Bernadette Rebienot

Overview

Bernadette Rebienot born Libreville, Gabon January 1, 1934. Spiritual leader and healer. Honored by Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) as one of International Council of 13 Indigenous Grandmothers with International Pfeffer Peace Prize, 2013.

Quotations

“In Gabon, when the Grandmother speak, the President listens. There is war all around us, but there is no war in Gabon. . . Nothing happens in my country without consulting the woman. For the simple reason that the gentle power, the gentle strength, the conserver of our beliefs, is the woman.” (quote and photo nativevillage.org)

Vanessa Redgrave

Overview

Vanessa Redgrave born London, England January 30, 1937. Actress; active in human rights causes, including support for Irish independence, freedom for Soviet Jews, aid for Bosnian Muslims and Palestinian rights, and opposition to nuclear armament, the Vietnam War and the war on terrorism. Co-founder of Artists Against Racism, Peace and Progress Party; UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador.

Quotations

"Human rights and human rights law is the only basis for creating a world that my children, your children, our grandchildren can live in." (CBS, May 31, 2007 rebroadcast; 2011 photo Wikipedia)

Elisabeth Rehn

Overview

Elisabeth Rehn (née Carlberg) born Helsinki, Finland April 6, 1935. United Nations Special Representative for human rights Bosnia 1995; UN Under-Secretary 1998; Finnish Minister of Equality Affairs 1991; Author of Women, War and Peace (2002).

Quotations

"Everyone knows women are victims of war, but they are never represented at the peace table." (Nov. 13, 2001; photo Wikipedia)

Patricia A. Reif

Overview

Patricia A. Reif born Los Angeles, CA May 6, 1929 (d. 2012). Catholic nun; philosophy professor teaching feminist spirituality; co-founder Women Strike for Peace 1961; leader of dissident feminist community Women-Church 1985; co-founder Southern California Interfaith Task Force on Central America (SCITCA) opposing US intervention; founded Interfaith Hunger Coalition which opposed international infant formula over breastfeeding.

Quotations

“You cannot be a Feminist without Praxis.” (Teresa Yugar, Oct. 16, 2012; photo gettyimages)

Aurelia Henry Reinhardt

Overview

Aurelia Reinhardt (née Henry) born San Francisco, CA April 1, 1877 (d. 1948). Pacifist orator. President of Mills College, 1916-43. Early supporter of League to Enforce Peace, 1915. Sought improvement of conditions for Japanese-American internees. American Association of University Women (AAUW) representative to United Nations conference, San Francisco, 1945. Promoted League of Nations Non-Partisan Association, National Council for the Prevention of War, Conference on the Cause and Cure of War, National Committee on Japanese Relations, Near East Relief Organization, and Institute of Pacific Relations. (photo harvardsquare.org)

Mary Renault

Overview

Mary Renault (née Eileen Mary Challans) born Forest Gate, Essex, London, England September 4, 1905 (d. 1983). Historian and writer, leader of Black Sash women's movement against Apartheid.

Quotations

"It is better to learn war early from friends, than late from enemies." (The Bull from the Sea, p. 46, 1962; photo Wikipedia)

Celine Renooz

Overview

Céline Renooz born Liège, Belgium January 7, 1840 (d. 1928). Feminist author and lecturer; matriarchal pacifist.

Quotations

"Woman must count on herself alone to make the new world." (Prédestinée 1894 in Bland and Cross, Gender and Politics, p. 164)

Maria Ressa

Overview

Maria Ressa born Manila, Philippines October 2, 1963. Ressa is a Filipino and American journalist and co-founder and CEO of Rappler. She previously spent nearly two decades working as a lead investigative reporter in Southeast Asia for CNN. She was included in Time's Person of the Year 2018 issue featuring a collection of journalists from around the world actively combating fake news. Ressa is one of the 25 leading figures on the Information and Democracy Commission launched by Reporters Without Borders. She was awarded the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize jointly with Dmitry Muratov for "their efforts to safeguard freedom of expression, which is a precondition for democracy and lasting peace."

Quotations

“Don't be afraid - if you don't exercise your rights, you will lose them.”

Elisabeth Reusse-Decrey

Overview

Elisabeth Reusse-Decrey born Switzerland October 16, 1953. Psychotherapist working with international Conciliation Resources; leader of World Organisation Against Torture. Founded Geneva Call to coordinate international action against landmines, 1998; President of Swiss Parliament, 2000; Nobel Peace Prize nominee, 2005.

Quotations

On her motivations: "[I have] a burning passion to change the world. . . Women are like this, I think, they often have more conviction. Even if it's difficult at the beginning they go ahead." (SwissInfo, photo World People's Blog)

Elizabeth Reynard

Overview

Elizabeth Reynard born October 4, 1898 (d. 1962). Cape Cod author; professor of English; companion and assistant to Virginia Gildersleeve in drafting UN Charter, 1945.

Quotations

 "We the peoples of the United Nations, determined to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which in our time has brought untold sorrow to mankind. . ." (Opening of UN Charter, for which Virginia Gildersleeve credited her as co-author: Many a Good Crusade, p. 345; photo http://bit.ly/yV7hla)

Betsy Graves Reyneau

Overview

Betsy Graves Reyneau born Battle Creek, MI June 6, 1889 (d. 1964). American portrait artist; suffragist jailed Occoquan Prison 1917 for suffrage protest; gave refuge to Jews fleeing from Hitler; fought racism by painting portraits of eminent Black leaders 1939.

Barbara Leonard Reynolds

Overview

Barbara Leonard Reynolds born Milwaukee, WI June 12, 1915 (d. 1990).  Quaker protester; anti-nuclear activist; tax resister. Sailed Phoenix into Eniwetok test zone, 1958; world tour with hibakusha (survivors of the atomic bombings), 1964; created World Friendship Center, Hiroshima, 1965.

Quotations

"They [the hibakusha] only wanted everyone in the world to know what had happened to them so that it would never happen again to anyone, anywhere. I wanted to do whatever I could to help the hibakusha. . . But I realized it would not be easy for I had learned that there are many problems to be solved if we are to make peace in a divided world." (Phoenix and the Dove, 1986; photo World Friendship Center)

Malvina Reynolds

Overview

Malvina Reynolds (née Milder) born San Francisco, CA August 23, 1900 (d. 1978). Folksinger and activist; Socialist; organized "Playing War" against war toys 1964, "Sick World" against A-bomb 1964, "Heavy on Me" against pollution 1977; "Nestle No!" against baby formula 1978.

Quotations

We must learn to live with peace
And take it as our friend,
We must learn to live with peace,
Or all the world will end
("Peace Isn't Treason." 1965; photo Wikipedia)

Ruth Mary Reynolds

Overview

Ruth Mary Reynolds Willmarth born Terraville, SD February 29, 1916 (d. 1989). “The American Nationalist.” Nonviolent advocate of Puerto Rican independence. War Resisters League pacifist. Member of Gandhian Harlem Ashram, 1940s. Served as founding Executive Secretary, American League for Puerto Rico’s Independence, 1946; lobbied UN and Congress. Arrested in Puerto Rico, 1950; sentenced to six-year prison term for sedition; released on appeal after 17 months, 1954.

Quotations

“What does the pacifist do when he finds himself set down in No Man’s Land, with bitter battle raging all around? Well, if he’s not a coward, he doesn’t run, but stays and faces the issue. He keeps his sense of values, and, while he condemns violence on either side, he realizes that Empire is in itself the basic violence, and that to oppress with violence is worse than to resist oppression with violence. He tries to play his own role with compassion and understanding, demonstrating in practice, not in theory, that there is a better way. Thus and only thus can he show that pacifism is not irresponsible withdrawal from conflict, but rather a saner, more constructive way of fighting.” (We Have Not Been Moved, p. 54; photo pedroapontevasquez.com)

Fahmida Riaz

Overview

Fahmida Riaz born Meerut, British India July 28, 1946. Pakistani poet and feminist. Persecuted and exiled by military regime, 1981-88. Founded Women and Development Association WADA (“A Promise”), working for peace and women’s rights, 1994. Promoted friendship with India.

Quotations

So it turned out you are just like us!
Where were you hiding all this time, buddy?
That stupidity, that ignorance
we wallowed in for a century—
look, it arrived at your shores too!
Many congratulations to you!
Raising the flag of religion,
. . .
I used to wonder with such deep sorrow.
And now, I laugh at the idea:
it turned out you were just like us!
We weren’t two nations after all!

(“We Are Just Like You!”, Shabana Mir translation; photo Youtube)

Megan Rice

Overview

Megan Rice born Manhattan, NY January 31, 1930. Catholic nun; taught biology in Nigeria and Ghana. Arrested over three dozen times for nonviolent civil disobedience against US nuclear weapons and the School of Americas, for which she served two 6-month terms. Broke into Y-12 National Security Complex, Oak Ridge, TN, 2012; sentenced to 35 months prison, 2014, released and conviction overturned, 2015.

Quotations

"To remain in prison for the rest of my life would be the greatest gift you could give me." (CBS News, Feb. 18, 2014; photo Huffington Post)

Adrienne Rich

Overview

Adrienne Rich born Baltimore, MD May 16, 1929. Anti-war poet. Opposed wars in Vietnam Gulf and Iraq, atomic tests; published essays against racism, growing inequality and imprisonment.

Quotations

"Life on the planet is born of woman. . . [R]ecent enormous anti-war and anti-imperialist gatherings on every continent have been asserting, that ‘another world is possible.’" (March 2004, intro to Three Essays to Change the World; 1980 photo Wikipedia)

Gloria Richardson

Overview

Gloria Richardson (née Hayes) born Baltimore, MD May 6, 1922. Militant nonviolent civil rights leader and piano teacher. Founded Cambridge Movement, demanding immediate desegregation. Led Cambridge Nonviolent Action Committee (CNAC), 1963; when shot rang out, she pushed a National Guardsman’s rifle aside. Negotiated Cambridge Treaty to end segregation and riots, 1963. Arrested repeatedly for sit-ins.

Quotations

“We weren’t going to stop until we got [our five demands], and if violence occurred, then we would have to accept that.” (Democracy Now, Aug. 27, 2013; photo conversations in black freedom studies)

Rozanne L. Ridgway

Overview

Rozanne L. Ridgway born St. Paul, MN August 22, 1935. American career diplomat; first woman State Department Counselor 1980; Assistant Secretary of State 1985-9, lead negotiator at five Reagan-Gorbachev summits, which brought first substantive nuclear weapons reductions, marking end of Cold War.

Quotations

"[T]he United States cannot prosper in a poor world. We cannot prosper in a world enmired in conflict. We cannot prosper in a world in which there is rampant denial of human rights." (Nov. 4, 1994, Vancouver, WA city website; photo nndb.com)

Luise Rinser

Overview

Luise Rinser born Landsberg, Germany April 30, 1911 (d. 2002). German anti-militarist writer. Survived Nazi death sentence and imprisonment for anti-war activity, 1944. Protested Pershing missiles, 1974. First Green Party anti-nuclear candidate for president, 1984.

Quotations

“How stupid we women are. I am totally against ‘Women in the Army.’ The whole women’s movement for emancipation is a farce, if equality means that also women should be allowed to shoot human beings.” (Deutsche Volkszeitung, May 15, 1980)

“[Yeshua] accomplished only the heroic deed of perfect non-violence. The greatest of all heroic deeds. He said: 'This is the mission I give to you: Teach the unity of all life, teach love.'” (Miryam; photo badischezeitung)