News 10/19/98 (PA) - U2 Stars Sign up for Human Rights (fwd)

Elizabeth Platt ([email protected])
Tue, 20 Oct 1998 16:23:45 -0700 (PDT)

[Just another variation on the reports for the AI event in Dublin...no
major additional info, but *do* pay close attention to the names in the
second paragraph...ROTFLMAO! Nice to see that, even with all the
"best-of" promotion and video-making, etc., the band have found the time
to hybridize the rhythm section.... :D -- eaplatt]

News from the Wire Services Re: Ireland & the Irish

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           U2 Stars Sign Up For Human Rights

PA 10/19/98 12:41
Copyright 1998 PA News

  By Ruth O'Reilly, PA News

   Irish superband U2 today signed up in support of human
rights - and urged everyone else to do the same.

   Lead singer Bono and guitarists the Edge and Larry Clayton
were first to put their names to an Amnesty International
campaign aimed at collecting a million signatures in Ireland
supporting human rights.

   "What's really extraordinary about Amnesty International is
that it's so simple," said Bono.

   "You can write a postcard and made a gigantic difference in
the life of a prisoner of conscience somewhere else in the
world.

   "Today you can sign your name and be a part of hopefully a
million signatures here in Ireland."

   The Irish campaign is the latest part of the Amnesty drive
to collect millions of signatures worldwide in support of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, signed 50 years ago.

   A similar venture in the UK, launched in the spring has so
far been signed by six million people, according to Amnesty.

   The petitions will be gathered together as "The World's
Biggest Book" and presented to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan
in Paris on December 10.

   Booker Prize-winning author Roddy Doyle, singer Paul Brady
and Olympic triple gold medallist Michelle de Bruin joined U2
at today's launch on O'Connell Bridge in the heart of Dublin.

   The Irish campaign has also received the backing of film
stars Kevin Spacey - currently filming in Ireland - and
Anjelica Huston, as well as singer Van Morrison and Ireland
soccer team manager Mick McCarthy.

   President Mary McAleese and her predecessor Mary Robinson -
now United Nations High Commissioner on Human Rights - are
also backing the initiative.

   And tomorrow Irish government chiefs will be invited to add
their names to the petition, at Government Buildings in
Dublin.

   Mary Lawlor of Amnesty's Irish Section said: "Ireland can
send a powerful message to all the governments of the world
that human rights do matter.

   "Human rights are everyone's business. It doesn't take much
to sign your name. In some other countries the price of
standing up for human rights is often imprisonment, torture,
disappearance or death."

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