Jack Healey

Jack Healey (born 1938) is an American human rights activist, author and the former director of Amnesty International USA.

He is best known as the organizer of Amnesty's benefit concerts in the 1980s featuring bands like U2, the Police, Peter Gabriel, Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Sinead O’Connor, Bob Dylan, Santana, Tracy Chapman and others.

His projects include printing the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into all passports and bringing Nobel Peace Prize winner Aung San Suu Kyi to power in Burma.

Healey left the priesthood in 1968 and began work as Director of the Young World Development Program at Freedom from Hunger Foundation USA for five years.

Additionally, Healey worked as a consultant to both the Center of Victims of Torture in Haiti, and to comedian Dick Gregory on the topic of world hunger.

Traveling to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Denver, Atlanta, Chicago, and Giants Stadium in New Jersey, this tour furthered awareness of Amnesty International in the US, raised $3 million, and brought in 45,000 new US members within a month.

Over a million people filled the stadiums, and crowded into fields for concerts in South America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia.

Musicians included Bruce Springsteen, Sting, Peter Gabriel, Tracy Chapman, and Youssou N'Dour 1990: From A Hug to a Hope Concert As a celebration of the human rights victory in Chile after the fall of dictator Pinochet, Healey organized a two-day concert with Sting, Peter Gabriel, Sinéad O'Connor, Jackson Browne, Ruben Blades, Wynton Marsalis and New Kids on the Block.

Families of the victims of the prison attended the concert, and celebrated the great victory for the Chilean people and for human rights activists around the world.

Comedy and music by Woody Harrelson, Jackson Browne, Lily Tomlin, Vanessa L. Williams, Roseanne Barr, Anjelica Huston, Daryl Hannah and Tom Arnold.

Groundwork Healey and Mel Chikone CHECK produced an International Concert Series to Support the FAO/UN Global Anti-Hunger Campaign.

Artists involved include: Will Ferrell, Sarah Silverman, Jennifer Aniston, Woody Harrelson, James Cameron, Judd Apatow, William Baldwin, Hank Azaria, Michelle Krusiec, Tila Tequila, Kim Kardashian, Damian Marley, Sheryl Crow, Felicity Huffman, Elliot Page, Joseph Fiennes, Jason Schwartzman, Eddie Izzard, Jorja Fox, Eric Szmanda, Anjelica Huston, Famke Janssen, Sylvester Stallone, Steven Seagal, Norman Lear, Tich Naht Hahn, Brett Dennen, Matisyahu, Giovanni Ribisi, Diego Maradona, Mana, Julie Benz, Eva Longoria, Davood Roostaei, Jackson Browne, Wallace Langham, Jason Biggs, and Jenny Mollen.

Generation one features tracks by Electric Dog House, band by The Clash singer/songwriter/guitarist Joe Strummer, Green Day, Bad Brains, and Lagwagon.

27 major musicians united on a two-CD set to support freedom for 1991 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Aung San Suu Kyi and the people of Burma.

Artists include Paul McCartney, R.E.M., Avril Lavigne, Ani DiFranco, Damien Rice, Coldplay, Eric Clapton, Peter Gabriel, Sting, U2, Bright Eyes, Talib Kweli, Lili Haydn, Natalie Merchant, Mana, Rebecca Fanya, Ben Harper, The Nightwatchman, Bonnie Raitt, Travis, Guster, Hourcast, Indigo Girls, Better than Ezra, Matchbox Twenty, and Mun Awng.