Amnesty International revokes Kremlin critic Navalny's 'prisoner of conscience' status

Wouldn't it be nice if governments simply spent the better part of each day finding new and better ways to improve our quality of life and standard of living? You know, what they're supposed to do.

Yeah, right. Who am I kidding. At least with President Biden so far, we seem to be heading a little more toward that path for the first time in decades.

Obama was President less than 5 years ago. Perhaps he did not align with your views.

The only problem I had with President Obama is that he spent the better part of his first 2 years trying to get the republicans to like him. Other than that he did an exceptional job. You didn't notice my compliment of President Biden in reference to my 'views.' And since the OP was in reference to Russia and Putin's treatment of Navalny and basically an indictment of Putin's policies in general I was referring to that mostly. Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Myanmar, et al need human rights improvement. I never mentioned President Obama. I only stated "governments." You assumed I was dissing President Obama. I was generalizing "governments." Could be theirs, ours or any government. Thanks for playing!

Or threats, perhaps?

If Navalny is not a prisoner of conscience, nobody is.

I mean, if you acknowledge that he is being kept prisoner for political reasons, not for any crime he committed, then by definition he is a prisoner of conscience.

Hating Vladimir Putin is not a hate crime; it is a mark of decency.

1) A political prisoner does not equate to a prisoner of conscience.

2) They did not condemn him for "hating" Putin. They condemn him for something else. Read the article.

3) AI is still fighting to have him released. Read the article.

I was in Amnesty in college and "Prisoner of Conscience" is a very specific term, and those given it have certain criteria they have to meet.
For example, Nelson Mandela was not a prisoner of conscience due to his involvement with terrorist activities in the 60s.

Most people weren't in Amnesty in college. But they can read a headline. This helps Putin and subverts AI's mission. Stupid move.

Sorry. Amnesty has a definition of "Prisoner of Conscience." It's not their fault that you can't be bothered to find out what that is before blaming them.

I did read that article. It was a stupid move by AI. AI did not say what Navalny said or when he allegedly said it

AI only offers the vague allusions to "hate" speech. If it was really that 2007 statement about immigration, as the author of the article suggests, why the fuck did AI give Navalny prisoner of conscience status on Jan. 17 in the first place?

Giving him the status then taking it away at this crucial time, without explicitly stating what Navalny said in the ensuing month to deserve the revocation, does so much more harm than good.

The only hate Navalny has displayed to most people's knowledge is toward Putin. So by AI revoking Navalny's status as a prisoner of conscience, they have gifted Putin a propaganda coup, and set back the democracy movement in Russia, not to mention making it much more likely Navalny will stay in jail. So AI's continued "fighting" for his release hardly compensates for the damage their blunder has done.

Seriously, do you think AI's flip flop helped anything, let alone AI's credibility?

AI only offers the vague allusions to "hate" speech. If it was really that 2007 statement about immigration, as the author of the article suggests, why the fuck did AI give Navalny prisoner of conscience status on Jan. 17 in the first place?

Giving him the status then taking it away at this crucial time, without explicitly stating what Navalny said in the ensuing month to deserve the revocation, does so much more harm than good.

The only hate Navalny has displayed to most people's knowledge is toward Putin. So by AI revoking Navalny's status as a prisoner of conscience, they have gifted Putin a propaganda coup, and set back the democracy movement in Russia, not to mention making it much more likely Navalny will stay in jail. So AI's continued "fighting" for his release hardly compensates for the damage their blunder has done.