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.