prisoner of conscience

prisoner of conscience

Someone imprisoned for their political or religious beliefs or other ideologies or actions associated therewith. Arrested for using social media to condemn the actions of the dictator, they are now prisoners of conscience.
See also: conscience, of, prisoner
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

prisoner of conscience

a person detained or imprisoned because of their religious or political beliefs.
This phrase is particularly associated with the campaigns of Amnesty International, a human-rights organization.
See also: conscience, of, prisoner
Farlex Partner Idioms Dictionary
See also:
  • prisoner
  • value judgment
  • a value judgement
  • one nation
  • courage of one's convictions, have the
  • have the courage of (one's) convictions
  • have the courage of convictions
  • have the courage of your convictions
  • have/lack the courage of your convictions
  • lack the courage of (one's) convictions
References in periodicals archive
Amnesty International declared her a prisoner of conscience and quickly launched a global appeal demanding her release.
"Ahmed Qatamesh is a prisoner of conscience who is being detained solely for expressing non-violent political beliefs," said Amnesty International's Ann Harrison, Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Program, in a statement AI issued on April 25 after the military court had sentenced Qatamesh for four months in administrative detention, his sixth since his arrest.
I WAS horrified to read 'Prisoner of Conscience' by Herbert Grimes, (GDN, May 29).
The projects which contributed to the award included Burma Wall - a representation of political prisoners in the country, and Burma Path - made up of 2,155 bricks, each representing a prisoner of conscience held in a Burmese jail.
They said the accused was claiming to be a prisoner of conscience, while in fact he was a terrorist.
On 1 June 2011, Haleh Sahabi, a prominent women's rights activist, dissident and prisoner of conscience, died of beatings she received during her fathers funeral while on a furlough to care for him.
He was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment in October, but on January 11, 2011, the Israeli court increased his jail sentence to 16 months after the prosecution argued that his initial sentence was "too lenient." The human rights body Amnesty International has labeled Abu Rahma a 'prisoner of conscience'.
The death of prisoner of conscience Orlando Zapata Tamayo after a 75-day hunger strike, as well as the attacks of government-backed mobs on peaceful demonstrations by wives and mothers of political prisoners, earned global condemnation and set back Spain's efforts to relax the European Union's policy linking economic aid with human rights progress.
Summary: A human rights activist and former prisoner of conscience has been denied permission to leave Tunisia for the seventh time since his release from prison in July 2007.
Amnesty is clear that the detention of any prisoner of conscience violates the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and campaigns against such action by government.
"Her experience as a prisoner of conscience grows more fanciful with each telling," he wrote to the Irish Times this week.
No one can be safe in a country where a mayor who refuses to issue a gay pride proclamation, or a publisher who reproduces a cartoon that some Muslims find offensive, could end up in jail as a prisoner of conscience.
Amnesty International has called the priest, in detention since July 21, a prisoner of conscience.
A former Amnesty International prisoner of conscience, Rizal, 50, is also demanding involvement of the U.N.
So countries that make concessions or release a prisoner of conscience do not lose face and are more willing to cooperate with the committee.