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Human rights and whistleblower advocates

102 articles

Thích Quảng Đức

Thích Quảng Đức (釋廣德), Vietnamese Mahayana Buddhist monk (1897–1963) who self-immolated in Saigon on 11 June 1963 protesting Ngô Đình Diệm's persecution of Buddhists; Malcolm Browne's photo won World Press Photo of the Year.

Timothy Shriver

Timothy Shriver is an American educator and Chairman of Special Olympics International, founded by his mother Eunice Kennedy Shriver. He co-founded CASEL, founded UNITE.US, co-created the Dignity Index, and produced films including Amistad and Peanut Butter Falcon.

Toby Young

Toby Young (born 1963), Lord Young of Acton, is a British journalist and campaigner, son of Michael Young; founder of the Free Speech Union, co-founder of the West London Free School and the Modern Review.

Tokata Iron Eyes

Tokata (Tokatawin) Iron Eyes, later Gibson, is a Hunkpapa and Oglala Lakota Standing Rock Sioux youth climate activist who led the ReZpect Our Water campaign against the Dakota Access Pipeline at age 12 and later worked with Greta Thunberg.

Tushar Gandhi (तुषार आरुण गांधी)

Tushar Arun Gandhi (तुषार आरुण गांधी), born 1960, is an Indian author and activist, great-grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, founder-president of the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation, author of Let's Kill Gandhi, and a critic of the BJP-RSS.

Tyler Shultz

Tyler Shultz, Stanford-trained biologist and grandson of George Shultz, was the Theranos research engineer and whistleblower who exposed the $9 billion blood-testing fraud, then co-founded Flux Biosciences and Healthyr.

VeryDarkMan

VeryDarkMan (VDM), Martins Vincent Otse, born 1994, is a Nigerian social media commentator and activist known as "online police", famous for call-out videos, defamation suits (Falana, Mercy Chinwo), a fabricated NGO theft claim, and deepfake impersonation scams.

Victoria Roshchyna

Viktoriia Roshchyna (Вікторія Рощина), Ukrainian freelance journalist for Ukrainska Pravda and Hromadske who reported from Russian-occupied Ukraine, was detained in August 2023 and died 19 September 2024 in Russian custody in Kizel, Perm Krai; her returned body showed torture signs and missing organs.

Virginia Giuffre

Virginia Roberts Giuffre (1983–2025), American-born survivor advocate and principal accuser of Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew; founded SOAR, settled the 2021 New York civil suit for a reported $16 million, died April 25, 2025 in Western Australia.

Waris Dirie

Waris Dirie (Waris Diiriye), Somali-born model, author and anti-FGM activist; UN special ambassador 1997–2003; author of Desert Flower; founder of the Desert Flower Foundation in Vienna.

Yeonmi Park (박연미)

Yeonmi Park (박연미), born 1993 in Hyesan, is a North Korean defector, human rights activist, and author of In Order to Live (2015) and While Time Remains (2023), known for her 2014 One Young World speech and for documented inconsistencies in her escape accounts.

Ziauddin Yousafzai

Ziauddin Yousafzai (born 1969) is a Pakistani educator and co-founder, with daughter Malala Yousafzai, of Malala Fund (2013); he kept his Swat Valley school open under the Taliban and wrote the memoir Let Her Fly.