Elizabeth Drinker

Overview

Elizabeth Drinker (née Sandwith) born Philadelphia, PA February 27, 1735 (d. 1806). Quaker pacifist diarist. Petitioned for release of conscientious objectors. Suffered 70 windows broken, front door mashed for not lighting candles for victory, 1781; Opposed all military service, American and French Revolutions; against Fourth of July celebrations.

Quotations

On carnival by British officers in Philadelphia: “How insensible these people appear, while our land is so greatly desolated, and death and sore destruction has overtaken and impends over so many.” (diary, May 16, 1778)

Minnette de Silva

Overview

Minnette de Silva born Kandy, Ceylon February 1, 1918 (d. 1998). Asian woman architect pioneer of Modern style. Addressed World Congress of Intellectuals in Defence of Peace, Warsaw, 1948. (photo guerrillagirls broadband)

Dominique Desanti

Overview

Dominique Desanti (née Anne Persky) born Moscow, Russia August 31, 1914 (d. 2011). French Communist author and Resistance leader. Leader of French Movement of Peace, opposing German rearmament and atom bomb, 1948. Author of Bomb or Atomic Peace?, 1950; We Have Chosen Peace, about World Congress of Intellectuals in Defense of Peace, Warsaw, 1949. Rejected communism after Budapest uprising, 1956.

Quotations

“For me, the Congress had something magical. It was a revelation. My first contact with the democratic forces of the world. . . 500 intellectuals of 45 countries.” (We Have Chosen Peace, pp. 111-3; photo paperblog.fr)

Connie de la Vega

Overview

Constance “Connie” de la Vega born Mexico City, Mexico February 5, 1953. International human rights professor and advocate. Director, Frank Newman Center for International Human Rights Law Clinic; UN representative for Human Rights Advocates. Author, Dictionary of Human Rights Law, 2013. “Women in Peacekeeping and Peacemaking” symposium: Women and War, William and Mary College, 2005; “UN Human Rights Mechanisms” in Protecting Women’s Rights panel, 2014. Named Warren Christopher International Lawyer of California, 2016.

Quotations

“We are all responsible for ensuring the protection of human rights and thus promoting peace.” (photo usfca.edu)

Annie L. Diggs

Overview

Annie LePorte Diggs born London, Ontario, Canada February 22, 1848 (d. 1916). Radical Kansas Populist reformer; editor, orator, poet; suffragist; opposed US imperialism; delegate to Universal Peace Conference, Rouen, 1903.

Quotations

“Little Brown Brothers across the sea,
Running your race for liberty
Here’s to you.
We've been there ourselves”

(“Little Brown Brother”, 1899, Liberty Poems, p. 11: photo timetoast)

Pearl Daniel-Means

Overview

Pearl Daniel-Means (Lakota name: Iyoyanbya Izanzan Win [“Bright Light”]) born February 10, 1960. Navajo activist, producer, author; led Standing Rock women’s protest, 2016.

Quotations

“Women have always been the backbone of our struggle because we give life. We’re charged with sustaining life, protecting life. We’ve experienced in America 99% genocide, but we’re still here, because we’re matriarchal.” (Sizzle; photo ashaya.com)

Françoise Jacoba Daendels

Overview

Françoise Jacoba Vattier Kraane Daendels born Semarang, Java, Dutch East Indies October 8, 1871 (d. 1950). Treasurer of International Congress of Women, 1915. Collector of Indonesian art, particularly Aceh. (photo redeenportret)

Siri Derkert

Overview

Siri Derkert born Stockholm, Sweden August 30, 1888 (d. 1973). Swedish expressionist artist and sculptor; feminist; pacifist. Led Stockholm’s anti-war Swedish Women’s Left Association (SKF) in post-WWII opposition to nuclear weapons. Painted peace murals in Stockholm Metro, 1965. (photo wikipedia)

Nannie Dryhurst

Overview

Nannie Dryhurst (née Hannah Robinson) born Dublin, Ireland June 17, 1856 (d. 1930). British ethical anarchist; anti-militarist, anti-imperialist. Founding secretary of Subject Peoples [or Races] International Committee, 1907. Visited Georgia, supporting its independence from Russia, 1906. Held anti-colonial conference, London, 1910. Supported Stop The War movement against Boer War; active in Freedom movement and Freedom magazine; promoted Irish independence.

Quotations

“[We demand consideration] for those obscure peoples, for whose welfare so few care, and upon whom for long centuries the most wrong have been inflicted by men claiming to belong to the higher races. . . probing the cancer of modern civilisation.” (Federico Ferretti, Anarchy and Geography, 2018; photo libcom.org)

Léonie Duquet

Overview

Léonie Duquet born Longemaison, Doubs, France April 9, 1916 (d. 1977). French nun. Supporter of Argentine Mothers of the Plaza; kidnapped, tortured, murdered, and air-dumped at sea, 1977. (photo BBC)

Alice Domon

Overview

Alice Domon born Charquemont, Doubs, France September 23, 1937 (d. 1977). French nun. Supporter of Argentine Mothers of the Plaza; kidnapped, tortured, murdered, and air-dumped at sea, 1977. (photo ecured)

Debora Maria Da Silva

Overview

Débora Maria Da Silva born Recife, Brazil August 21, 1960. Founded Mothers of May seeking justice for government slaughter of 600 citizens Sao Paulo May 2006; FOR peace award 2016.

Quotations

“We suffer anguish because the impunity is what hurts the most. People raise a child and the state kills it. Mothers don't symbolize death, but life.” (“Mothers of May”, April 28, 2010 upsidedownworld.com; photo gettyimages.com)

Erica-Irene Daes

Overview

Erica-Irene Daes born Chania, Crete September 18, 1925. Greek human rights advocate; UN human rights prize 1993; Chair/Rapporter UN Working Group on Indigenous Populations 1982 which produced Draft Declaration of Rights of Indigenous Peoples 1993, adopted by General Assembly 2007.

Quotations

“Power can never completely crush a people that cherishes its heritage—nor can power ever completely liberate a people that has abandoned its heritage.” (“Protecting Knowledge”, Feb. 23, 2000; photo web.stu.edu)

Birgitta Dahl

Overview

Birgitta Dahl born Råda, Sweden September 20, 1937. Swedish sustainable development expert: member of parliament 1968-2002, Speaker 1994-2002, Minister for Energy 1982-90; UN delegate; opposed Vietnam War.

Quotations

"What we saw and experienced was incomprehensible, horrific—the results of the environmental war, of the electronic war applied on a large scale for the first time." (memorial to Helge Henschen, Aug. 29, 2002; photo www.varldsinfektionsfonden.se)

Daniela Dahn

Overview

Daniela Dahn born Berlin, Germany October 9, 1949. German journalist and peace writer.

Quotations

“Wars are not won by peoples, only by governments. A minority gains exactly what the majority has to pay for. This has always been the case. But why have people put up with it for thousands of years? The longer one ponders the less can be grasped. Thinking is a quite rational affair, waging war on the other hand a quite irrational one.” (speech on Aachen Peace Prize, 2002; photo kultur-des-friedens.de)

Mary Shanthi Dairiam

Overview

Mary Shanthi Dairiam born Malaysia September 17, 1937. International expert on human rights of women; UN Human Rights Commission investigator of Gaza Flotilla episode 2010; co-founder International Women Rights Action Watch Asia Pacific 1993.

Quotations

"There is clear evidence to support prosecutions of the following crimes within the terms of article 147 of the Fourth Geneva Convention: willful killing; torture or inhuman treatment; willfully causing great suffering or serious injury to body or health." (UN doc.A/HRC/15/21; photo newagebd.com)

Jeanne d'Albret

Overview

Jeanne d’Albret, Queen of Navarre, born St. Germain-en-Laye November 16, 1528 (d. 1572). Daughter of peacemaker Queen Marguerite of Navarre. Ruler of Protestant kingdom during Wars of Religion, 1555-72. Principal negotiator of the Peace of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, which gave Protestants right to public office, 1570.

Quotations

“To the valiant of heart, nothing is impossible.” (motto adopted by her son Henry IV, in Martha Freer, The Reign of Henry IV, 1861)

“[G]rant peace, with tranquility, to this realm. . . consider. . . the torrents of blood which must flow, and the iniquities certain to be committed during this cruel war. . . ” (letter to Catherine de Medici, Nov. 1569, in Martha Freer, Life, 1855, pp. 301-3, cited by Nancy Roelker, Queen, 1968, p. 334; 1570 portrait Wikipedia)

Kata Dalstrom

Overview

Kata Dalström born Emtöholm, Kalmar, Sweden December 18, 1858 (d. 1923). Swedish author; Christian Socialist; communist; opposed World War I; anti-war leader in peaceful separation of Norway, 1905; later Buddhist and Theosophist.

Quotations

"Let the union go. The bridge uniting the workers of our two countries will never break down." (May 1, 1905; photo wikicommons pd)

Clare Daly

Overview

Clare Daly born Newbridge, Kildare, Ireland April 11, 1968. Irish politician. Socialist Member of Parliament, 2011. Arrested for scaling Shannon fence to inspect US planes for illegal arms, 2014. Charged President Obama as hypocrite for supplying arms to Syrian rebels.

Quotations

“[T]this man is a war criminal. . . This is the man who has facilitated a 200 percent increase in the use of drones, which have killed thousands of people including hundreds of children. . . there certainly isn’t much peace [in Syria].” (Huffington Post, June 21, 2013; photo Irish Mirror)