Appeal for Amnesty

It has been said that the 'political prisoner' is the symbol of this second half of the twentieth century. In a sense this is correct, but it is probably truer to say that political imprisonment is the most important social evil which civilization has as yet failed to tackle. In the thirties the predominant social evil was that of unemployment, in the forties it was hunger and in the fifties the immense problem of the homeless refugee. In each case public opinion coalesced to oblige governments to work together for a solution. It is now a recognized part of the obligations of a government to provide employment for its citizens. Through the United Nations and other inter-governmental agencies the world has assumed the obligation to provide food for the hungry. More recently, through the organization of World Refugee Year, a great effort was made to find homes for the human jetsam left over from the last war. Although the problem of the refugee remains, it has now become generally accepted that each country should feel it a moral obligation to provide shelter and work for those without any country of their own

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• Beyond Expression

  A S Thompson•Journal of Human Rights•2008

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