Martin Luther King Day: Human Rights Leaders Around The World (PHOTOS)

Monday marks what would have been Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s 81st birthday, and though the civil rights icon's legacy is hard to match, he'd likely be honored to find his message carried forth by some of these truly incredible human rights activists.

At the forefront is 2010 Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, who remains incarcerated as a political prisoner in the People's Republic of China. But similarly inspiring are Myanmar opposition politician and democracy advocate Aung San Suu Kyi, finally released from house arrest in November, Afghan women's rights activist Sima Samar (also a Nobel contender) and Nikolai Alekseev, a prominent Russian attorney who won the first-ever case at the European Court of Human Rights on lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender rights violations in Russia.

In honor of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, view photos of some of the world's most prominent civil rights leaders here:

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Liu Xiaobo

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The fourth incarcerated person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, Chinese dissident and writer, professor, and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo was denied the right to collect his award in Oslo.

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The fourth incarcerated person to receive a Nobel Peace Prize, Chinese dissident and writer, professor, and human rights activist Liu Xiaobo was denied the right to collect his award in Oslo.

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Comments

[nongrata]

04:15 AM on 01/21/2011

Human rights is impossible. The only way to get rights for some is to take it from others.

[Artemis34]

07:01 PM on 01/20/2011

I'm glad to see the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo included although Maradona has nothing to do with their struggle. 

[carnitine]

11:52 PM on 01/19/2011

Civil Rights don't exist here

[fromfaraway]

11:51 PM on 01/17/2011

It is only a human rights violation if there is no bill to cover it.

[shylove2]

08:34 PM on 01/17/2011

So how sdoes a poorly staged pretext for war in Iraq to match the Tolken Gulf resolution... to follow a preemptive war strategy with a paranoid fantasy to show our imminent threat of attck and then follow it up with death and destruction to be rebuilt except the chaos of opposition forces us to settle for next to noithing but oil concessions and lots of bases to house future non-combatants.

And a country where the assassinations and numerous attempted ones and mysterious deaths keep adding to the skullduggery of invisible forces stirring and shaking our country for some demented kind of merriment...

[LMPE]

06:12 PM on 01/17/2011

I found it a little ironic that Viktoria Mohacsi and Julius Kaggwa appeared in a place named for Woodrow Wilson. If anyone doesn't belong in the same sentence as human rights, it's Woodrow Wilson. Just read "Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong".

[krs41]

08:21 PM on 01/17/2011

woodrow wilson supported eugenics

[LMPE]

09:27 PM on 01/17/2011

Exactly my point. To be certain, he was a white supremacist who repeatedly intervened in Latin America.

[Artemis34]

07:18 PM on 01/20/2011

You could recall a few little details like Wilson was born in 1856 and was very much a product of his times.  And he was born in Virginia and very much a product of the south.  H3ll, Virginia can't even get their text books right today, teaching children a lot of nonsense. 

[Shukr]

03:40 PM on 01/17/2011

There doesn't need to be a muslim mlk. A friendly drone strike will take care of that...and their children.

Sawchasm.

[krs41]

05:03 PM on 01/17/2011

hopefully no sarcasm

[Pod-gers]

02:20 PM on 01/17/2011

Unfortunately, there are human rights activists, as well as leades in our very own country, that want to cure other countries of their human rights abuses by means they would never ever use here in the US, UK, canaa, Australia, etc.

Now, it seems, those calling for regime change and colour revolutions, want to glom onto Dr Martin Luther King's legacy, to legitimize all the suffering they have brought to third world countries.

Now hear this...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmRV4mJoLC8
Stop demeaning Dr Martin Luther King!

[krs41]

05:04 PM on 01/17/2011

why aren't you calling for regime change and allowing people to suffer under their unelected governments

[DC Gal]

02:17 PM on 01/17/2011

Who made this selection? How many representatives do we need from Western Sahara, a territory of less than 300K people? The African continent is big and full of worthy representatives. Western Saharan activists represented here support the independence of the territory under the rule of the Polisario, which is a leftist/communist authoritarian group that gives the Moroccan regime, as terrible as it is, a run for its money.

Let's distinguish between the fight for human rights and dignity and the ideological fight between the equally repressive. Morocco "proper" itself has many worthy candidates. One of my favourites is Aicha Chenna, women rights activist supporting the rights of single mothers in an unwelcoming environment

http://www.amazingwomenrock.com/role-models/aicha-chenna-women-s-rights-activist.html

[kikimama3000]

01:59 PM on 01/17/2011

What we should all remember about MLK is the ability of a man to sacrifice his life for the lives of others, this type of unselfish humanity is what we should remind ourselves is the best of human kind and all should aspire to. All people have a right to freedom, all people have a right to the basic necessities of life. No human is born more entitled than another, we should all know this by now, live and let live, this is the way to peace. We must remember that all though we each walk in our own shoes, we are all a part of the same human family. I will not turn my back in the hour of need against any of my own, be they russian, german, arab, nordic, arab, tunisian, tibetan, brazilian, american, asian, french italian, christian, jew, muslim, you name it, all of you, because In my own heart, I know that each of you belongs to me as I belong to you. If you look beneath the surface we are all the same, God's own artistic vision of human beauty, and obviously god was so in love with us he could not stop creating these beautiful human visions. Love is the only answer, with that love comes an undeniable fact that we must take care of each other, or the legacy of human pain and suffering for the sake of greed and power will destroy us one and all.

[MikeyJaii]

01:48 PM on 01/17/2011

Make a difference !

[on5464]

12:54 PM on 01/17/2011

Icons like these are needed to encapsulate the spirit of our common struggles in every society. Yet, just like the fallacy of most New Year Resolutions, what really matters is not the awareness or the promise we hold on a day like today, but the action we must take every day through the rest of the year, and every year through the rest of our lives.

I am currently in Saudi Arabia, and I see first hand how women, minorities, and pretty much all foreigners – with the apparent exception of any deposed corrupt dictators with billions in their bank accounts, are being severely discriminated against in every moment of their days. I have politely talked with the Saudi men I ran into about these issues. Most of them knew exactly what I was talking about, as I could see the thieving shame and selfishness in their eyes, that was still stopping them from doing the right thing.

This is where Dr. King’s legacy is to be revered and followed. The best and only way to convince our fellow human beings to treat their fellow human beings with equality and respect is for us to treat them with equality and respect first. Conscience and justice are our best weapons against selfishness and violence. Wars are by the weak-minded, while peace comes from the strongest hearts.

[kikimama3000]

01:44 PM on 01/17/2011

It is so good to know that I have a like minded brother or sister out there in the world, your words mean so much, the truth is that sometimes I despair of the state of this world. I cry everyday for my human brothers and sister whether they be american, saudi,african,christain or muslim should not matter. We belong to each other and to see people destroy each other mostly over the basic needs to survive can and must be avoided there must be some way. I will keep you in my heart as all others.

[emerywood]

12:30 PM on 01/17/2011

" Chinese dissident, writer, human rights activist and professor " and that is all we know about this man
Liu Xiaobo. Let me say that this is not enough material for any educated reader to accept without question that he is unquestionably a hero that we should unconditionally support. I wish the Media would
do a better job detailing what he wrote or what he had done in his life to warrant a " hero " status. Why was he in jail in China was also not explained in detail other than assuming that the communists locked him up because of his belief and their idiosyncracy. If most reporters don't understand Chinese, why not hire Chinese reporters who understand English to do the job ? How can we understand each other when we are too lazy to find out the details ?

[OMGimhotep]

01:13 PM on 01/17/2011

F/F for doubting "true truths."

[GPTP]

01:44 PM on 01/17/2011

Well said!!

[krs41]

12:18 PM on 01/17/2011

where is the muslim mlk?

[Leo Bloom]

12:21 PM on 01/17/2011

They're too busy protesting Danish cartoons.

[randyeye]

01:38 PM on 01/17/2011

What do you call Osama bin Laden? He perfectly epitomizes his religious beliefs.

[Jeff Forsythe]

12:05 PM on 01/17/2011

The Chinese Communist Party is a brutal regime that practices torture, slavery and even organ harvesting
­(removing and selling organs from living people) on its own people. I am a Falun Dafa practition ­er and there are countless accounts of brutality such as pregnant women being put in prison cells with violent men and then these poor women have been raped many times. The Government ­s of the World are aware of these heinous acts but choose to keep the truth from us because of corporate greed. Thank you for your considerat ­ion.