Iraq: Mr Hamza al-Kafi stretched the narrow margins of tolerance under Saddam Hussein's regime, campaigning against the death penalty and a law that banned country people from buying property in Baghdad.
The lawyer, now 30, opposed exempting the rich from military service, and wrote ambiguous articles for the newsletter of the Human Rights Organisation in Iraq (HROI). "People could read between the lines," he says. "We accomplished the miracle of never publishing his photo. You're lucky to find me here today - I could well have ended up in a mass grave."
He is proud that the organisation, founded in 1960, has survived three Iraqi regimes.
Since "9/4" - his shorthand for the fall of the regime on April 9th - Mr al-Kafi and his colleagues have "kicked out all the Baathists who used to gag us" and their work has been transformed from impotent observation of human rights abuses to the active cataloguing of the excesses of the US occupation.
Some activities are a legacy of the past. The HROI's mass graves committee has unearthed six mass graves, containing up to 120 bodies each. This weekend, they discovered bones in Like Tharthar, near one of Saddam's many palaces. "We think sometimes he threw the bodies in there. We're still investigating," Mr al-Kafi says.
But these days, the HROI acts as a conduit between Iraqis who feel they've been wronged and the occupation forces they blame for their troubles.
There are close to 150 organisations doing similar work, but the HROI is the longest established, and charges nothing.
It has forwarded 100 claims for cars crushed by tanks, houses smashed by shells and limbs lost when nervous gunners fired arbitrarily.
"They have awarded damages in 17 cases," Mr al-Kafi says. "For the others, they demand more documentation; car registration, property deeds. There's a $2,500 ceiling on payments." The US refuses to consider losses between March 20th, when the war started, and May 1st, when President George W. Bush declared that combat was over.
These cases have been relegated to the mountain of claims against the former regime which are to be examined by the new Human Rights Ministry. The minister's brief is to examine abuses under Saddam Hussein - not since the US occupation.
The human rights group Amnesty International has documented cases of US soldiers stealing money and jewellery during weapons searches. Mr al-Kafi has received complaints from a merchant in Diyala, east of Baghdad, who lost 15 million Iraqi dinars ($75,000) and two kilos of gold; the US military gave him back 10 million dinars and one kilo of the precious metal. A spare parts dealer now detained in Camp Sarah, one of at least seven prison camps across the country, had his entire working capital of 200 million dinars seized. "Somebody claimed he was dealing with terrorists," Mr al-Kafi explains. "He is still detained, and the Americans have the money."
Mr al-Kafi chairs the Arrest Committee, which deals with the most sensitive question of all - thousands of Iraqis detained by US forces, many of whom have simply disappeared.
"We receive about 20 applications every week from families looking for their relatives, but that is only a fraction of those missing," he says.
Applicants fill out a one-page form. "We take the form to the Conference Palace [used by the Coalition Provisional Authority\] and look through the computer records until we find a prisoner number matching our information," he explains.
It is a painstaking process, since the Americans identify prisoners by number only. The coded letters at the beginning are understood only by the US military, and indicate which camp a detainee is held in.
"If we find their prisoner number, we try to negotiate family visits," Mr al-Kafi says.
But there are at least two camps - "Vigilant" and "Cropper" - in the perimeter of Baghdad Airport, where no visitors are allowed.
"They will not tell us anything about them," Mr al-Kafi says. "They keep the top people from the former regime there, and former intelligence officers. There are some terrorists.
"One family came to me and said they would give me $10,000 and lots of information about terrorists if I could find out whether their son is alive. I said I couldn't help them. And I said nothing to the Americans, because they might think I was in contact with terrorists."