# List of hunger strikes

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
* 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
* 2009 Venezuelan student hunger strike [es] – 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
** 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)
** Martin Hurson (1981)
** Kevin Lynch (1981)
** Raymond McCreesh (1981)
** Joe McDonnell (1981)
** Thomas McElwee (1981)
** Patsy O'Hara (1981)
** Bobby Sands (1981) – 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
* Jailed Catalan pro-independence leaders
** Jordi Sánchez
** Jordi Turull
** Joaquim Forn
** Josep Rull
* Undocumented migrants in Belgium

## 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
* 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
* 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
* 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
* Parit Chiwarak and Panusaya Sithijirawattanakul, jailed pro-democratic activists, 2021, demanding justice and scrapping of Lese majeste in Thailand
* Jeanine Áñez, jailed former president of Bolivia, 2022.
* 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
* Prashant Kishor, Indian politician