The UN has launched a special exhibit of political cartoons in Rome to raise awareness of human rights issues, war, hunger and religious extremism.

The 40-plus editorial cartoons, unveiled in Rome's Auditorium on Monday, will travel in the new year to Jerusalem, Berlin, Istanbul and Wellington, New Zealand. Monday was the UN International Day for Human Rights.

A cartoon by Italian cartoonist Vauro shows the Three Wise Men climbing a wall topped with barbed wire to reach Bethlehem. The caption reads,: 'Come on guys, we're almost there.'A cartoon by Italian cartoonist Vauro shows the Three Wise Men climbing a wall topped with barbed wire to reach Bethlehem. The caption reads,: 'Come on guys, we're almost there.'
(Andrew Medichini/Associated Press)

"We make drawings without knowing that we practise human rights every day," noted Jean Plantu, a cartoonist with French newspaper Le Monde and one of the organizers of the show, called Sketching Human Rights. 

"My first language is not English, it is not French. My first language is the drawing."

Plantu's cartoon features a young woman provocatively showing her lingerie who is transformed in a few sketches into someone veiled and crying.

The show's poster features a cartoon of a man tied to a chair, the work of Iranian illustrator Hassan Karimzadeh. Plantu said the cartoonist was pressured not to present his work in Rome. Iranian officials have refused to comment on the matter.

Other cartoons include a sketch of the three Magi, the wise men who brought gifts to the infant Christ in the Bible, climbing a wall topped with barbed wire to reach Bethlehem. There are cartoons about the repression of monks in Myanmar and about the mass deaths in Darfur, Sudan.

Some of the cartoons appear on video. One shows a man holding a banner — "Yankee Go Home" — while next to him a U.S. soldier holds a similar banner reading: "We Want To Go Home."

Cartoon exhibits aren't new to the UN. Previous shows have focused on environmental or AIDS issues.

"Cartoons are minimally verbal and they're mostly graphic, so they can go over language borders and they are effective," said U.S. cartoonist Jeff Danziger, whose work is also in the exhibit.

With files from the Associated Press