Look To The Stars News: Human Rights Watch

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."

US President Barack Obama: “I join the international community in calling for Aung San Suu Kyi’s immediate unconditional release. Today’s unjust decision reminds us of the thousands of other political prisoners in Burma who, like Aung San Suu Kyi, have been denied their liberty because of their pursuit of a government that respects the will, rights and aspirations of all Burmese citizens. They, too, should be freed. Suppressing ideas never succeeds in making them go away. I call on the Burmese regime to heed the views of its own people and the international community and to work towards genuine national reconciliation.”

UN chief Ban Ki-moon’s spokesperson: “The Secretary-General urges the Government to immediately and unconditionally release Daw Aung San Suu Kyi.”

The European Union: is extending its sanctions such as travel bans and freezes on assets to Myanmar judiciary members involved in the verdict. The EU calls for Aung San Suu Kyi’s unconditional release.

Amnesty International: “Her arrest and trial and now this guilty verdict are nothing more than legal and political theatre.”

Human Rights Watch: “The politically motivated guilty verdict against the Burmese democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi is a reprehensible abuse of power by Burma’s military government…. This trial was a farce, a brutal distortion of the legal process. By silencing prominent opponents through bogus trials, the generals are clearly showing why the elections they have been touting for next year won’t bring change.”

According to some reports, the American swimmer claims he went to Suu Kyi’s home to warn her. Other reports say he claims God told him to protect her. He received seven years of hard labour at his own trial, and CNN reported Saturday that he has been released to American authorities. Suu Kyi plans to appeal.

Noah Wyle Wants Obama To Change Health System

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

Written by Tim Saunders

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.”

Wyle will dedicate much of his time now to international non-profit organization Doctors of the World and to his work as a member of the Human Rights Watch Council. On April 5, he hosted the Project Save Our Surf Celebrity Gala to benefit Oceana.

E! Donates To Jolie-Pitt Foundation

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

Written by Tim Saunders

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

Written by Tim Saunders

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.”

Second place in the internet poll went to Mia Farrow, who protested for Darfur, visited storm-ravaged Haiti, and called for help in The Congo. Third place was scoped by Bono, who was awarded the Man Of Peace Award by Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

To read some of the views of the people who voted in the poll, click here.

Brad And Angelina Give To Human Rights Watch

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

Written by Tim Saunders

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.”

The Human Rights Watch is an independent organization dedicated to exposing human rights violations and protecting people at risk of discrimination throughout the world.

The donation follows a long line of donations made by the celebrity couple lately, and follows the $2 million they put towards setting up a children’s hospital in Ethiopia earlier this month.

Celebrities Offer Support To Darfur

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

Written by Tim Saunders

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.

“Causes 1:Darfur” includes songs by The Cure, Travis, Death Cab For Cutie, and Spoon, with all proceeds going to three non-profit organizations: Doctors Without Borders, Human Rights Watch, and Oxfam America.

“This level of attention is not something we were expecting, given how grassroots our marketing efforts have been,” said Jeff Antebi. “But it shows the strength of the fans and artists who participated and the enormous desire to help Darfur. It’s quite telling that on iTunes people have chosen to buy the album, instead of cherry-picking individual songs. That says people are aware of how important the donation is.”

“Causes 1:Darfur” follows the label’s first charity release, “Genocide In Sudan”, and is available from www.waxploitation.com and iTunes for only 90 days to highlight the urgency of the situation.

The label has also hit the news this week by launching its fourth Darfur Benefit Auction, a massive online event that aims to raise money for the 2 million people forced to flee their homes in the wake of conflict in the region.

The auction, which can be viewed on www.ebay.com/causesauction, features a huge range of unique and collectible items, many of them personally signed by celebrities such as Kanye West, Coldplay, Macy Gray, and Gnarls Barkley. Norah Jones, Avril Lavigne, and Nickleback have all signed guitars for the auction, and other items have been donated by Sony, Xbox, Nintendo, Nokia, and Adidas.

Also joining the fight for Darfur this month is Golden Globe winning actress, Mia Farrow. The 62-year-old has launched Fund4Darfur in association with the Aegis Trust, the UK’s leading genocide prevention organization.

“I have visited Darfur seven times since 2004,” said Farrow on the Fund’s new website. “In these visits, I have seen the suffering that the people of Darfur endure. I believe strongly we should work together to give dignity and hope to survivors and enable Aegis to continue its work against genocide.”

Singer Annie Lennox has also lent her support to the initiative, and has donated a track from her new album to be used to promote the Fund.

Fund4Darfur will directly support survivors of Darfur’s ethnic cleansing, and one third of the money raised will be used to fund campaigning for the protection of Darfur’s threatened African population. Donations can be made at www.fund4darfur.org.

Gere Awarded Humanitarian Honor

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

Written by Tim Saunders

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.”

Gere received the award for his charity and humanitarian work over the last three decades. A devoted Buddhist, Gere has advocated Tibetan independence since 1978, and is a friend and student of His Holiness the Dalai Lama. He has made numerous trips through India, Nepal, Tibet, Mongolia, and China, and has released a book featuring his own photographs of these regions, with a foreword written by the Dalai Lama.

In 1987, Gere co-founded Tibet House, and is now Board Chairman for the International Campaign for Tibet. He has testified on Tibet’s behalf before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, the European Parliament, and the House International Operations and Human Rights Subcommittee in an attempt to free the nation from China’s grip. His own charitable organization, the Gere Foundation, was set up to award grants to humanitarian foundations, especially in relation to Tibet.

Gere also established Healing the Divide, an organization dedicated to improving care for HIV/AIDS patients, and in 2004 instigated the Heroes Project, which addresses the spread of AIDS in India. He is a spokesman for Meals On Wheels, and earlier in 2007 appeared in the charity’s first ever advertising campaign, along with his father who has been a volunteer for 17 years. He is also a longtime supporter of the American Foundation for AIDS Research, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.

“We are proud to honor Richard Gere with the Marion Anderson Award,” said Philadelphia Mayor, John F. Street. “His accomplishments as an actor are only surpassed by his accomplishments as a humanitarian and as a advocate for human rights issues around the world. We are particularly pleased to honor Mr Gere this year as it will mark the first time that the award will be conferred upon a native Philadelphian.”

Gere attended the award ceremony with his friend and co-star of three films, Diane Lane, and made special mention of the woman the award is named after. He told the audience that Marion Anderson paved the way for artists to use their celebrity status for humanitarian work, and urged people to adopt her traits.

“I think that is what we are here for,” he said during the ceremony. “To make the road easier for those who follow us.”

The Marion Anderson Award, which includes a $100,000 honorarium, is bestowed annually upon individuals whose support for a cause upholds humanitarian principles and benefits society, and previous recipients include Oprah Winfrey, Sidney Poitier, Danny Glover, Quincy Jones, Elizabeth Taylor, Gregory Peck, and Harry Belafonte. Marion Anderson gained international fame in the music world in the 1930s, although she faced racial segregation at home in the United States. She bravely fought racism with her music, and became the first African-American person to perform at the White House in 1939. She was awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Johnson in 1963, and died in 1993 at the age of 96.

“In honoring Richard Gere, we celebrate the achievements of an outstanding artist and humanitarian,” said Pamela A. Crawley, Chair of the Marion Anderson Award. “He has used his remarkable career as an actor to support his unparalleled advocacy for some of the world’s most vulnerable populations. He has traveled the globe supporting efforts that allow people to live in health, in the integrity of their cultures, and with the fundamental human rights that all citizens of the world must possess. These are the qualities of a leader, and we are deeply honored by his acceptance.”

“Richard is a man whose heart dictates his choices,” added award winning actress, Diane Lane. “He has cultivated this tenacious advocacy for those who are in danger of being railroaded, shut out, and trampled under the big machine of ‘Business As Usual’.”

Gere intends to share the prize money between selected charities.

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