Tag Archives: Amnesty International

Pussy Riot, Flaming Lips, Lauryn Hill to Participate in Amnesty International Human RIghts Concert

Sixteen years after it’s last human rights concert, Amnesty International has organized a new concert and Pussy Riot members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alyokhina will be there.

On February 5, 2014 The Flaming Lips, Imagine Dragons, Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Fray, Tegan and Sara, Cold War Kids, Collbie Caillat, Cake and others will perform for the human rights organization at Barclays Center in Brooklyn .

According to a press release about the concert, Tolokonnikova and Alekhina “will address attendees at the concert to raise awareness about prisoners of conscience.”

In a statement the two Pussy Riot members said:

We are happy to support Amnesty International’s work on behalf of human rights and political prisoners. We, more than anyone, understand how important Amnesty’s work is in connecting activists to prisoners… A month ago we were freed from Russian prison camps. We will never forget what it’s like to be in prison after a political conviction. We have vowed to continue helping those who remain behind bars and we hope to see you all at the Amnesty International concert on February 5th in Brooklyn!

-– A Days of the Crazy-Wild blog post: sounds, visuals and/or news –-

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova Now In Solitary Confinement

Photo by Denis Bochkarev.
Photo by Denis Bochkarev.

Pussy Riot’s Nadezhda Tolokonnikova has been placed in solitary confinement at Penal Colony No 14, according to Amnesty International, following her whistle blowing open letter about alleged abuses at the detention facility.

The human rights organization is calling for an investigation into the abuses Tolokonnikova wrote about. The detention facility where she is serving a two-year sentence for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” is located in the Mordovia region, southeast of Moscow.

Tolokonnikova’s open letter began circulating via the internet earlier this week and was published  on The Guardian website.

“The prison administration claimed that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova had been placed in isolation for her own protection, but we are concerned this could be yet another punishment for demanding that her own rights and the rights of other inmates are respected,” Sergei Nikitin, Director of Amnesty International’s office in Moscow, said in a statement on the Amnesty website. “What authorities should do is investigate the allegations she made.”

“The case against members of the band Pussy Riot has been consistently outrageous from start to finish,” Nikitin continued, “and sought nothing other than to undermine the band members’ right to freedom of expression. The Russian authorities must immediately and unconditionally release the activists and quash all charges against them.”

For more, go to the Amnesty International site.