Protect the Human
Prisoners and people at risk are those whose human rights have been violated or are under threat of violation.
In countries around the world, people’s lives are threatened because of who they are or what they believe.
Thanks to the actions of Amnesty supporters like you, countless individuals have been freed from prison, saved from torture and protected from death threats. But countless more lives need to be saved.
Our work on behalf of prisoners and people at risk spans numerous issues:
Detention and imprisonment
In countries throughout the world people are being detained and imprisoned arbitrarily without a fair trial. In these circumstances many face torture or other forms of ill-treatment. They may be held in conditions that are so poor that these amount to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment.
Death penalty
The death penalty is the ultimate denial of human rights. It violates the right to life as proclaimed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Amnesty International opposes the death penalty in all cases without exception regardless of the nature of the crime, the characteristics of the offender, or the method used by the state to kill the prisoner.
Enforced disappearances
An enforced disappearance takes place when a person is arrested, detained or abducted by the state or agents acting for the state, who then deny that the person is being held or conceal their whereabouts, placing them outside the protection of the law.
Human rights defenders
Human rights defenders are individuals, groups of people or organizations who promote and protect human rights through peaceful and non-violent means.
Prisoners of Conscience
Amnesty International has campaigned on behalf of thousands of prisoners of conscience – people who are imprisoned because of their political, religious or other conscientiously held beliefs, ethnic origin, sex, color, language, national or social origin, economic status, birth, sexual orientation or other status, provided that they have neither used nor advocated violence.
