List of peace activists

This list of peace activists includes people who have proactively advocated diplomatic, philosophical, and non-military resolution of major territorial or ideological disputes through nonviolent means and methods. Peace activists usually work with others in the overall anti-war and peace movements to focus the world's attention on what they perceive to be the irrationality of violent conflicts, decisions, and actions. They thus initiate and facilitate wide public dialogues intended to nonviolently alter long-standing societal agreements directly relating to, and held in place by, the various violent, habitual, and historically fearful thought-processes residing at the core of these conflicts, with the intention of peacefully ending the conflicts themselves.

Dekha Ibrahim Abdi (1964–2011) – Kenyan peace activist, government consultant
David Adams (born 1939) – American author and peace activist, task force chair of the United Nations International Year for the Culture of Peace, coordinator of the Culture of Peace News Network^[1]
Jane Addams (1860–1935) – American, national chairman of Woman's Peace Party, president of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Ruth Adler (1944–1994) – feminist, and human rights campaigner in Scotland^{[citation needed]}
Eqbal Ahmad (1933/34–1999) – Pakistani political scientist, activist^{[citation needed]}
Martti Ahtisaari (1937–2023) – former president of Finland, active in conflict resolution^{[citation needed]}
Robert Baker Aitken (1917–2010) – Zen Buddhist Rōshi and anti-war activist, anti-nuclear testing activist, and proponent of deep ecology
Tadatoshi Akiba (born 1942) – Japanese pacifist and nuclear disarmament advocate, former mayor of Hiroshima
Widad Akrawi (born 1969) – Danish-Kurdish peace advocate, organizer
Stew Albert (1939–2006) – American anti-Vietnam war activist, organizer
Abdulkadir Yahya Ali (1957–2005) – Somali peace activist and founder of the Center for Research and Dialogue in Somalia
B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956) – Polymath, economist, jurist, social reformer, civil rights leader, political philosopher and revivalist of Buddhism in India^{[citation needed]}
Günther Anders (born Günther Siegmund Stern, 1902–1992) – German philosopher and a critic of nuclear weapons and nuclear deterrence^{[citation needed]}
Ghassan Andoni (born 1956) – Palestinian physicist, Christian, advocate of non-violent resistance^{[citation needed]}
Andrea Andreen (1888–1972) – Swedish physician, pacifist, and feminist
Annot (1894–1981) – German artist, anti-war and anti-nuclear activist
José Argüelles (1939–2011) – American New Age author and pacifist
Émile Armand (1872–1963) – French anarchist and pacifist writer
Émile Arnaud (1864–1921) – French peace campaigner, coined the word "pacifism"
Klas Pontus Arnoldson (1844–1916) – Swedish pacifist, Nobel peace laureate, founder of the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society
Ya'akov Arnon (1913–1995) – Israeli economist, government official and pacifist
Vittorio Arrigoni (1975–2011) – Italian reporter, anti-war activist
Pat Arrowsmith (1930–2023) – British author and peace campaigner, co-founder of CND
Arik Ascherman (born 1959) – Israeli-American rabbi and advocate for human rights in Israel and Palestine
Steve Ashley (born 1946) — British singer-songwriter and peace campaigner
Margaret Ashton (1856–1937) – British suffragist, local politician, pacifist
Nafez Assaily (born 1956) – Palestinian sociologist and long-term advocate of nonviolence
Julian Assange (born 1971) – founder of WikiLeaks, recipient of numerous prizes and awards, and one of only six people to be recognised with the Gold medal for Peace with Justice of the Sydney Peace Foundation^{[citation needed]}
Anita Augspurg (1857–1943) – German lawyer, writer, feminist, pacifist
Uri Avnery (1923–2018) – Israeli writer and founder of Gush Shalom
Mubarak Awad (born 1943) – Palestinian–American advocate of nonviolent resistance, founder of the Palestinian Centre for the Study of Nonviolence
Ali Abu Awwad (born 1972) – Palestinian peace activist and proponent of nonviolence from Beit Ummar, founder of Taghyeer (Change) Movement
Ayo Ayoola-Amale (born 1970) – Nigerian conflict resolution professional, ombudsman, peace builder and poet

Anton Bacalbașa (1865–1899) – Romanian Marxist and pacifist
Eva Bacon (1909–1994) – Australian socialist, feminist, pacifist
Gertrud Baer (1890–1981) – German Jewish peace activist, and a founding member of the Women's International League for Peace and Freedom
Joan Baez (born 1941) – American anti-war protester, inspirational singer
Matilde Bajer (1840–1934) – Danish feminist and peace activists
Ella Baker (1903–1986) – African-American civil rights activist, feminist, pacifist
Emily Greene Balch (1867–1961) – American pacifist, leader of Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, and 1946 Nobel peace laureate
Ernesto Balducci (1922–1992) – Italian priest and peace activist
Roger Nash Baldwin (1884–1981) – American pacifist, leader in Civil Liberties Bureau of American Union Against Militarism, supporting conscientious objectors to World War I; lifelong civil libertarian, co-founder of ACLU
Edith Ballantyne (born 1922) – Czech-Canadian peace activist
Mary Barbour (1875–1958) – Scottish socialist, a founder of the Women's Peace Crusade, local councillor and magistrate; involved in the Red Clydeside movement
Daniel Barenboim (born 1942) – pianist and conductor, joint founder – with Edward Said – of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, citizen of Argentina, Israel, Palestine and Spain
Christine Ross Barker (1866–1940) – Canadian pacifist and suffragist
Ludwig Bauer (1878–1935) – Austro-Swiss writer and pacifist
Archibald Baxter (1881–1970) – New Zealand pacifist, socialist, and anti-war activist
Alaide Gualberta Beccari (1842–1906) – Italian feminist, pacifist and social reformer
Yolanda Becerra (born 1959) – Colombian feminist and peace activist
Henriette Beenfeldt (1878–1949) – radical Danish peace activist
Harry Belafonte (1927–2023) – American anti-war protester, performer
Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo (born 1948) – East Timorese bishop, Nobel peace laureate
Pope Benedict XV (1854–1922, Pope 1914–1922) – advocated peace throughout WW1; opposed aerial warfare; promoted humanitarian initiatives to protect children, prisoners of war, the wounded and missing persons
Medea Benjamin (born 1952) – American author, organizer, co-founder of the anti-militarist Code Pink
Tony Benn (1925–2014) – British Member of Parliament, anti-war and anti-imperialism campaigner, one of the founders of the Stop the War Coalition
Meg Beresford (born 1937) – British activist, European Nuclear Disarmament movement
Daniel Berrigan (1921–2016) – American anti-Vietnam war protester, Jesuit (Catholic) priest, poet, author, anti-nuke and war
Philip Berrigan (1923–2002) – American anti-Vietnam war protester, former Josephite (Catholic) priest, author, anti-nuke and war
James Bevel (1936–2008) – American civil rights activist, anti-Vietnam war leader, organizer
Vinoba Bhave (1895–1982) – Indian, Gandhian, teacher, author, organizer
Albert Bigelow (1906–1993) – former US Navy officer turned pacifist, skipper of the first vessel to attempt disruption of the atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons
Lotte Binder (1888–1930) – Transylvanian pacifist feminist
Doris Blackburn (1889–1970) – Australian social reformer, politician, pacifist
Janet Bloomfield (1953–2007) – British peace and disarmament campaigner, chair of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
Bhikkhu Bodhi (born 1944) – American Theravada Buddhist monk and founder of Buddhist Global Relief^[2]
Kees Boeke (1884–1966) – Dutch educator, missionary and pacifist
Beatrice Boeke-Cadbury (1884–1976) – English social activist, educator, Quaker missionary and pacifist
Carl Bonnevie (1881–1972) – Norwegian jurist and peace activist
Bono (born 1960) – Irish singer-songwriter, musician, venture capitalist, businessman, and philanthropist; born Paul David Hewson^[3]
Charles-Auguste Bontemps (1893–1981) – French anarchist, pacifist, writer
John Bosco (1815–1888) – Italian priest, educator and author, who devoted his life to disadvantaged youth; founded the Salesians of Don Bosco and developed the nonviolent Salesian Preventive System of teaching
Elise M. Boulding (1920–2010) – Norwegian-born American sociologist, specialising in academic peace research
Albert Bourderon (1858–1930) – French socialist and pacifist
José Bové (born 1953) – French farmer, politician, pacifist
Norma Elizabeth Boyd (1888–1985) – African American politically active educator, children's rights proponent, pacifist
Heloise Brainerd (1881–1969) – American women activist, pacifist
Sophonisba Breckinridge (1866–1948) – American educator, social reformer, pacifist
Lenni Brenner (born 1937) – American civil rights activist, opposed to the Vietnam war and strong opponent of Zionism
Pierre Brizon (1878–1923) – French politician and pacifist
Vera Brittain (1893–1970) – British writer, pacifist
José Brocca (1891–1950) – Spanish activist, international delegate War Resisters' International, organiser of relief efforts during the Spanish Civil War
Hugh Brock (1914–1985) – lifelong British pacifist and editor of Peace News between 1955 and 1964
Peter Brock (1920–2006) – British-born Canadian pacifist historian
Fenner Brockway (1888–1988) – British politician and Labour MP; humanist, pacifist and anti-imperialist; opposed conscription and founded the No-Conscription Fellowship in 1914; first chairperson of the War Resisters' International (1926–1934); founder member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and of the charity War on Want
Emilia Broomé (1866–1925) – Swedish politician, feminist and peace activist
Brigid Brophy (1929–1995) – British novelist, feminist, pacifist
Olympia Brown (1835–1926) – American theologist, suffragist, pacifist
Elihu Burritt (1810–1879) – American diplomat, social activist
Caoimhe Butterly (born 1978) – Irish peace and human rights activist
Maria C. Buțureanu (1872–1919) – Romanian educator and feminist pacifist
Charles Roden Buxton (1875–1942) – British Liberal and later Labour MP, philanthropist and peace activist, critical of the Treaty of Versailles

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Further reading