A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
Harry Wu was a Chinese-American human rights activist. Wu spent 19 years in Chinese labor camps, and he became a resident and citizen of the United States. In 1992, he founded the Laogai Research Foundation.
Free Tibet (FT) is a non-profit, non-governmental organisation, founded in 1987 and based in London, England. According to their mission statement, Free Tibet advocates for "a free Tibet in which Tibetans are able to determine their own future and the human rights of all are respected."
Kelly Ann Ayotte is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from New Hampshire from 2011 to 2017. A member of the Republican Party, Ayotte served as New Hampshire Attorney General from 2004 to 2009.
U.S. President Barack Obama's East Asia Strategy (2009–2017), also known as the Pivot to Asia, represented a significant shift in the foreign policy of the United States since the 2010s. It shifted the country's focus away from the Middle Eastern and European sphere and allowed it to invest heavily and build relationships in East Asian and Southeast Asian countries, especially countries which are in close proximity to the People's Republic of China (PRC) either economically, geographically or politically to counter its rise as a rival superpower.
Assistance Association of Political Prisoners (Burma) is an independent non-profit organisation founded by Burmese former political prisoners living in exile. Mainly staffed by ex-political prisoners, its main aims are to provide assistance for other Burmese political prisoners, and to document news related to them.
The International Women of Courage Award, also referred to as the U.S. Secretary of State's International Women of Courage Award, is an American award presented annually by the United States Department of State to women around the world who have shown leadership, courage, resourcefulness, and willingness to sacrifice for others, especially in promoting women's rights.
Nyi Nyi Lwin, more widely known by his monastic name U Gambira, is a former Buddhist monk, activist and a leader of the All-Burma Monks' Alliance, a group which helped lead the 2007 protests against Burma's military government. Following the protests, he went into hiding and published two editorials critical of the Burmese government in The Washington Post and The Guardian on 4 November 2007. He was arrested the same day.
The Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission (TLHRC) is a bipartisan body of the United States House of Representatives. Its stated mission is "to promote, defend and advocate internationally recognized human rights norms in a nonpartisan manner, both within and outside of Congress, as enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and other relevant human rights instruments."
The 2016 United States Senate election in New Hampshire was held November 8, 2016, to elect a member of the United States Senate to represent the State of New Hampshire, concurrently with the 2016 U.S. presidential election, as well as other elections to the United States Senate in other states and elections to the United States House of Representatives and various state and local elections. The primary election to select the candidates who appeared on the general election ballot took place on September 13, 2016.
Phyoe Phyoe Aung is a student activist and former political prisoner from Burma (Myanmar). Her father is also an activist and was repeatedly arrested and sentenced for long prison terms under the military regime. She was one year old when her father was arrested and sentenced for 20 years in 1989. She was awarded an International Women of Courage Award in 2021.
Wang Yu is a Chinese human rights lawyer. She was arrested by Chinese authorities in 2015 when China initiated the 709 Crackdown against human rights attorneys. She was charged with inciting subversion of state power which is a serious offense in China carrying a life sentence. She was awarded an International Women of Courage Award in 2021.
Hossein Rajabian is an Iranian filmmaker, writer and photographer who was imprisoned as a political prisoner in 2015 on charges related to his filmmaking. He as an anti-censorship filmmaker and defender of freedom of speech for the arts, has been elected as an honorary member of the SRF in France in 2021.
Rasha Sharbaji, also Shurbaji, Chorbaji, is a Syrian mother who was arrested together with her children when she went to get a passport, as a means of putting pressure on her husband. Sharbaji's husband died in 2014 while attempting to migrate to Europe.
Matlyuba Kamilova, also Matluba, is an Uzbek human rights activist and school principal. In 2016, Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., named her one of twenty women political prisoners in the FreeThe20 campaign.
Blen Mesfin is an official in Ethiopia’s opposition Semayawi (Blue) Party. In 2016, she was named one of twenty women political prisoners in the FreeThe20 campaign by Samantha Power, the U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.
The Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights (RWCHR) is a Canadian non-governmental organization dedicated to pursuing justice through the protection and promotion of human rights. The RWCHR's name and mission is inspired by Raoul Wallenberg's humanitarian legacy.
Chishan Prison, also known as Hunan Provincial No.1 Prison, is a prison in Hunan of the People's Republic of China.
