In our international community, every government is different. This means that certain political demonstrations are legal in some countries, but not legal in others. When traveling abroad, it is extremely important to know these differences as certain rights and privileges of one country do not translate or exist in another. When a person displays certain political activities, they can be considered political prisoners depending on the country they are in and the penalties were given. Let’s get into what a political prisoner is and how they can be freed. 

Political Prisoner

Generally speaking, a political prisoner is someone who is imprisoned for their political activities, particularly those who oppose or criticize the government of their country. This can include citizens of that country, and also those who are not citizens of the local government. 

The part that gets a little muddy is that the political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner’s detention. 

Since there is no internationally legal definition, these sorts of charges often come off as a prisoner of conscience, which describes someone who is prosecuted because of their personal beliefs. 

Human Rights

If a person has been imprisoned due to personal beliefs and not for any other wrongdoing, then there are human rights activist groups that exist to try to help these prisoners. Mohamed Soltan for example works with a group in Washington DC that advocates and tries to help Arab political prisoners through the help of legal measures and lobbying. 

This can include making politicians aware of certain cases in the hopes that political lobbying can be done in order to release these prisoners or even do prisoner exchanges between countries. These sorts of efforts can also help these prisoners to have legal representation in the country they are being accused of political crimes. 

However, there are many prisoners in countries that are being imprisoned due to political reasons that are harder to help. This is primarily based on the country housing them and how diplomatic they are. For example, political prisoners in North Korea are extremely hard to help as their government chooses to not interact with most governments in the world. 

The good news is that certain human rights organizations have been able to help political prisoners by helping to make the case that they are actually prisoners of consciousness. Cases that can be made for this drastically increase the chances of these types of political prisoners eventually being released.

As you can see, political prisoners face great challenges when it comes to proving that they have been detained due to their personal beliefs. One of the ways that people can help is by donating money to organizations that help with these causes. These sorts of cases can cost quite a bit of money as international travel and diplomacy are required in order to move the needle on the majority of cases. Donations helps greatly as it helps these organizations to fund the hard work that they are doing in order to help these prisoners in need.