Category Archives: Music and the Arts

Create Your Own Amnesty Anthem!

January 17, 2012 at 10:22 AM

ujam amnesty anthemTo celebrate our 50th anniversary, Academy-Award winning Composer Hans Zimmer and film-score collaborator Lorne Balfe composed a beautiful anthem for Amnesty Internatonal.

You can join the celebration by creating and spreading your own version of the anthem via a contest on U-Jam to see who can “re-jam” the best anthem.  For musicians and non-musicians alike, no music equipment needed, just your inspiration and creativity!  All you need to do is “rejam” the Anthem — re-arrange the music using tracks readily offered, and/or re-record the melody with your favorite instrument or sing with your own lyrics.

Following a public voting phase where you encourage your friends, family and fans to help you make the Top 10, the composers along with U.S. rapper and producer Pharrell Williams will judge the submissions. This is open to people in the US, UK, Canada and Germany, with prizes including $1,000. The deadline is 5th February – so get jamming!  Winners will be announced February 10th.

A Lens on Human Rights: Film Festival Marks Amnesty's 50th Anniversary

October 13, 2011 at 11:16 AM

Artists, musicians and filmmakers have always played a crucial role in the human rights movement, using their voices to protest injustices and inspire others to care. This Saturday, October 15th this vital relationship continues, as the Hamptons International Film Festival marks the 50th anniversary of Amnesty International with a special panel focusing on the 50-year legacy of the American Civil Rights Movement.

The panel looks at this movement through three feature films about Americans who worked tirelessly for human dignity and equality during the 1950s and 1960s: Sing Your Song about Harry Belafonte; The Loving Story; and All Me: The Life and Times of Winfred Rembert.  The panel will be an open discussion featuring each of the film directors, led by Amnesty International USA board member Joan Libby Hawk. If you’re in the New York area, join us at 2PM October 15th at the First Presbyterian Church Session House in East Hampton, New York. SEE THE REST OF THIS POST

Women, War and Peace: An Interview with Pamela Hogan

October 11, 2011 at 12:39 PM
bosnian women

Bosnian women bury their sons and husbands at Srebrenica, site of the worst massacre on European soil since World War II. Photo by Kate Holt.

Amnesty’s Women’s Human Rights Coordination Group member Alisa Roadcup was fortunate to sit down with Pamela Hogan, Co-Creator of Women, War & Peace, a bold new five-part PBS television series challenging the conventional wisdom that war and peace are men’s domain.  The first part of the documentary airs Tuesday, October 11, on PBS.

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Joan Baez, Amnesty and You

September 8, 2011 at 9:38 AM

Following is a special message from longtime Amnesty supporter Joan Baez during our annual September Membership Drive:

Joan Baez

Dear Amnesty Supporter,

All my life I’ve felt humbled in the face of the suffering of others. It is only that I, by accident of birth, was born in the right place at the right time, and that someone else, not me, huddles in a prison cell, is tortured, and faces the unbearable consequences of having been born in the wrong place at the wrong time. Or, as the legendary Phil Ochs song says, there but for fortune, go you or I.

Happily for me, I discovered early on that, in the words of Swedish Ambassador Harald Edelstam, “I cannot tolerate injustice.” This inability to tolerate injustice has brought me to the roots of human misery, called me to engage in the fight for the rights, freedoms, and the dignity of others. And in so doing, has helped me to maintain my own dignity.

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Music to Inspire Children to Play Fair and Show Empathy

August 5, 2011 at 3:12 PM

By Suzanne Trimel, Media Relations Director

What better way to introduce young children to human rights – and the values of fairness, equity, empathy and non-violence — than through upbeat music from all over the world?

That’s the thinking behind Kids World Party!, the latest CD from Putumayo Kids, released in partnership with Amnesty International to celebrate our 50th anniversary. 7% of each CD sale will be donated to support Amnesty’s life-saving work.

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Amnesty TV Is Here!

July 15, 2011 at 10:20 AM

In the first episode of Amnesty’s new online magazine show (created by Amnesty UK) we have Wikipedia’s Jimmy Wales talking about Internet freedom, a birthday message from Aung San Suu Kyi the latest human rights news you may not have seen on your regular news station as well as an instructional video on how to perform the perfect Carpet Karaoke. Don’t know what that is? Watch now.

U2's Conspiracy of Hope

June 15, 2011 at 2:21 PM

Twenty five years ago today, on June 15th, 1986, the Amnesty International A Conspiracy of Hope tour broadcast live on MTV from Giants Stadium.

The Conspiracy of Hope tour was a celebration of our 25th anniversary and it introduced countless Americans to human rights and made life-long Amnesty members.

U2 was part of our movement then (watch their amazing performance in 1986 above!) and they are still with us fighting for justice today.

Bono recently saluted Amnesty on our 50th birthday from the stage during U2′s 360 tour last month:

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Amnesty, Aung San Suu Kyi and the U2 360 Tour

May 24, 2011 at 7:49 PM

The 2nd North American leg of the U2 360 Tour kicked off this past weekend in Denver with Amnesty International volunteers in full force! Amnesty has been on the road with U2′s 360 tour since the first date in Barcelona back in June 2009.

Globally, Amnesty has gathered over 100,000 signatures supporting our Demand Dignity campaign. Not to mention on average, the thousands of people in each stadium who have seen our bright yellow shirts and have heard Bono mention Amnesty International from the stage!

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Joan Baez: A Lifetime of Human Rights Advocacy

March 14, 2011 at 9:04 AM

In 1973, Joan Baez signs Amnesty International's anti-torture petition in London.

Amnesty International turns 50 this year, and closely linked to Amnesty’s legacy of championing human rights is that of folk legend Joan Baez.

Baez was an active supporter of Amnesty from the start, stuffing envelopes at our first home office in San Francisco– not coincidentally, where this year’s Annual General Meeting is being held. This Friday, as part of our anniversary AGM,  Joan Baez will be honored for a lifetime of human rights solidarity and advocacy.

Her receiving the award also marks an exciting beginning, as it will establish the Amnesty International Joan Baez Award for Outstanding, Inspirational Service in the Global Fight for Human Rights. The award will be given to artists – working in music, film, fine arts or other media – who similarly contribute to the advancement of human rights.

Baez will be presented with the first award in recognition of her historic, ground-breaking and courageous human rights work with Amnesty International and beyond, and the inspiration she has given activists around the world. In the early 1970′s, she devoted a full year to help establish Amnesty International chapters in the San Francisco bay area. Among her innumerable, diverse contributions to Amnesty, she has headlined anti-death penalty rallies and traveled to New York and Paris for the organization’s first Campaign to Abolish Torture.

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