Editing Political prisoner (section)

===Organizations===
====Amnesty International====
[[Amnesty International]] (AI) campaigns for the release of prisoners of conscience, which include both political prisoners as well as those imprisoned for their religious or philosophical beliefs. To reduce controversy, and as a matter of principle, the organization's policy applies only to prisoners who have not committed or advocated violence. Thus, there are political prisoners who do not fit the narrower criteria for POCs.<ref name=":1" /><ref name=":2" /> The organisation defines the differences as follows:<ref>[http://www.amnesty-volunteer.org/aihandbook/ch3.html#Politicalprisoners "AI's FOCUS"]. Amnesty International. Retrieved 5 April 2012.</ref>
<blockquote>
AI uses the term "political prisoner" broadly. It does not use it, as some others do, to imply that all such prisoners have a special status or should be released. It uses the term only to define a category of prisoners for whom AI demands a fair and prompt trial.

In AI's usage, the term includes any prisoner whose case contains a significant political element, in regard to the motivation of the prisoner's acts, the acts themselves, or the motivation of the authorities.

"Political" is used by AI to refer to aspects of human relations related to "politics": the mechanisms of society and civil order, the principles, organization, or conduct of government or public affairs, and the relation of all these to questions of language, ethnic origin, sex or religion, status, or influence (among other factors).

The category of political prisoners embraces the category of [[Prisoner of conscience|prisoners of conscience]], the only prisoners who AI demands should be immediately and unconditionally released, as well as people who resort to criminal violence for a political motive.

In AI's use of the term, here are some examples of political prisoners:
* a person accused or convicted of an ordinary crime carried out for political motives, such as murder or robbery carried out to support the objectives of an opposition group;
* a person accused or convicted of an ordinary crime committed in a political context, such as at a demonstration by a trade union or a peasants' organization;
* a member or suspected member of an armed opposition group who has been charged with treason or "subversion".

Governments often say they have no political prisoners, only prisoners held under the normal criminal law. AI however describes cases like the examples given above as "political" and uses the terms "political trial" and "political imprisonment" when referring to them. But by doing so, AI does not oppose the imprisonment, except where it further maintains that the prisoner is a prisoner of conscience, or condemn the trial, except where it concludes that it was unfair.
</blockquote>

====Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe====
The [[Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe]] has the following definition:
<blockquote>
A person deprived of their personal liberty is to be regarded as a 'political prisoner':
{{ordered list|type=lower-alpha
|if the detention has been imposed in violation of one of the fundamental guarantees set out in the [[European Convention on Human Rights]] and its Protocols, in particular [[freedom of thought]], conscience and [[freedom of religion|religion]], [[freedom of expression]] and [[freedom of information|information]], [[freedom of assembly]] and [[Freedom of association|association]];
|if the detention has been imposed for purely political reasons without connection to any offence;
|if, for political motives, the length of the detention or its conditions are clearly out of proportion to the offence the person has been found guilty of or is suspected of;
|if, for political motives, he or she is detained in a discriminatory manner as compared to other persons; or,
|if the detention is the result of proceedings which were clearly unfair and this appears to be connected with political motives of the authorities.<ref>{{cite web|title = The definition of political prisoner|url = http://assembly.coe.int/nw/xml/XRef/Xref-DocDetails-EN.asp?fileid=19150&lang=EN|access-date = 2015-11-23|date = 3 October 2012|publisher = Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe}}</ref>
}}
</blockquote>

====Assistance Association for Political Prisoners====
[[Burma|Burmese]] [[Assistance Association for Political Prisoners]] defines a political prisoner as "anyone who is arrested because of [their] perceived or real involvement in or supporting role in opposition movements with peaceful or resistance means".<ref name=AAAP>{{cite web|url=http://www.oxfordburmaalliance.org/uploads/9/1/8/4/9184764/the_recognition_of_political_prisoners_essential_to_democratic_and_national_reconciliation_process.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180921114726/http://www.oxfordburmaalliance.org/uploads/9/1/8/4/9184764/the_recognition_of_political_prisoners_essential_to_democratic_and_national_reconciliation_process.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 September 2018| work=Assistance Association for Political Prisoners (Burma) | title=The recognition of political prisoners: essential to democratic and national reconciliation process|date=9 November 2011| access-date=20 August 2012}}</ref>

==== Congressional-Executive Commission on China ====
The US [[Congressional-Executive Commission on China]] defines a political prisoner broadly as any individual who is detained for exercising their "human rights under international law, such as peaceable assembly, freedom of religion, freedom of association, free expression, including the freedom to advocate peaceable social or political change, and to criticize government policy or government officials."<ref name=":2" />