List of hunger strikes explained

This is an incomplete list of recent hunger strikes and people who have conducted a hunger strike.

Hunger strikes

• 1923 Irish hunger strikes – thousands of Irish Republican prisoners demand release. Includes info on 1920 Mountjoy and Cork hunger strikes. Six deaths.
• 1980 Irish hunger strike – Protest by Irish republican prisoners from Northern Ireland against the rescindment of Special Category Status during The Troubles
  • Brendan Hughes
  • Tommy McKearney
  • Raymond McCartney
• 1981 Irish hunger strike – ended with 10 of the participants starving themselves to death, radicalizing Irish nationalist politics and leading to Sinn Féin becoming a mainstream political party.
  • Paddy Quinn
  • Francis Hughes
  • Thomas McElwee^[1]
• 1983 International Fast For Life (thousands fasted against nuclear armament and world hunger) – Protest against President Ronald Reagan's increased defense spending and the escalation of the Cold War nuclear arms race
• 1986 Veterans Fast For Life – Protest against the Reagan administration's support for the Contra insurgency in Sandinista Nicaragua
• 2000 Death fast in Turkey – Protest by inmates of Turkish F-Type Prisons
• Guantánamo Bay hunger strikes – Prisoner protests at Guantanamo Bay detention camp, a notorious U.S. military prison known for indefinite detention without trial and torture, during the War on terror
  • Ahmed Zaid Salim Zuhair
• 2009 Tamil diaspora protests – Worldwide protest against the Sri Lankan Civil War
• – Nationwide hunger strike by students asking a visit to Venezuela by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
• 2012 Palestinian mass hunger strikes – Protest by Palestinian prisoners against Israeli administrative detention
  • Khader Adnan
• 2012 Kurdish prisoners hunger strike – Part of Peace and Democracy Party demonstrations against Turkish restrictions on Kurdish civil rights during the Kurdish–Turkish conflict and the Arab Spring
• 2013 California prisoner hunger strike – Protest against indefinite solitary confinement at Pelican Bay State Prison and for better conditions at High Desert State Prison.
• 2021 Youth hunger strike for democracy—Protest by 20 Arizona college students to urge the White House and the US Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act.
• 2024 Starve until you are honest a climate hunger strike in Berlin, Germany involving six strikers

Groups who have conducted hunger strikes

• British and American suffragettes
  • Alice Paul
  • Emmeline Pankhurst
  • Marion Wallace Dunlop
• Cuban dissidents
  • Guillermo Fariñas
  • Pedro Luis Boitel
  • Jorge Luis García Pérez
  • Orlando Zapata Tamayo
  • Jesús Joel Díaz Hernández
  • José Daniel Ferrer
  • Darsi Ferrer Ramírez
  • René Gómez Manzano
• Grup Yorum^[2]
  • Helin Bölek
  • Ibrahim Gökçek
• Irish republicans all died while on hunger strike.
  • Thomas Ashe (1917)
  • Terence MacSwiney (1920 Cork hunger strike)
  • Michael Fitzgerald (1920 Cork hunger strike)
  • Joe Murphy (1920 Cork hunger strike)
  • Denny Barry (1923 Irish hunger strikes)
  • Andy O'Sullivan (1923 Irish hunger strikes)
  • Joseph Whitty (1923 Irish hunger strikes)
  • Tony D'Arcy (1940)
  • Jack McNeela (1940)
  • Seán McCaughey (1946)
  • Michael Gaughan (1974)
  • Frank Stagg (1976)
  • Michael Devine (1981)
  • Kieran Doherty (1981) - while on hunger strike was elected to the Republic of Irelands Dáil Éireann, representing the Cavan–Monaghan constituency.
  • Francis Hughes (1981)^[3]
  • Martin Hurson (1981)^[4]
  • Kevin Lynch (1981)
  • Raymond McCreesh (1981)
  • Joe McDonnell (1981)
  • Thomas McElwee (1981)
  • Patsy O'Hara (1981) ^[5]
  • Bobby Sands (1981) ^[6] – leader of the hunger strike; elected to the House of Commons during the strike before his death.
• Indian Independence Movement
  • Jatindra Nath Das
  • Batukeshwar Dutt
  • Bhagat Singh
  • Mahatma Gandhi^[7]
• Jailed Catalan pro-independence leaders^[8]
  • Jordi Sánchez
  • Jordi Turull
  • Joaquim Forn
  • Josep Rull
• Undocumented migrants in Belgium^{[9] [10]}

Individuals who have conducted a hunger strike

• Alaa Abdelfattah, Egyptian
• Maher al-Akhras, Palestinian
• Meryem Altun, Turkish prisoner
  • Ninoy Aquino Stanislav Aseyev, Ukrainian writer and journalist, kidnapped by militants from so-called Donetsk People's Republic
• Lorraine Badoy and Jeffrey Celiz, SMNI news anchors, television franchise probe, 2023^[11]
• Igor Bancer, Polish Belarusian musician, activist, journalist, worker, and events organiser
  • Marwan Barghouti Chen Shui Bian, President of the Republic of China
• Franklin Brito, Venezuela, land dispute, 2010, died
• Emil Calmanovici, Communist Romania, political prisoner, 1956, died
• Cesar Chavez, leader of the United Farm Workers union, Arizona, 1968, 1970, 1972
• William (Bill) Coleman, 2007 to 2014 in CT, USA ^[12]
• Alfredo Cospito, Italian anarchist prisoner who started a hunger strike on 20 October 2022 against the 41-bis prison regime
• Jatindra Nath Das, Indian independence activist and revolutionary
• Andrey Derevyankin
• Katherine Dunham
• Ronald Easterbrook, England, prisoner, 1997, 1999
• Becky Edelsohn
• Mahatma Gandhi, Indian independence activist, part of campaign of nonviolent resistance to British rule in India
• Akbar Ganji
• Bekele Gerba, Oromo politician promoting non-violence, 2021
• Andrias Ghukasyan
• Max Goldstein
• Lena Hades
• Anna Hazare
• J. B. S. Haldane
• Larry Hebert
• Barry Horne
• Charles Hyder, fasts in 1986-87 for 218 days against arms race, nuclear weapons, and nuclear waste
• Samer Tariq Issawi
• Poopathy Kanapathipillai
• Jack Kevorkian
• Mustafa Kocak, starved himself to death in protest of his sentencing without a fair trial
• Jüri Kukk
• Pavel Kushnir, Russian musician and activist, died 2024
• Jawar Mohammed, Ethiopian politician and activist, 2021
• Kasra Nouri
• Jean Lassalle
• Antonio Ledezma, Venezuelan politician, 2009
• Gloria Lee
• Ly Tong
• Haia Lifşiţ
• Ihar Losik, Belarusian blogger
• Joe Madison, known as "The Black Eagle," radio personality and human and civil rights activist, 2021
• Anatoly Marchenko
• Holger Meins
• Akbar Mohammadi
• Abel Muzorewa, Zimbabwean politician and cleric, 1983
• Tony Nicklinson
• Jock Palfreeman
• Vasudev Balwant Phadke
• Darshan Singh Pheruman
• Kemal Pir
• Olden Polynice, Haitian basketball player who went on a 10-day strike
  • Muhammad al-Qiq Mahmudur Rahman, Bangladeshi news editor
• Militão Ribeiro
• Randall Robinson
• George Rolph
• Mikheil Saakashvili
• Hoda Saber
• Arash Sadeghi
• Andrei Sakharov^[13]
• Kostas Sakkas
• Nigamananda Saraswati, protest against illegal mining in the Ganges River
• Jaume Sastre i Font, Catalan teacher in Mallorca
• Nadiya Savchenko, Ukrainian Ground Forces helicopter pilot, kidnapped and detained in Russian prison, 2015 and 2016
• Oleg Sentsov, Ukrainian filmmaker and writer
• Irom Sharmila
• Bhagat Singh, Indian socialist revolutionary
• Surat Singh Khalsa, Sikh Activist
• Mitch Snyder, homeless advocate
• Mohamed Soltan, Egyptian opposition activist, 2014
• Theresa Spence
• Potti Sreeramulu, Indian revolutionary, specifically for the Andhra region independence movement
• Thileepan (Rasaiah Parthipan)
• Yulia Tymoshenko
• Judith Todd, political activist regarding Zimbabwe
• Sergey Udaltsov, Russian opposition activist, 2011 and 2014
• Lluís Maria Xirinacs, Catalan politician, writer, and religious leader
• Lin Yi-hsiung, protest against the construction of the Lungmen Nuclear Power Plant in New Taipei City
• Shahrokh Zamani, Iranian Labour Activist, died 2015 in Islamic Republic of Iran's prison
• Govinda K.C., Nepali orthopaedic surgeon and philanthropic activist
• Ebru Timtik, Kurdish-Turkish human rights lawyer, died 2020
• Alexei Navalny, Russian opposition leader and anti-corruption activist, 2021^[14]
• Parit Chiwarak and Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, jailed pro-democratic activists, 2021, demanding justice and scrapping of Lese majeste in Thailand^[15]
• Jeanine Áñez, jailed former president of Bolivia, 2022.^[16]
• Vojislav Šešelj, Serbian politician
• Tomislav Nikolić, Serbian politician, 2011
• Marinika Tepić, Serbian politician, 2023
• Kim Young-sam, South Korean politician
• Kim Dae-jung, South Korean politician
• Chun Doo-hwan, South Korean politician
• Chun Jung-bae, South Korean politician
• Moon Sung-hyun, South Korean politician
• Woo Sang-ho (politician), South Korea
• Choi Byung-ryeol, South Korean politician
• Moon Jae-in, South Korean politician
• Cho Won-jin, South Korean politician
• Kim Sung-tae, South Korean politician
• Hwang Kyo-ahn, South Korean politician
• Woo Won-shik, South Korean politician
• Lee Jae-myung, South Korean politician

Notes and References

1. News: Borders. William. Times. Special To the New York. 1981-08-02. I.R.A. UNSHAKEN BY DECISION ON FAST (Published 1981). en-US. The New York Times. 2020-11-06. 0362-4331.
2. News: McKernan. Bethan. 2020-05-08. Lonely death of Grup Yorum bassist highlights Turkey hunger strikes. en-GB. The Guardian. 2020-11-06. 0261-3077.
3. News: Scull. Maggie. Timeline of 1981 hunger strike. 2020-11-06. The Irish Times. en.
4. Web site: Martin Hurson — Died on 13 July 1981 after 46 days on hunger strike in the H-Blocks of Long Kesh An Phoblacht. 2020-11-06. www.anphoblacht.com.
5. Web site: Crucifix given by Pope John Paul IIto Patsy O'Hara in Derry museum. 2020-11-06. www.derryjournal.com. 7 September 2019 . en.
6. Web site: 2020-09-11. On This Day: Bobby Sands, Long Kesh hunger striker, passes away. 2020-11-06. IrishCentral.com. en.
7. Web site: 2022-09-16 . On This Day: Mahatma Gandhi's hunger strike against caste separation laws; General Motors founded and more . 2023-03-11 . cnbctv18.com . en.
8. Web site: 2018-12-04. Four Catalan leaders facing trial in Spain go on hunger strike. 2020-11-06. the Guardian. en.
9. Web site: Grève de la faim: les sans-papiers veulent rester à l'église du Béguinage jusqu'au traitement des dossiers. 2021-09-27. lalibre.be.
10. Web site: Le cri des sans-papiers du béguinage: "On restera jusqu'à la mort s'il le faut" - Édition digitale de Bruxelles. 2021-09-27. lacapitale.sudinfo.be. 13 July 2021 .
11. News: Quismorio . Ellson . 'Lumiit ang tiyan': SMNI lawyer says Celiz, Badoy holding real hunger strike . 12 December 2023 . Manila Bulletin . 11 December 2023 . en.
12. Web site: The Longest Hunger Strike. Ann. Neumann. January 15, 2013. Guernica.
13. Web site: Statement on Mr and Mrs. Andrei Sakharov's Hunger Strike. 2020-11-06. Ronald Reagan. en.
14. News: 2021-03-31. Putin critic Navalny on hunger strike over Russian prison treatment. en-GB. BBC News. 2021-04-07.
15. News: 2021-04-14. เพนกวิน พริษฐ์ อดอาหารประท้วงครบ 30 วัน ครอบครัวเผยน้ำหนักลดลงเกือบ 20 กิโลฯ ขณะที่รุ้ง ปนัสยาเอง ก็อดอาหารครบ 16 วันแล้ว . th. The Matter. 2021-04-22.
16. News: Condori. Edwin. 2022-02-09. A un día del comienzo de su juicio, Jeanine Áñez se declara en huelga de hambre. es. La Razón. La Paz. live. 2022-02-10. https://web.archive.org/web/20220209213022/https://www.la-razon.com/nacional/2022/02/09/a-un-dia-del-comienzo-de-su-juicio-jeanine-anez-se-declara-en-huelga-de-hambre/. 9 February 2022.