Helena Kekkonen

/

Overview

Pulmu Helena Kekkonen (née Nousiainen) born Leppävirta, North Savo, Finland June 11, 1926 (d. 2014). Finnish pioneer of peace education; prison educator and chemistry teacher. Absolute pacifist; rejected military defense. Served as founding chair of Finnish anti-Apartheid movement, 1984-87. Secretary-General, Peace Education Institute (RKI), 1986-90. First UNESCO prize in peace education laureate.

Quotations

"I have become increasingly convinced that peace is the work of one’s entire daily life: every day’s deed or omission shows ethical beliefs. Even the tiniest peace work is not in vain, even though the goal is still an extremely long way off.” (fi.wikipedia, footnote 6; photo humanistiiiitto.fi)

Florence Kelley

/

Overview

Florence Kelley born September 12, 1859 (d. 1932). Quaker-raised social reformer; co-founded WILPF, NAACP, Womens Peace Party; opposed World War I; anti-imperialist; Socialist; suffragist; peacemaking colleague of Jane Addams.

Quotations

"When the vote is submitted to every citizen, man and woman, whether to said husband, son, and lover to war and when woman abandon their worship of the war-god, then war will cease altogether." (Geneva, NY, March 10, 1910; photo Wikipedia from intlawgirls)

Frances Alice Kellor

/

Overview

Frances Alice Kellor born Columbus, OH October 20, 1873 (d. 1952). Internationalist; progressive reformer; expert on conflict resolution; Code of International Arbitration, 1931; advocate for the outlawing of war; founded National League for Protection of Colored Women, 1906; advocate for immigrants' rights.

Quotations

"The institution of war as a method of settling disputes is in itself an evil which has refused to yield to regulation or license; therefore it should follow the course of other institutions of destruction and be made a crime against the law of nations." (Security Against War, II:799, 1924; photo c. 1910 Wikipedia)

Petra Kelly

/

Overview

Petra Kelly born Günzburg am Danube, Swabia, Germany November 29, 1947 (d. 1992). Founded German Green Party, 1979; opposed nuclear weapons and Vietnam War. Received Right Livelihood Award, 1982.

Quotations

"The arms race, I believe, is insane, but an inevitable outcome of science in a world where men wage war against feminine values, women and nature." (Fighting for Hope, p. 39; photo Right Livelihood)

Florynce Kennedy

/

Overview

Florynce Kennedy born Kansas City, KS February 11, 1916 (d. 2000). African-American radical feminist; lawyer; activist. Opposed Gulf War, Vietnam War, nuclear weapons. Member of the National Organization for Women (NOW), 1966-70.

Quotations

"The spending of our tax dollars by the Pentagon represents the greatest social disease of our country; I call it Pentagonorrhea." (Color Me Flo, p.18, 1976)

"The war in Vietnam was terrible on our financial fiber, it was death on our moral fiber." (Color Me Flo, p.95, 1976)

"We must have a moratorium on all nuclear proliferation and plants, everything. We must escalate the graffiti." (Harvard Crimson, Nov. 20, 1978; photo http://bit.ly/JJnqlM)

Annie Kenney

/

Overview

Annie Kenney born Springhead, Saddleworth, Yorkshire, England September 13, 1879 (d. 1953). Militant working-class suffragist whose arrest for heckling Churchill marked start of militant phase 1905; jailed 3 days; 12 later arrests and force-feeding 1913; opposed World War I.

Quotations

On Christabel Pankhurst's order for suffragists to support war: "This autocratic move was not understood or appreciated by many of our members. They were quite prepared to receive instructions about the Vote, but they were not going to be told what they were to do in a world war." (Memories of a Militant, 1924)

Corita Kent

/

Overview

Corita Kent born Ft. Dodge, IA November 20, 1918 (d. 1986). Peace artist; Immaculate Heart nun; nonviolent Vietnam War protester, 1967; supporter of farmworkers; supporter of Martin Luther King, Jr.

Quotations

"We can create life without war."

"I admire people who march.
I admire people who go to jail.
I don’t have the guts to do that.
so I do what I can."
(Eye blog 35; photo corita.org)

Mary Day Kent

/

Overview

Mary Day Kent born Easton, MD May 20, 1947. US WILPF Executive Director 1999- 2007; Quaker; led campaigns against Iraq War, nuclear weapons, foreign military bases; Amer. Friends Service Committee international programs; international education expert; president UN Assn. Philadelphia 2012.

Quotations

"'Thou shalt not kill' is a clear, forceful, and unequivocal expression of our deepest experience of peace." (March 7, 2003; photo UN Assn. Philadelphia)

Dorothy Kenyon

/

Overview

Dorothy Kenyon born New York, NY February 17, 1888 (d. 1972). Lawyer, judge, and civil rights activist. Adviser to Versailles Peace Conference; member of League of Nations Commission on Women, 1938-43, and UN Commission on Women, 1946-50.

Quotations

“I am a lover of democracy, of individual freedom and of human rights for everybody, a battler. . . for the rights of the little fellow, the underdog, the fellow who gets forgotten or frightened or shunned because of unpopular views, but who is a human being just the same and entitled to be treated like one.” (Mar. 14, 1950, quoted at her memorial service, 1972; photo Wikipedia)

Alma Kettig

/

Overview

11.05 kettig.jpg

Alma Kettig born Barmen, Germany November 5, 1915 (d. 1997). German peace activist and pacifist. As Social Democrat member of Parliament, opposed militarization, atomic weapons and women in the army, 1953-65. Opposed Nazis before World War II.

Quotations

“There should be disarmament, not rearmament; there should be cooperation, not confrontation.” (quote and photo Frauen Ruhr Geschichte: Kettig)

Ellen Key

/

Overview

Ellen Key born Västervik, Sweden December 11, 1849 (d. 1926). Feminist peace leader; advocated "scientific pacifism" to use innate female compassion to end war.

Quotations

"Everything, everything in war is barbaric. . . But the worst barbarity of war is that it forces men collectively to commit acts against which individually they would revolt with their whole being." (War, Peace and the Future, 1916; photo c.1915 wikicommons pd)

Asma Khader

/

Overview

Asma Khader born al-Zababida, West Bank, Palestine January 25, 1952. Jordanian lawyer, human rights activist; co-founder, director Sisterhood is Global; Jordanian Minister of State 2003-5; UN Human Rights investigator for Libya civil war abuses; first protest 1965 age 13 against Israeli bombing Hebron.

Quotations

“Security and dignity are in the heart of human being, there is no dignity without security, and there is no security without dignity!” (Women’s UN Network Report, July 22, 2013; photo equal rights trust)

Irina Khakamada

/

Overview

Irina Khakamada born Moscow April 13, 1955. Economics professor; Russian liberal politician. Member of Duma, 1993-2003. Vice-Speaker of Duma, 2000-03; received 4 million votes for president, 2004; negotiator in Chechen hostage crisis, Moscow, 2002; opposed Chechen War, 2004.

Quotations

"Russians do not want a war. . . That is why an anti-war rally I participated in gathered quite a lot of people, around 50,000." (Kiev, in The Day, May 13, 2014)

Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa

/

Overview

Haya Rashed Al-Khalifa born Bahrain October 18, 1952. First Muslim woman president of UN General Assembly, 2006; first woman Bahraini ambassador, 1997; leading lawyer. Received Path to Peace Award, 2007.

Quotations

“In crisis, post-conflict and post-disaster situations, national and international NGOs are vital implementing partners—without them, UN humanitarian assistance could hardly be delivered.” (Gen. Assembly, Nov. 16, 2006; photo Elliott School, Geo. Wash. U)

“Promoting a true dialogue among civilizations and religions is perhaps the most important political instrument that we can use to reach out across borders and build bridges of peace and hope.” (Berkeley Center, Jun. 13, 2007)

“If we reflect upon all the miseries and tragedies suffered by humanity throughout the twentieth century and to the present day, we realize that they not only harm humanity, but also distort the meaning of creativity, art and beauty, leaving a disastrous imprint on reality and on our lives. In fact, the future of coming generations depends on the way in which we address current problems. We must work to preserve humanitarianism and to ensure that our planet is a safer and more suitable place in which to live. Essentially, we are all human beings who share a common fate, and that is what inspired the founders of our Organization.” (Jun. 8,2006 acceptance speech, Pres. UN Gen. Assembly; photo Elliott School, Geo. Wash. U)

Sisi Khampepe

/

Overview

Sisi Khampepe born Soweto, Transvaal January 9, 1957. Commissioner of South Africa Truth & Reconciliation Commission, 1995; Justice of South Africa Constitutional Court, 2009.

Quotations

"[W]omen bring their own perspective in the adjudication of issues. They don't only bring knowledge, but they bring in their own reasoning with it. There are issues that men would not take seriously as women would." (IOL News, Sept. 21, 2005; photo iol.co.za)

Irene Khan

/

Overview

Irene Khan born Dhaka, Bangladesh December 24, 1956. First female Secretary General of Amnesty International, 2001-9; UN High Commission for Refugees, 1990, leading missions to India (1991) and Macedonia (1999); recipient of Sydney Peace Prize, 2006; featured in antiwar movie Soldiers of Peace, 2009.

Quotations

"The world does not need a war against ‘terrorism,’ it needs a culture of peace based on human rights for all." (Pakistan, Dec. 10, 2001; photo wikicommons pd)