Jason Sengheiser Lawyer, Human Rights Activist St. Louis, MO "Curtailing our traditional efforts for courageous prisoner's of conscience should never be the cost of expanding AI's work into new areas."

At the age of 17, I suffered an accident that left me a quadriplegic, albeit with some use of my arms and hands: I know what it is to lose freedom. While my physical loss currently cannot be restored, through my work organizing AI activists in Missouri and across the Midwest, I have felt the triumph of seeing others gain their freedom.

Such triumphs may be fewer in the future. Under AI's current strategic plan, prisoners who do not fit into one of eight "Global Impact Goals" and who do not live in a small minority of countries with a "Country Action Program" will no longer be adopted by AI. AI's Secretary General has even written of "exit strategies" for stopping work on some existing prisoner cases.

Prisoners of conscience depend almost uniquely on us, the members of Amnesty International, to save them from imprisonment, torture, and death. We cannot allow them to become "forgotten prisoners."

Please vote for me and my fellow REFORM candidates: Simon Billenness, Angie Hougas, and Tram Nguyen (http://www.amnesty-volunteer.org/usa/reform). We will work for REFORM at the international level, to ensure that curtailing our traditional efforts for courageous prisoners of conscience will never be the cost of expanding AI's work into new areas.

I welcome your questions.Email: sengheiser@hotmail.com , Ph: 314-565-1139

Amnesty Experience and Activities

• Area Coordinator, State of Missouri, 2003-present
• Midwest Regional Planning Group, 2003-present
• Midwest Delegate, 2004 National Regional Planning Group Meeting
• Member, AIUSA Group 105, 2003-present
• Member, AIUSA Saint Louis University Student Group, 1996-2000
  

Other Relevent Experience

• Attorney with a special interest in human rights law and the death penalty, 2003-present
• International Human Rights Law Academic Excellence Award, Saint Louis University School of Law, 2002
• Board member, Gateway to a Cure, 1996-present
• Co-Founder and Co-Chair, St. Louis Responds to the Crisis in Darfur Coalition, 2004-present
• Membership Chairman, Marianist Social Justice Collaborative War and Peace Issue Team, 2003-present
• Student of the Year Award, Saint Louis University, 2000
• Volunteer, Catholic Charities, 2004-present