There are currently around 10 million people being unjustly held in prison worldwide. With an estimated 3.2 million people in prison who haven’t even yet had a trial. There are countless numbers of brave and dedicated human rights activists being unlawfully held and tortured against their will in prisons all around the globe. Imprisoned for trying to help improve the lives of those suffering, and fight for the rights of those who do not have a voice or are too fearful to speak. Yet the identities of these selfless individuals are unknown to the wider public. Without the realisation, understanding, support, and participation of the general public, very little can be done to help achieve justice.

The solution is simple. To interact with the public to increase the knowledge of unlawful imprisonment around the world.

‘The Freepost’ is a campaign that is designed to increase the level of awareness of unjustly imprisoned human rights activists around the world and raise the levels of participation in the process of releasing these detained individuals back to their families and saving them from severe sentences including the death penalty. The campaign consists of a monthly special edition letter sheet with a collection of a set of eight stamps in each month’s edition. Six of which contain the faces of current unjustly held human rights activities or protesters who were imprisoned at the time.

The stamps are designed in a simplistic format to increase the level of impact they have on the audience visually. Upfront imagery of the individual’s faces creates a strong mental stamp of the featured individuals. The main design element is made up of four-layered laminated vertical stripes to visually communicate the hidden truth which so many of us do not know, the truth of how these individuals who have had the courage to stand up and speak against unjust laws and systems are held in prison for life or facing death sentences. The laminated layered bars reflect light to create the illusion of the jail cell bars in which these human actives are being held within.

By positioning the faces of the human rights activities on individual stamps, the Freepost campaign creates an opportunity to interact with the related petitions for freeing the individuals. The physical element of the stamp encourages users to write and post letters pushing for the freedom of the unjustly held prisoners. ‘The Freepost’ was created to help identify those brave few who have been risking their lives for many years to improve the lives of the people in their countries as well as others and to try and impose justice upon inhuman rules and laws from all over the world which affect so many. The campaign positively frames these selfless individuals who now need help after fighting for people’s human rights. Spreading the faces and stories of these people into the wider public.