Prisoner of conscience
Prisoner of conscience (
POC) is a term coined by the international
human rights advocacy organization
Amnesty International. It refers to anyone imprisoned because of their
race,
religion,
color,
language,
sexual orientation, or
belief, so long as they have not used or advocated violence. According to this definition,
Nelson Mandela was not a POC since he was convicted of
sabotage; therefore, Amnesty could not campaign for his release.
Amnesty International has, since its founding, pressured governments to release those persons it considers to be prisoners of conscience. Governments, conversely, tend to deny that the specific prisoners identified by AI are, in fact, being held on the grounds Amnesty claims.
*
Andrei Sakharov*
Aung San Suu Kyi*
Political prisoner*
Amnesty International resource about prisoners of conscience
