Look To The Stars News: Human Rights Watch

Hilary Swank To Donate Appearance Fees To Charity

Sun, 16 Oct 2011 19:10:00 +0000

Two-time Oscar winner Hilary Swank has announced she will donate her appearance fees from Ramzan Kadyrov’s birthday celebrations to charity.

The actress caused controversy last week when she attended the event in the Chechen capital of Grozny to honor Kadyrov, who is accused of human rights atrocities. He is accused of torture, killings and running the country with an iron fist.

Swank – who was unaware of political policies in the country – says she “deeply regrets” her participation, and has vowed to donate her personal appearance fees to various charities.

Richard Gere Takes Pilgrim To Korea For Charity

Thu, 23 Jun 2011 15:30:00 +0000

Richard Gere is in Korea to support an exhibition of his photos in Seoul raising money for charities involved with the Tibetan human rights campaign.

The exhibition – titled Pilgrim – features around 60 images the actor took in Tibet and around Asia, as well as images taken by photographers interested in the cause. The collection has already toured 20 cities in 11 countries, and is in Korea until July 24.

“A lot of these photographs I didn’t show anyone because it’s such a private experience for me,” Gere told press during his six day visit to Korea. "I had no interest really in sharing them. [Taking photos] is very similar to making a movie; you’re somehow compressing lives into frame.

Stars Join Twitter Campaign To Close Gitmo

Mon, 25 Jan 2010 11:30:00 +0000

In a coordinated day of action to urge Congress to close the Guantanamo Bay Prison, twenty Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans from across the country descended on Capitol Hill last week to push back against Republican scare tactics and urge Congress to support President Obama’s decision to close the prison.

The veterans, organized by New Security Action and Vote Vets, are also joined in a coordinated Twitter campaign calling for the closure of Guantanamo by musicians and organizations including Coldplay, Trent Reznor, Rosanne Cash, Tom Morello, Amnesty International USA, ACLU, Common Cause, MoveOn.org, Human Rights First, Human Rights Watch and many others.

Aung San Suu Kyi Receives Unanimous Support

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi received her sentencing last week: 18 more months of house arrest for breaking the terms of her current detention when she allowed a stranger into her home for two days to recover from swimming across a lake to her property.

The outrage at the verdict is unanimous amongst western world leaders:

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown: "I am both saddened and angry at the verdict today, 11 August, following the sham trial of Aung San Suu Kyi. The news – that she has been found guilty and sentenced to three years hard labour but that this has been “mitigated” to a suspended sentence of 1.5 years under house arrest – is further proof that the military regime in Burma is determined to act with total disregard for accepted standards of the rule of law and in defiance of international opinion. This is a purely political sentence designed to prevent her from taking part in the regime’s planned elections next year."

Noah Wyle Wants Obama To Change Health System

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:30:00 +0000

ER star Noah Wyle is pushing for health reforms in the US.

The television star is calling on President Obama to introduce universal healthcare in America, and plans to spend some time – now that ER has finished – pushing for a health service for all, similar to those in the U.K. and Canada.

“I’m holding out hope, that we’re going off the air just as this administration is going to usher in some kind of universal healthcare coverage,” he said. “So we can start valuing health as a human right and not a privilege. Hopefully I can segue from my previous job into assisting with it.”

E! Donates To Jolie-Pitt Foundation

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 15:30:00 +0000

It has been revealed that E! Entertainment Television made a significant donation to the Jolie-Pitt Foundation last year.

According to Fox News, the media giant made a donation of $250,000 to the foundation established by Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie to assist with humanitarian crises around the world. The donation was one of four large contributions made to the fund in 2008, including $1,194,911 from Jolie, $956,961 from Pitt, and $5,000 from Jerry Weintraub.

The Jolie-Pitt Foundation has donated over $4 million to causes since it was established, including $1,364,320 to Pitt’s Make It Right Foundation, $100,000 to help build The Duk Lost Boys Clinic medical centre in the Sudan, $1 million split evenly among three organizations working with war-affected children, $1m to help Sudanese refugees of the Darfur crisis, $1 million to the Human Rights Watch’s work in Burma, $100,000 to Global Action for Children, $400,000 to Cambodia’s children’s causes and $150,000 to the Maddox Chivan Children’s Center.

Angelina Jolie Tops Celebrity Charity Poll

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Angelina Jolie has been voted top celebrity humanitarian for the second year running in a Reuters AlertNet poll.

The actress received almost a third of the votes in the poll for her charity work this year, which included a $100,000 grant to Global Action for Children, a $1 million donation to Human Rights Watch, another $1 million to to four organizations working with children who have lost parents and homes in Iraq, $2 million towards a new children’s hospital in Ethiopia, and a trip to Afghanistan to visit poverty-stricken refugees who have returned to their homes.

“She manages to raise the issues on the plight of refugees and IDPs in ways that are very human, simple but poignant,” said UNHCR spokeswoman Marie-Noelle Little-Boyer. “I’m not surprised she won. She has a way of reaching people that is something particular to her. I think she is so moved by the situation herself that it really comes from the heart.”

Brad And Angelina Give To Human Rights Watch

Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:30:00 +0000

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have donated $1 million to the Human Rights Watch’s work in Burma and Zimbabwe.

The donation, made through the couple’s Jolie-Pitt Foundation, will be used to fund research and advocacy in the two nations.

“Burma and Zimbabwe are two of the most repressive countries in the world and we need to increase international pressure on them to change,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Brad and Angelina’s investment in our work at this critical moment will allow intensified efforts by our researchers to expose the repression that these governments try to keep hidden and by our advocates to generate the global pressure needed to improve people’s lives.”

Celebrities Offer Support To Darfur

Mon, 10 Dec 2007 11:29:43 +0000

The Sudanese region of Darfur is benefiting from several new initiatives this month, all designed to raise awareness and money for the war-torn area. And the biggest effort comes from an independent record label that has waded into the music industry to put its money where its mouth is.

Waxploitation, established in 1997 by Jeff Antebi, is a label for innovative artists that has broken with the tradition of managing “producer/engineers” and instead manages artists as record producers – a huge difference in the industry, and one that has led to a huge shift in industry interests.

But not only are they challenging the way record companies operate, Waxploitation is leading the way with programs to fight poverty and hunger, especially in war-affected Sudan. The label has just released a compilation CD, featuring a host of artists who have donated songs to the effort, which has debuted at number 32 on the iTunes chart and almost sold out its first physical CD printing.

Gere Awarded Humanitarian Honor

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 11:29:43 +0000

Actor Richard Gere has received a prestigious humanitarian award in his home city of Philadelphia.

The Golden Globe winner accepted the Marion Anderson Award, named after the famous African-American opera singer who fought racial segregation in the 1930s, at a ceremony at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts on November 12.

“I’m not worthy of this award in any way whatsoever,” said the 58-year-old star of films such as “Chicago” and “Pretty Woman”. “I can’t tell you how this makes me feel. My heart is so wide open.”