- Aung San Suu Kyi
Aung San Suu Kyi ; born 19 June 1945 in Yangon (Rangoon), is a nonviolent pro-democracy activist and leader of the National League for Democracy in Myanmar (Burma), and a noted prisoner of conscience. A Buddhist, Suu Kyi won the Rafto Prize and the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in 1990 and in 1991 was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her peaceful and non-violent struggle under a military dictatorship.
- Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu : This is an unbelievable achievement. As you might know, we have won the Rugby World Cup in 1995. It did wonders back then. Success in sports connected the people in a way that only a few politicians have been able to achieve in the past. We are looking forward to similar results in the context of the Football World Cup 2010. The Football World Cup makes South Africans feel more self-confident.
- Wei Jingsheng
Wei Jingsheng (born May 20, 1950) is an activist in the Chinese democracy movement, most prominent for authoring the document, "Fifth Modernization" on the "Democracy Wall in Bejing in 1978. Although they could not bring any formal charges against him for his attacks on the Communist system, the government exaggerated his correspondence with foreigners about the Chinese-Vietnamese War and charged him with treason.
- Morgan Tsvangirai
Morgan Tsvangirai born March 10, 1952) is the President and founder of the Movement for Democratic Change, the opposition party in Zimbabwe.
- Jean-Bertrand Aristide
Former President of Haiti (1991),(1994-1996) and (2001-2004), ousted in two coups d'état (1991,2004). The American government ruled that the years of military government between 1991 and 1994 would count as part of his term, forcing him to step down after only two years as he was not permitted to run for a second consecutive term. His second term was also interrupted by a putsch and he was forced into exile by the American military. When he could not run, René Préval was elected...
- Zhao Ziyang
Zhao Ziyang (October 17 1919-January 17 2005) was a politician in the People's Republic of China. He was Premier of the People's Republic of China from 1980 to 1987, and General Secretary of the Communist Party of China from 1987 to 1989. As a high-ranking government official, he was a leading reformer who implemented market reforms that greatly increased production and sought measures to streamline the bloated bureaucracy and fight corruption.
- Ayman Nour
Ayman Abd El Aziz Nour is an Egyptian politician, a former member of that country's Parliament and chairman of the Al Ghad party. He became famous around the world following his January 2005 imprisonment by the government of President Hosni Mubarak, which was widely understood as a politically motivated move by the state and caused a lot of internal anger as well as foreign pressure for his release.
- Tin Oo
General Thura Tin Oo (born March 3, 1927 in Pathein), (often referred to as U Tin Oo) is a retired general, former commander in chief of the armed forces of Union of Myanmar, highly decorated solider, pro-democracy activist and deputy leader of the National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar.
- Cong Thanh Do
Cong Thanh Do (born ca. 1959) is a Vietnamese American human rights activist. Do emigrated from Vietnam to the US in 1982. He advocates a multi-party democratic system for Vietnam, and has been accused of plotting to overthrow the Vietnamese government. On 14 August 2006 he was arrested while on holiday in Phan Thiet and held in jail in Ho Chi Minh City without trial. On 14 August 2006 he began a hunger strike.
- Mustafa Barghouti
Mustafa Barghouti (Arabic مصطفى البرغوثي also transcribed Mustafa Barghouthi, Mustafa Al Barghuthi, Dr Barghuthi; born 1954) is a Palestinian democracy activist. He was a candidate for the presidency of the Palestinian National Authority in 2005, finishing a distant second to Mahmoud Abbas. Barghouti was born in Jerusalem.
- Akbar Ganji
Akbar Ganji is an Iranian journalist and writer. He was arrested on April 22, 2000 after he took part in a conference held in Berlin on April 7 and 8, 2000. He was imprisoned in Evin Prison in Tehran until his release on March 18, 2006. He holds a Masters degree in Communications. He is the winner of the 2006 World Association of Newspapers' Golden Pen of Freedom Award and Canadian Journalists for Free Expression's International Press Freedom Award in 2000.
- Anwar Ibrahim
Dato' Seri Anwar bin Ibrahim (born August 10, 1947) is a former deputy prime minister and finance minister of Malaysia. Early in his career, he became a protege of the former prime minister of Malaysia, Mahathir bin Mohamad, but subsequently emerged as the most prominent critic of Mahathir's administration. In 1999, he was sentenced in a highly controversial trial to six years in prison for corruption and in 2000 to another nine years in prison for sodomy.
- Leung Kwok-Hung
The Honourable Leung Kwok-hung, also known as Long Hair (長毛) is a political activist in Hong Kong, China. He was born on March 27, 1956 in British Hong Kong with family root in Zengcheng, Guangdong Province, China. He is currently a member of the Legislative Council of Hong Kong representing New Territories East. In 2006, he joined the League of Social Democrats. He is best known for his long, below shoulder length hair, his frequent public protests, …
- Nawaz Sharif
Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif was born on December 25, 1949 in Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan.
- Zhao Changqing
Zhao Changqing a history teacher and political activist in the People’s Republic of China.
- Wangari Maathai
Dr. Wangari Muta Maathai born April 1, 1940 in Ihithe village, Tetu division, Nyeri District of Kenya is an environmental and political activist. In 2004 she became the first African woman to receive Nobel Peace Prize for "her contribution to sustainable development, democracy and peace". Dr.
- Sam Rainsy
Sam Rainsy (born March 10, 1949) is a Cambodian politician. Sam Rainsy was born in Phnom Penh, son of Sam Sary, a member of Cambodia's government for a time in the 1950s. He moved to France in 1965, studied there and then worked in a variety of Parisian financial companies. He is married to Cambodian Saumura Tioulong, who is also member of parliament, and has three children: Patrice Sam, Muriel Sam, and Rachel Sam. He became a member of the Cambodian Funcinpec Party, …
- Viktor Yushchenko
Viktor Andriyovych Yushchenko (Ukrainian:) (born February 23 1954) has been the President of Ukraine since November 2004. As an informal leader of the Ukrainian opposition coalition, he was one of three main candidates in the October-November 2004 Ukrainian presidential election. Yushchenko won the election through a recount of the runoff between him and Viktor Yanukovych, the government supported candidate.
- Oswaldo Payá
Oswaldo José Payá Sardiñas is a political activist in Cuba and is considered that country's most prominent political dissident. He is commonly referred to in English language News media as Oswaldo Payá (For an explanation see Spanish use of two surnames)
- Mwai Kibaki
Mwai Kibaki (born November 15, 1931) is the President of Kenya. Kibaki was previously Vice President (1978 - 1988), and has held several other cabinet positions, including Minister for Finance (1978 - 1981), Minister for Home Affairs (1982 - 1988) and Minister for Health (1988 - 1991). He was baptised Emilio Stanley by Italian missionaries in his youth but he rarely uses this name.
- Thích Quảng Độ
Thích Quảng Độ is a Vietnamese Buddhist leader and critic of the Vietnamese government. In 2006 he was awarded the Thorolf Rafto Memorial Prize. He was born Dang Phuc Tue in Thai Binh Province, Vietnam. He has been a member of the leadership of the Unified Buddhist Church of Vietnam since the 1960s. He has criticised the current regime of Vietnam and has been jailed several times.
- Ouyang Yi
Ouyang Yi (born June 28, 1968 in Suining, Sichuan Province) is a former high-school teacher, one of the managers of a pro-democracy web site, and a member of the China Democracy Party.
- Václav Havel
Václav Havel, GCB, CC, (born October 5, 1936 in Prague) is a Czech writer and dramatist. He was the ninth and last President of Czechoslovakia (1989-1992) and the first President of the Czech Republic (1993-2003).
- Abdoulaye Wade
Abdoulaye Wade (born May 29, 1926) is the third and current President of Senegal, in office since 2000. He is also the Secretary-General of the ruling Senegalese Democratic Party (PDS) and has led the party since it was founded in 1974. He ran for president four times, beginning in 1978, before he was elected in 2000.
- Gérard Jean-Juste
Fr. Gérard Jean-Juste (1947-) is the Roman Catholic rector of Saint Claire's church for the poor in Port-au-Prince, Haïti. He is also a liberation theologian and a supporter of the Fanmi Lavalas political party, the largest in Haïti. In 1978, Father Jean-Juste founded the Haïtian Refugee Center in Miami, Florida. He has been characterized as a beloved figure among South Florida's Haïtian community.
- Amir-Abbas Fakhravar
Amir-Abbas Fakhravar ("Amir-Abbās Fakhr-āvar", also known as "Siavash" (Persian: سیاوش), born 6 July, 1975 in Tehran) is an Iranian writer, and former journalist for the now banned pro-reform daily newspapers Mosharekat and Khordad. He is known for his political activism and has been described as one of Iran’s student leaders. He is currently based in Washington, DC.
- Farid Ghadry
Farid Ghadry (born on June 18, 1954) is the President of the Reform Party of Syria. He comes from a prominent Syrian family that includes many politicians and civil servants who served in Syria. Ghadry was born in Aleppo, Syria. In 1964 his family emigrated to Beirut, Lebanon because of political turmoil. There he attended the Maristes Brothers School (Champville - Deek-el-Mehdi).
- James Mawdsley
James Rupert Russell Mawdsley 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.
- Mikheil Saakashvili
Mikheil Saakashvili (born December 21, 1967) is a Georgian politician and the current President of Georgia. He succeeded, on January 25, 2004, Nino Burjanadze, who acted as a president after President Eduard Shevardnadze stepped down in Georgia's 2003 bloodless Rose Revolution, led by Saakashvili and his major political allies, Burjanadze and Zurab Zhvania. Some non-Georgian sources spell his name via the Russian as Mikhail.
- Ly Tong
Lý Tống, a Vietnamese-American, was born in 1946 in My Tho, South Vietnam and is an ardent anti-communist.
- Nguyen Huu Chanh
Nguyen Huu Chanh a Vietnamese-American, born in 1952, in Vietnam. He is the founder and former Prime Minister of the an anti-communist organization known as The Government of Free Vietnam (GFVN).
- Anatoly Lebedko
Anatoly Lebedko (Anatol Labiedźka Belarusian: Анато́ль Уладзі́міравіч Лябе́дзька; Russian: Анато́лий Влади́мирович Лебе́дько; born June 27, 1961) is a Belarusian politician and the head of the United Civil Party of Belarus. Born in the village of Triles, then part of the Stolbcy district in the USSR's Minsk voblast (and now in Belarus), …
- Hjalmar Branting
Karl Hjalmar Branting (November 23, 1860 - February 24, 1925) was a Swedish statesman and the country's chief Social Democratic leader. He was also the country's first Prime Minister elected through universal suffrage. His education was in mathematical astronomy, and he was an assistant at the Stockholm Observatory; but he gave up scientific work to become a journalist in 1884. He began editing the newspaper "Social-Demokraten" in 1886, …
- Nguyen Chi Thien
Nguyen Chi Thien, born in 1939 in Hanoi, Vietnam is a dissident poet who spent a total of twenty-seven years in imprisonment. Thien started school in private academies. After the defeat of the French in 1954 he cheered the Viet Minh revolutionaries as they also returned to the city, proud to invite soldiers home to supper. In December, 1960 Thien unwittingly stepped over the line while covering the high school class of a sick friend.
- Mohamed Nasheed
Mohamed Nasheed Keneryge Male (b. May 17, 1967), commonly referred to in the Maldives as Anni, former Parliament member for Malé, is the chairman of the Maldivian Democratic Party and an outspoken critic of the Maldivian Dictator Maumoon Abdul Gayoom and his policies. Due to his criticism of the dictator, over the years he was arrested and sentenced several times.
- Sali Berisha
(born October 15, 1944) is the Prime Minister of the Republic of Albania. He was also the president of Albania from 1992 to 1997. Berisha was born in Vicidol, a village near the Kosovo border, in Albania's mountainous northeastern Tropojë region. He studied medicine at the University of Tirana, graduating in (1967). After advanced studies in Paris (France) in the 80s, he conducted a research program on hemodynamics.
- Anthony Enahoro
Chief Anthony Enahoro, the Adollo of Uromi – one of Nigeria’s foremost anti-colonial and pro-democracy activists - was born on 22 July, 1923, in Uromi in the present Edo State of Nigeria. Chief Enahoro has had a long and distinguished career in the press, politics, the civil service and the pro-democracy movement. Educated at the Government School Uromi, Government School Owo and Kings College Lagos, Chief Enahoro became the editor of Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe’s newspaper, …
- Thuong Nguyen Cuc Foshee
Thuong Nguyen Cuc Foshee is a Vietnamese American who was held without formal charge by the government of Vietnam after her arrest in September 2005 on accusations of plotting to broadcast anti-communist radio messages under the direction of Government of Free Vietnam (GFVN), an anti-government group. She is divorced from GFVN representative Edgar Foshee.
- Obafemi Awolowo
Obafemi Awolowo (1909-1987) was a Nigerian politician and leader, a Yoruba and native of Ikenne in Ogun State of Nigeria, who started as a regional political leader like most of his pre-independence contemporaries. He founded many organizations, including Egbe Omo Oduduwa, the Trade Unions Congress of Nigeria and the Action Group political party. He was an active journalist and trade unionist as a young man, …
- Laurent Gbagbo
Laurent Koudou Gbagbo has been the president of Côte d'Ivoire (better known in English as The Ivory Coast) since 2000.