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In many countries people are detained for trying to exercise their rights to freedom of expression, association, assembly, or movement. Some are imprisoned because they or their families are involved in political or religious activities. Some are arrested because of their connection with political parties or national minority movements that oppose government policies. Trade Union activity or participation in strikes or demonstrations is a common cause of imprisonment. Often people are imprisoned simply because they questioned their government or tried to publicize human rights violations in their own countries. Some may be held for refusing to do military service on grounds of conscience. Others are jailed on the pretext that they committed a crime, but it is in fact because they criticized the government. People who are imprisoned, detained or otherwise physically restricted because of their political, religious or other conscientiously-held beliefs or because of their ethnic origin, sex, colour, or language and who have not used or advocated violence are considered by Amnesty International to be prisoners of conscience.
Prisoners of conscience are held by governments in all regions of the world; in countries with diverse political and social systems. Some prisoners of conscience are held for actions undertaken as individuals; others are part of a group or movement. Some have spoken in direct opposition to the government in power or the established system or government; others have taken care to work within their countries' political system but have been imprisoned for their beliefs or peaceful activites nonetheless.
The detention of any prisoner of conscience violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty International works for the immediate and unconditional release of ALL prisoners of conscience.
When the facts show that individuals are prisoners of conscience, the cases are usually allocated to one or more of the movement's groups around the world. The groups - comprising local Amnesty International members - study the background to the cases and then begin writing to the responsible authorities, appealing for the prisoners' immediate and unconditional release.
Letter after letter goes out to cabinet ministers and prison officials. The members try to get publicity in the local press about the prisoner they are working to free. They go to the foreign embassy or trade delegation in their country. They get prominent people to sign appeals. If they can contact the prisoner's family, they may send relief parcels and correspond with the prisoner.
For every prisoner of conscience whose case becomes known, there are many more who are unknown; and even those who gain wide publicity tend to be forgotten over time. Amnesty International aims to give attention to all the forgotten prisoners, to ensure that they remain a public concern and that they are cared for individually, while the efforts to free them are underway.
When Amnesty International does not have enough information to be certain about the reasons for imprisonment, but where there are grounds to believe that the individual might be a prisoner of conscience, the case is taken up for investigation. The case is usually assigned to a group which is asked to write to the authorities to obtain further details, such as where the prisoner is held, what charges are faced, and what is the evidence against the prisoner. If such prisoners are being held without charge or trial, Amnesty International may urge that they either be charged and given a fair trial or released. Only if it is clear that a case can be treated as that of a prisoner of conscience, however, does Amnesty International "adopt" the prisoner and call unconditionally for his or her immediate release.
Many people are persecuted in ways that do not involve imprisonment or similar physical restrictions. They may be fired from their jobs, have their telephones cut off or correspondence intercepted, be summoned for frequent police questioning or be threatened with other reprisals.
Amnesty International, however, concentrates on people who have been jailed or otherwise forcibly restricted; people in prison, people in official custody and detention centres, people under strict house arrest or confined to a village, or others whose freedom of movement has been so severely restricted as to amount to a form of detention. For this reason, Amnesty International's mandate is often described as "prisoner-oriented".
Amnesty International takes no position on the question of violence. It does not identify itself with any of the parties to any conflict, violent or non-violent, nor does it presume to judge in any situation whether recourse to violence is justified or not. It deliberately restricts itself to working for the protection of the human rights that fall within its mandate and does not comment or act on issues that fall outside those terms of reference.
It opposes the torture and execution of all prisoners and advocates fair and prompt trials for all poiltical prisoners, regardless of whether they are accused of using or advovating violence. However, Amnesty International seeks the immediate and unconditional release only of individuals imprisoned for the exercise of their human rights, whose imprisonment cannot be reasonably attributed to the use or advocacy of violence. In these cases, the detention violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The human rights violations against which Amnesty International works sometimes take place in a context of violence. This may take various forms: confrontation between government and opposition groups which engage in terrorist acts, civil war, international war.
Amnesty International's mandate applies in these circumstances as in any other. A context of violence does not justify taking prisoners of conscience or the practice of torture or execution of prisoners. This is an important standard. The existence of a context of violence is often taken as justification for a more permissible attitude towards human rights violations - the arrest of people on account of their beliefs or origins, the torture of prisoners or the use of the death penalty. Indeed, in times of violence prisoners are particularly vulnerable to such violations, and international standards and protection work become especially important at such times.
Governments often falsely accuse people of having been involved in violence when in fact they are imprisoned solely on account of their non-violent exercise of their human rights. Indeed, the accusation that dissenters have been involved in violence is one of the arguments most frequently used by governments in response to expressions of concern about prisoners of conscience.
On the basis of its careful research Amnesty International makes its own assessment of the facts in each case. It is not bound to accept the assertion of a government, the interpretation of a court, or the claim of a prisoner, as to whether an individual has used or advocated violence. The fact that a prisoner has been convicted of breaking the law or belongs to an organization whose aims call for the use of violence, does not in itself preclude an individual from being considered a prisoner of conscience. Amnesty International takes up each case on its own merits.
A conscientious objector is understood to be a person liable to conscription for military service who, for reasons of conscience or profound conviction arising from religious, ethical, moral, humanitarian, philosophical, political or similar motives refuses to perform armed service or participate directly or indirectly in wars or armed conflicts.
Amnesty International considers such a person a prisoner of conscience if his or her imprisonment arises from any of the following:
• the legal code of a country does not contain provisions for the recognition of conscientious objection and for a person to register his or her objection at a specific time.
• a person is refused the right to register his or her objection;
• the authorities' recognition of conscientious objection is so restricted that only some and not all of the above grounds of conscience are acceptable;
• a person does not have the right to claim conscientious objection after being conscripted into the armed forces;
• he or she is imprisoned for leaving the armed forces without authorization for reasons of conscience developed after being conscripted if he or she has tried to secure his or her release by lawful means or if he or she did not use those means because he or she had been deprived of reasonable access to the knowledge of them;
• there is no right to service outside the "war machine";
• the length of the alternative service can be seen as a punishment for conscientious objection.
A person who is not willing to state the reason for his or her refusal to perform military service is not adopted as a prisoner of conscience, unless it can be inferred from all the circumstances of the case that the refusal is based on conscientious objection. Nor is someone considered a prisoner of conscience if he or she is offered and refuses comparable alternative service outside the "war machine".
The right to leave one's own country is recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Amnesty International adopts as prisoners of conscience people who have been imprisoned for trying to exercise this right when their motives for wanting to leave their country are linked to their political views, religious beliefs or their origins, or can be assumed to be. In cases where detailed information is not available at the time of arrest, Amnesty International draws its own conclusions from all the circumstances and takes into account the established behaviour of the authorities and would-be emigrants in the country concerned, particularly where such people are commonly imprisoned for seeking their right to emigrate.
