James Mawdsley

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James Rupert Russell Mawdsley (human rights activist) is a Roman Catholic human rights campaigner who spent over a year in a prison in Myanmar during 2000 and 2001 (part of a twenty year jail sentence), after taking part in pro-democracy protests in Rangoon. He holds dual (UK and Australian) citizenship.

His imprisonment was held to be arbitrary by the U.N. Working Group on Arbitrary Detention in 2001. He was released from jail in 2001 after pressure was exerted by the United Kingdom Foreign Office on the authorities in Myanmar (formerly known as Burma).

In the UK 2005 general election, he unsuccessfully contested the Hyndburn constituency for the Conservative Party.

He wrote The Iron Road: A Stand for Truth and Democracy in Burma (published by North Point Press, 2002).

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James Mawdsley (trade unionist) was a trade union leader during the late 19th and early 20th century, who, as a Conservative, ran alongside Winston Churchill in a by-election for the constituency of Oldham.