Past Concerts

taken by GabrieleAmnesty International has had a long and very successful history. To celebrate, we have put on concerts to benefit those people that we seek to help every day. Check out these concerts that we've had in the past.

Conspiracy of Hope

Amnesty International 25th Anniversary Produced by Bill Graham (Live Aid) June 4-15, 1986

This concert has been cancelled. The government doesn't want news about human rights to spread, and it doesn't want you to know that thousands of other people, like you, care about human rights protection. If you show up at the concert site, you'll be arrested. You may be tortured, and you may not emerge from police custody alive. Fortunately, we've been spared this scenario because in June of 1986 Amnesty International coordinated:

Two week Six city tour: San Francisco at Cow Palace (June 4th); Los Angeles at the Forum (June 6th); Denver at McNichols Arena (June 8th); Atlanta at the Omni (June 11th); Chicago at the Rosemont Horizon (June 13th), New Jersey at Giants Stadium (June 15th).

Eight hours of the Giant Stadium show were broadcast live on MTV and Westwood One Radio Network and the concert were syndicated by Viacom television.

Musical Performers: U2, Sting, Bryan Adams, Joan Baez, Peter Gabriel, the Neville Brothers, Lou Reed, Jackson Brown (San Francisco, Denver and Giants Stadium), Ruben Blades Y Seis Del Solar (Giants Stadium), Miles Davis (Giants Stadium), Third World (Giants Stadium), Fela (Giants Stadium), Carlos Santana (Giants Stadium), Pete Townsend (Giants Stadium)

Celebrities: On stage-included Mia Farrow, Angelica Huston, Meryl Streep. Video Messages-included Stockard Channing, Glenn Close, Elvis Costello, Richard Dreyfuss, John Huston, Richard Pryor, Keith Richards, John Taylor, Robin Williams, Michael York

Attendance: 138,000
Recruited more than 30,000 new Amnesty members
Nearly 5,000 press stories written on AI's 25th Anniversary concert

Six cases of Prisoners of Conscience were featured at every show and concertgoer wrote postcards on their behalf.

Human Rights Now!

Celebration of the 40th Anniversary of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) 1988
Sponsored by the Reebok Human Rights Foundation
Six week, eighteen city, five continent tour. Covered more than 35,000 miles (56,000 kilometers) from London to Buenos Aires via cities in Africa, the Americas and Europe.

Performers: Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, and Youssou N'Dour

Passport sized copies of the UDHR were given to every concertgoer

Attendance: over 1,000,000
Concertgoers added their names to a petition in support of the UDHR which was presented to the United Nations on December 10, 1988, the 40th Anniversary of the UDHR. The final position had over 2,700,000 signatures of people from over 120 countries.

The Paris Concert

Celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the UDHR
December 10, 1998 at Bercy Stadium. Paris, France
5:30PM - 2AM

Performers: Bruce Springsteen, Tracy Chapman, Peter Gabriel, Shania Twain, Kassav', Page and Plant, Alanis Morissette, Radiohead, Youssou N'Dour, and Asian Dub Foundation.

Broadcast on radio with celebrity promos by Tim Robbins, Suzanne Vega, Cyndi Lauper, Sarah Jessica Parker, and Tom Morello.

His Holiness The Dalai Lama gave a speech to the audience

Attendance: over 16,000