Prisoner of conscience
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Prisoner of Conscience (POC) is a term coined by Amnesty International, the global human rights group. Prisoner of Conscience refers to anyone imprisoned because of their race, religion, color, language, sexual orientation, or belief (so long as they have not used or advocated violence).
Amnesty International has, since its founding, pressured governments to release those persons it considers to be prisoners of conscience. Governments, conversely, tend to deny that the specific prisoners identified by AI are, in fact, being held on the grounds Amnesty claims.
External Links
Amnesty International's information concerning prisoners of conscience (http://web.amnesty.org/library/eng-316/index&start=121)