Designation policy
Who designates a political prisoner
We do not issue our own recognition where a national body already does. Every record answers the question with a name: the organisation that recognised the person, the organisation that documented the case, or The Detained, when the assessment is ours. This page is the policy behind that line.
The attribution rule
The canonical lists for Russia and Belarus exist, are excellent, and carry the authority of a decade of published reasoning. An aggregator that restates them under its own name adds nothing and muddies the citation trail. So we do the opposite.
Where a recognition body exists
The designation belongs to that body. The record says "Recognised as a political prisoner by" and names it. Where the body publishes per-case reasoning, as Memorial does for treason and espionage cases, the reasoning is quoted verbatim in the original language with a labelled machine translation, and a link to the source page. We never paraphrase a designation into our own words.
Where none exists
In Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, no organisation issues per-person recognition statements under the Guidelines. There, the record says "Assessed by The Detained" and names the organisations or outlets that documented the case. This is the part of the database that is genuinely ours, and the reason to cite it rather than a national list.
The standard we assess against
One definition, applied the same way in every country.
The Guidelines on the Definition of Political Prisoner (2013), adopted by human rights organisations in Belarus, Russia, Ukraine and elsewhere, follow the criteria of PACE Resolution 1900 (2012). A person is a political prisoner where deprivation of liberty was imposed in violation of fundamental guarantees, for political reasons, disproportionately, discriminatorily, or after an unfair trial connected with political motives. Recognition does not turn on innocence: the Guidelines state that it is immaterial whether the person is in fact guilty, and the remedy sought is review, not automatic release. People who used violence against persons are excluded.
Our own criteria, the exclusions we apply, and the editorial process are on the transparency page. The term itself is defined at /definitions.
The three tiers
Every published record carries exactly one. The tier is exported in the dataset and shown on the record page.
A national recognition body applying the Guidelines lists the person. The record names the body and links to it. The designation is theirs; we report it.
A human rights organisation, a roster project or a monitoring group documents the case. The Detained assessed it against the Guidelines before publishing. The record names the documenting organisation and states that the assessment is ours.
The case is known from journalism. A news report of a conviction is not a designation, and the record says so. The Detained assessed the case against the Guidelines before publishing. Where a source organisation later lists the person, the record moves up a tier.
Country by country
Which body's designation a record carries, and who documents cases where there is none. Counts are live.
| Country | Recognition body | Documenting sources | Recognised | Documented | Reported |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Russia | Political Prisoners Support. Memorial | OVD-Info, Mediazona, Forum 18, Politzek.org, RFE/RL services | 520 | 738 | 236 |
| Belarus | Viasna Human Rights Centre (joint recognition statement) | Viasna with the Belarusian Association of Journalists, the Belarusian Helsinki Committee, PEN Belarus and Legal Initiative | 1,246 | 0 | 1 |
| Georgia | None. Assessed by The Detained. | Political Prisoners of Georgia (politpatimrebi.ge), Gmirebi, Civil Georgia, Radio Tavisupleba. Transparency International Georgia also publishes a list of political prisoners. | 0 | 132 | 79 |
| Kazakhstan | None. Assessed by The Detained. | Open Dialogue Foundation, Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights, International Partnership for Human Rights, Radio Azattyq, Political Prisoners Directory | 1 | 117 | 37 |
| Kyrgyzstan | None. Assessed by The Detained. | Political Prisoners Directory, Radio Azattyk, Front Line Defenders, International Partnership for Human Rights | 0 | 44 | 37 |
| Uzbekistan | None. Assessed by The Detained. | Political Prisoners Directory (incl. Karakalpakstan), Uzbek Forum for Human Rights, Radio Ozodlik, Human Rights Watch | 0 | 84 | 11 |
| Tajikistan | None. Assessed by The Detained. | Radio Ozodi, Political Prisoners Directory, Norwegian Helsinki Committee | 0 | 29 | 45 |
| Turkmenistan | None. Assessed by The Detained. | International Partnership for Human Rights, Norwegian Helsinki Committee | 0 | 10 | 0 |
Russian records in the Documented and Reported tiers are people Memorial has not listed, or whose listing we have not yet located. OVD-Info's dataset of politically motivated prosecutions is deliberately broader than Memorial's list, and we keep that distinction rather than collapsing it.
Treason, espionage and the hardest cases
The charges where a designation matters most are handled with the most caution.
For treason, espionage and "confidential cooperation" charges in Russia and Belarus, each record states one of three things: that Memorial recognised the person and published its grounds, which are quoted verbatim; that a recognition body lists the person without published per-case reasoning; or that no designation has been located and the case rests on reporting alone. A script re-verifies every quoted passage against its source page before any change to that pipeline is shipped.
We say "no designation has been located", not "none exists", because we do not hold the whole of every list. When a listing is found, the record is updated and the change is logged.
Disputes and corrections
A source organisation that wants its attribution changed, a lawyer who disputes an assessment, or a family that wants a record reviewed can write to corrections@thedetained.org. Every record also has a correction form. Disputed records are marked as under review on the public page while we look, and the outcome is recorded in the correction log.
Organisations that maintain their own lists and want to reconcile them with ours can reach partners@thedetained.org. The full dataset, with the designation tier on every row, is at /data.