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 – 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
 * 2024 Hunger strike for children of Gaza

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

 * Egil Skallagrímsson, Medieval Norwegian Poet
 * 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 an 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
 * 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
 * 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
 * Dylann Roof, American mass-murderer and White Supremacist