Who Is a Political Prisoner?

Abstract

Who is a political prisoner? The classification of inmates as political prisoners has important real-world implications such as deciding over accession to international organizations or triggering international advocacy. However, the concept is ambiguously used in academic studies referring to both theoretically and empirically distinct groups of individuals. Building on a systematic review of the academic literature, I identify that definitions of political prisoners differ primarily with regard to (1) the source of politicization, (2) the timing of politicization, (3) the question of nonviolence, (4) the inclusion of identity prisoners, and (5) the criteria for biased state actions. In order to establish political prisoners as analytically consistent concept, I suggest to reserve it for victims of politically biased trials while remaining agnostic toward prisoners’ political motivations. I introduce explicit criteria grounded in international law to identify politically biased trials in practice. The new conceptualization allows to disentangle political imprisonments from other types of illegitimate and non-illegitimate imprisonments. A disaggregation of the concept further highlights that only a subset of political prisoners is entitled to demands for unconditional releases. Taken together, this article sheds light to the underlying meanings of different actors’ claims about political imprisonments and contributes to the systematic study of this type of human rights abuse.

Political Imprisonment and Protest Mobilization: Evidence From the GDR

“…Previous research on the repression-protest nexus produced inconsistent findings suggesting positive (Carey, 2009;Rozenas and Zhukov, 2019), negative (Jeffries, 2002;Lichbach, 1987), or inverted U-shaped effects (Muller and Weede, 1990;Opp, 1994). We argue that these mixed findings 1 We employ a state-centered definition of political imprisonment that focuses on political motivations of states in contrast to prisoners' motivations (see Steinert, 2020). An imprisonment qualifies as 'political' if it results from a sentence based on a political law.…”

“…1.We employ a state-centered definition of political imprisonment that focuses on political motivations of states in contrast to prisoners’ motivations (see Steinert, 2020). An imprisonment qualifies as ‘political’ if it results from a sentence based on a political law.…”

The duration of political imprisonment: Evidence from China

“…2 I focus on political motivations of states—in contrast to political motivations of individuals—to identify whether a detention qualifies as political imprisonment. This state-centered focus implies that the decisive question is not whether individuals were politically motivated but whether the decision of the state to detain these individuals violated their human rights under international law (Steinert, 2021). Hence, both prisoners detained for political actions and prisoners detained for non-political actions, such as practicing their religion, can be defined as political prisoners as long as their actions are protected by international human rights law.…”