Respected congressman and human and religious rights crusader Frank Wolf shows us what one person can do to fight injustice and relieve suffering. In Prisoner of Conscience, Wolf shares intimate stories of his adventures from the halls of political power to other dangerous places around the world, what he has learned along the way, and what you can do about it now.
A man of honor, Inquisitor Andrej Kosciusko skillfully extracts confessions from the enemies of the ruling Judiciary. But at Domitt Prison, where Kosciusko has recently been assigned, there are hints of a conspiracy of terror that goes far beyond anything that is officially sanctioned. As Andre pursues dark secrets he is led into the perilous gray realm that lies between conscience and duty--which may threaten his career, if not his very life.
From childhood, Ma Thida dreamed of helping others--caring for the sick, sharing information despite censorship, and standing up for people's rights. To stand against the oppression that had been stifling Myanmar's progress for decades, she joined Aung San Suu Kyi and the many other activists in the National League for Democracy, campaigning steadfastly despite intimidation, harassment, and worse. Because of her efforts, the regime sent her to Insein Prison, where she faced serious illness and bleak conditions. However, it was in fighting the obstacles of her imprisonment and following the Buddha's teachings that Ma Thida found what it means to be truly free. In this memoir, readers join Ma Thida on her path through captivity and witness one remarkable woman's courageous quest for truth and dignity.
This memoir relates one Americans compelling journey of conscience that culminated in a federal prison sentence for a peaceful act of resistance. Kennon was one of twenty-five Americans in a single federal trial to receive the maximum sentence for a petty offense. Six months for a Class B misdemeanor and a $3,000 fine. The introduction, a fast-forward through this offenders life story, clearly reveals the motivations and consequences of this clergymans purposeful act of resistance, in the spirit of Gandhi and King and in the face of a governmental threat of prison time. Chapters 1 through 7 are taken from his contemporaneous prison journal and letters to family members. They tell how he was dealing with what happened each month during the time he was incarcerated. Over the years I have studied corrections as a sociologist and visited inmates as a clergyman. It is a very different experience being a prisoner, writes Kennon. He paints prison life with a mixture of pain and humor that captures the ironic picture of a correctional institution bent on retribution without rehabilitation. Mingled among these pages are his prison poems, reflections, and articles, as well as selected excerpts from wise writings he encountered during his time there. An epilogue gives a glimpse into what has happened since his release and a brief update on the struggle for peace that caused him, and scores of other Americans, to become prisoners of conscience.
This remarkable collection of prison literature inspires with the eloquent idealism of prisoners of conscience through the ages. The contributors include many of the world's finest writers: Wole Soyinka, Primo Levi, Irina Ratushinskaya, Fydor Dostoyevsky, Henry Thoreau. There are moving accounts from victims of the Holocaust, Soviet labour camps and psychiatric prisons, nuclear protestors, civil rights and anti-apartheid activists, anti-colonial nationalists and targets of religious persecution throughout history.
A small group founded Amnesty International in 1961 to translate human rights principles into action. Diplomacy of Conscience provides a rich account of how the organization pioneered a combination of popular pressure and expert knowledge to advance global human rights. To an extent unmatched by predecessors and copied by successors, Amnesty International has employed worldwide publicity campaigns based on fact-finding and moral pressure to urge governments to improve human rights practices. Less well known is Amnesty International's significant impact on international law. It has helped forge the international community's repertoire of official responses to the most severe human rights violations, supplementing moral concern with expertise and conceptual vision. Diplomacy of Conscience traces Amnesty International's efforts to strengthen both popular human rights awareness and international law against torture, disappearances, and political killings. Drawing on primary interviews and archival research, Ann Marie Clark posits that Amnesty International's strenuously cultivated objectivity gave the group political independence and allowed it to be critical of all governments violating human rights. Its capacity to investigate abuses and interpret them according to international standards helped it foster consistency and coherence in new human rights law. Generalizing from this study, Clark builds a theory of the autonomous role of nongovernmental actors in the emergence of international norms pitting moral imperatives against state sovereignty. Her work is of substantial historical and theoretical relevance to those interested in how norms take shape in international society, as well as anyone studying the increasing visibility of nongovernmental organizations on the international scene.
Burma is a country where, as one senior UN official puts it, "just to turn your head can mean imprisonment or death." Aung San Suu Kyi is considered to be Burma's best hope for freedom, and, because of her unwavering commitment to nonviolent resistance to the country's brutal military junta, she has been under house arrest since 1989. Elected Prime Minister, she was prevented from taking office, but despite failing health, vilification at the hands of the Burmese media, and actual imprisonment in one of the world's most appalling jails, Suu Kyi has persevered in a campaign of nonviolent protest as unflagging as those of Gandhi, King, and Mandela, which earned her the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991. In Perfect Hostage, the most thorough biography of Suu Kyi to date, Justin Wintle tells both the story of the Burmese people and the story of an ordinary person who became a hero. "She's my hero."—Bono "In physical stature she is petite and elegant, but in moral stature she is a giant."—Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Recipient "It is time for all respectable members of the international community to put weight behind their words and take active measures to secure the freedom of Aung San Suu Kyi and the Burmese people."—Senator John McCain
Charles Yeats had a privileged upbringing as a White South African in the late 1970's and early 80's, and seemed destined to remain one of the social elite. However he felt increasingly uncomfortable with the Apartheid regime and moved to London to escape military service at home. Later he returned to face inevitable arrest as a conscientious objector. He was court martialled and sentenced to the now well-known Detention Barracks, where he refused to wear military uniform, and was put in solitary confinement five times. All this led to an unprecedented second court martial and a further year's incarceration in the notorious Pretoria Central Prison. During this period he was adopted by Amnesty International as one of their Prisoners of Conscience. After his release (in February 83) he studied Theology at Oxford and today teaches at Durham University. He also advises corporations on their social, environmental and moral responsibilities. 'Prisoner of Conscience' is a fascinating slice of history from one man who lived it in the front line. But, much more than that, given his experiences in southern Africa as well as his contemporary concerns, the author also makes trenchant comments about Western imperialism, and the way the Church (the Anglican one in particular) is losing the opportunity to show us that love and friendship offer the only way forward to a lasting peace.
In 1920, socialist leader Eugene V. Debs ran for president while serving a ten-year jail term for speaking against America’s role in World War I. Though many called Debs a traitor, others praised him as a prisoner of conscience, a martyr to the cause of free speech. Nearly a million Americans agreed, voting for a man whom the government had branded an enemy to his country. In a beautifully crafted narrative, Ernest Freeberg shows that the campaign to send Debs from an Atlanta jailhouse to the White House was part of a wider national debate over the right to free speech in wartime. Debs was one of thousands of Americans arrested for speaking his mind during the war, while government censors were silencing dozens of newspapers and magazines. When peace was restored, however, a nationwide protest was unleashed against the government’s repression, demanding amnesty for Debs and his fellow political prisoners. Led by a coalition of the country’s most important intellectuals, writers, and labor leaders, this protest not only liberated Debs, but also launched the American Civil Liberties Union and changed the course of free speech in wartime. The Debs case illuminates our own struggle to define the boundaries of permissible dissent as we continue to balance the right of free speech with the demands of national security. In this memorable story of democracy on trial, Freeberg excavates an extraordinary episode in the history of one of America’s most prized ideals.