manuel Bordé