On Feb. 25, Amnesty International decided to strip Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny of the title “prisoner of conscience” due to xenophobic statements he made more than a decade ago. That move was a mistake: As Natalia Antonova has written, no one is morally spotless, and dissidents should not be subject to a purity test to qualify for international support.
But the incident is worth dwelling on for practical reasons too—especially as decidedly imperfect dissidents like Navalny and Myanmar’s deposed leader Aung San Suu Kyi are once again in the throes of struggle against their respective repressive regimes. If their present quandaries are any indication, the propensity to canonize dissidents—and abandon them when they disappoint—opens the door for repressive regimes to weaponize their failings and emerge victorious. Paradoxically then, the pursuit of perfection only sets back human rights work as a whole.
