The National Endowment for Democracy and October 30 Coalition have released the following joint statement to rally support for political prisoners and champion their freedom. The joint statement highlights the importance of sustained international attention to individual political prisoners, efforts to secure their release, and accountability for abuses. The October 30 Coalition consists of the 30 October Foundation, Free Russia Foundation, Free Them One by One, Freedom House, the Human Rights Foundation, the Lantos Foundation, the McCain Institute, the National Endowment for Democracy, the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights, and World Liberty Congress. Organizations interested in signing the joint statement can fill out this form.
Joint Statement for the International Day of Political Prisoners on October 30
On this International Day of Political Prisoners, we stand together to affirm a simple truth: no one should be imprisoned for speaking freely, standing up for their beliefs, or exercising their fundamental rights.
Yet more than one million people around the world are imprisoned for political reasons. They are journalists, hum an rights defenders, writers, democratic opposition leaders, religious leaders, artists, and ordinary citizens. They are people who spoke, wrote, protested, prayed, created, or simply refused to remain silent in the face of injustice.
Political imprisonment is meant to do more than punish one person. It is meant to frighten everyone around them. Every unjust sentence sends a message to neighbors, colleagues, congregations, newsrooms, and families: stay silent, do not ask questions, do not challenge those in power.
On 30 October 1974, Soviet dissidents Kronid Lyubarsky and Oleksii Murzhenko, who were serving time in a Mordovia prison camp, sent a message back. They and other prisoners joined together in a one-day hunger strike to defy their captors and call for recognition of their status as political prisoners. In the years since, October 30 has become an international day of solidarity with political prisoners marked by remembrances around the world.
It is in this spirit that we call on democracies and all free people to make the freedom of political prisoners a global priority. Raise their cases. Ask for answers. Demand their immediate and unconditional release. Support accountability. Stand behind the organizations providing legal and humanitarian assistance to prisoners and their families. Keep their names in public view until the prison doors open.
We stand with the families, lawyers, advocates, and civic groups who refuse to let political prisoners disappear from public view. Their persistence reminds us that solidarity is not a single act. It is a commitment. It must be sustained, coordinated, and visible.
On the evening of October 30, we will renew our commitment to this cause at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., and in commemorations around the world, and shine a light on those whose memory dictators would keep dark.
On October 30, we will say their names.
Every name belongs to a person. Every person has a family, a story, and a claim to freedom. Every name we speak is a declaration that imprisonment will not erase them from the world’s conscience.
Free them all.
To sign this statement, please fill out this form.
To view the full list of signatories, please click here.
