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{{Short description|Form of protest or political activism}}
{{For|the Temple of the Dog song|Hunger Strike (song)}}
{{For|the song|Hunger Strike (song)}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=January 2024}}
[[File:Dobrzeń Wielki – protest głodowy i Grzegorz Schetyna.JPG|thumb|Residents of [[Dobrzeń Wielki]], Poland, in 2017, protesting the planned incorporation of their community to the city of [[Opole]]]]


A '''hunger strike''' is a method of [[non-violent resistance]] where participants [[fasting|fast]] as an act of political [[protest]], usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Engelbrecht |first=Cora |date=May 2, 2023 |title=Hunger Strikes Have Long Served as a Tool of Nonviolent Protest |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/world/hunger-strikes-explainer.html |access-date=January 29, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129045845/https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/world/hunger-strikes-explainer.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Hunger strike definition and meaning |url=https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hunger-strike |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150406133909/http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/hunger-strike |archive-date=April 6, 2015 |access-date=October 21, 2021 |website=www.collinsdictionary.com |publisher=[[Collins English Dictionary]]}}</ref> Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are named '''dry hunger strikers'''.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Foltynova |first=Kristyna |title=Anatomy Of A Hunger Strike: Why Is It Done And What Does It Do To The Human Body? |url=https://www.rferl.org/a/hunger-strikes-russia/31266830.html |access-date=2024-03-25 |website=RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty |language=en}}</ref>
A '''hunger strike''' is a method of [[non-violent resistance]] or pressure in which participants [[fasting|fast]] as an act of political [[protest]], or to provoke feelings of [[guilt]] in others, usually with the objective to achieve a specific goal, such as a policy change. Most hunger strikers will take liquids but not solid food. A hunger strike cannot be effective if the fact that it is being undertaken is not publicized so as to be known by the people who are to be impressed, concerned or embarrassed by it.{{Citation needed|date=September 2011}}


In cases where an entity (usually the state) has or is able to obtain custody of the hunger striker (such as a [[prison]]er), the hunger strike is often terminated by the custodial entity through the use of [[force-feeding]].
In cases where an entity (usually the [[State (polity)|state]]) has or is able to obtain custody of the hunger striker (such as a [[prison]]er), the hunger strike is often terminated by the custodial entity through the use of [[force-feeding]].<ref>{{Cite news |last=Savage |first=Charlie |date=October 11, 2017 |title=Military Is Waiting Longer Before Force-Feeding Hunger Strikers, Detainees Say |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/us/politics/guantanamo-hunger-strikes-force-feeding.html |access-date=January 29, 2024 |work=The New York Times |language=en-US |issn=0362-4331 |archive-date=January 29, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240129015048/https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/11/us/politics/guantanamo-hunger-strikes-force-feeding.html |url-status=live }}</ref>


==Early history==
==Early history==
Fasting was used as a method of protesting injustice in pre-Christian [[Ireland]], where it was known as ''Troscadh'' or ''Cealachan''. It was detailed in the contemporary civic codes, and had specific rules by which it could be used. The fast was often carried out on the doorstep of the home of the offender. Scholars speculate this was due to the high importance the culture placed on hospitality. Allowing a person to die at one's doorstep, for a wrong of which one was accused, was considered a great dishonor. Others say that the practice was to fast for one whole night, as there is no evidence of people fasting to death in pre-Christian Ireland. The fasts were primarily undertaken to recover debts or get justice for a perceived wrong. There are legends of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, using the hunger strike as well.<ref>David Beresford. ''Ten Men Dead'', (New York: Atlantic Press, 1987), 7. ISBN 0-87113-702-X</ref>
Fasting was used as a method of protesting injustice in pre-Christian [[Ireland]], where it was known as ''Troscadh'' or ''Cealachan''.<ref>Ellis, Peter Bereford. The Druids (Eerdmans, 1998). pp. 141–142.</ref> Detailed in the contemporary [[Civil code|civic codes]], it had specific rules by which it could be used, and the fast was often carried out on the doorstep of the home of the offender.<ref>{{cite EB1911 |wstitle=Brehon Laws |volume=4 |page=490}}</ref> Scholars speculate that this was due to the high importance the culture placed on hospitality. Allowing a person to die at one's doorstep, for a wrong of which one was accused, was considered a great dishonor.<ref>Joyce, Patrick Weston, A Smaller Social History of ancient Ireland (Longman, Green & Co, 1906), Chapter IV: The Administration of Justice, p.86. Found online at https://www.libraryireland.com/SocialHistoryAncientIreland/I-IV-6.php {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200224194835/https://www.libraryireland.com/SocialHistoryAncientIreland/I-IV-6.php |date=February 24, 2020 }}</ref> Others say that the practice was to fast for one whole night, as there is no evidence of people fasting to death in pre-Christian Ireland. The fasts were primarily undertaken to recover debts or get justice for a perceived wrong. Legends of [[Saint Patrick]], the patron saint of Ireland, have used the hunger strike as well.<ref name=Beresford>{{cite book|last=Beresford|first=David|title=Ten Men Dead|year=1987|publisher=Atlantic Press|location=New York|isbn=978-0-87113-702-9}}{{page needed|date=November 2018}}</ref>


In [[India]], the practice of a hunger protest, where the protestor fasts at the door of an offending party (typically a debtor) in a public call for justice, was abolished by the government in 1861; this indicates the prevalence of the practice prior to that date, or at least a public awareness of it.<ref>Ibid., 8.</ref> This Indian practice is ancient, going back to around 400 to 750 BC. This can be known since it appears in the [[Valmiki Ramayana]], which was composed around that time. The actual mention appears in the Ayodhya Kanda, (the second book of the Ramayana), in Sarga (section) 103. [[Bharata (Ramayana)|Bharata]] has gone to ask the exiled [[Rama]] to come back and rule the kingdom. Bharata tries many arguments, none of which work, at which point he decides to do a hunger strike. He announces his intention to fast, calls for his charioteer [[Sumantra]] to bring him some sacred [[Kusha grass]], (but Sumantra won't do it since he's too busy looking at Rama's face, so Bharata has to get the grass himself), lies down upon it in front of Rama. Rama, however, is quickly able to persuade him to abandon the attempt. Rama mentions it as a practice of the [[brahmanas]].
In [[India]], the practice of a hunger protest, where the protester fasts at the door of an offending party (typically a debtor) in a public call for justice, was abolished by the government in 1861; this indicates the prevalence of the practice prior to that date, or at least a public awareness of it.<ref name=Beresford/>


==Medical view==
==Medical view==
In the first 3 days, the body is still using energy from [[glucose]].{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}} After that, the liver starts processing [[body fat]], in a process called [[ketosis]]. After 3 weeks the body enters a "[[starvation]] mode". At this point the body "mines" the muscles and vital organs for energy, and loss of [[bone marrow]] becomes life-threatening. There are examples of hunger strikers dying after 52 to 74 days of strike.<ref>See, e.g., the [[1981 Irish hunger strike]].</ref>
In the first three days, the body still uses energy from [[glucose]].<ref name=Coffee>{{cite book|first1=C. J.|last1=Coffee|title=Quick Look: Metabolism|publisher=Hayes Barton Press|year=2004|page=169|isbn=978-1593771928}}</ref> After that, the [[liver]] starts processing [[body fat]], in a process called [[ketosis]]. After depleting fat, the body enters a "[[starvation]] mode".<ref name=Coffee /> At this point the body "mines" the muscles and vital organs for energy, and loss of [[bone marrow]] becomes life-threatening. There are examples of hunger strikers dying after 46 to 73 days of strike, for example the [[1981 Irish hunger strike]].<ref name=Beresford/> Hunger strikers can experience hallucinations<ref>{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=Ian |title=Medical History |date=2018 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing}}</ref> and [[delirium]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Psychiatry in Prisons A Comprehensive Handbook |date=2018 |publisher=Jessica Kingsley |page=156}}</ref> Death usually occurs when a hunger striker has lost about 40–50% of their pre-strike weight at about 60–70 days in.<ref>Stevenson, R. J., & Prescott, J. (2014). Human diet and cognition. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 5(4), 463–475.</ref> Obese individuals can last longer.<ref>Johnstone A. Fasting the ultimate diet. Obes Rev 2007,
8:211–222.</ref>

==Recent instances==

===Michael Schmidt===


Dairy Farmer Michael Schmidt of Durham, Ontario, Canada has been on a hunger strike for the last 28 days (beginning on Friday, September 30, 2011) in the name of food choice freedom. Quoted from The Toronto Star, "The 57-year-old farmer and advocate of organic [[raw milk]] held a news conference at Queen’s Park Tuesday and also read a letter he was delivering to Dalton McGuinty in which he stated that his hunger strike would continue, unless the premier agreed to meet with him in person as soon as possible to discuss the right of people to buy food directly from farmers." http://www.thestar.com/news/article/1072160--farmer-s-hunger-strike-for-raw-milk-goes-on


For further information on [[raw milk]] and Michael Schmidt's fight for food choice freedom, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raw_milk#Canada

===Anna Hazare===
[[Anna Hazare|Anna]] did a 12-day hunger strike protest in Ramlila Maidan, Delhi to protest against corruption and in order to pressure Indian government to pass Jan Lokpal Bill.<ref>{{cite news|title=Anna Hazare: Indian MPs back anti-corruption demands|url=http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-14675511 | work=BBC News | date=August 27, 2011}}</ref>

His campaign for the strengthening the anti-corruption legislation proposed by the government has received widespread support. All over the country people supported his movement, with tens of thousands of people attending protests across the country. Finally, Indian MPs expressed support for proposed changes to anti-corruption legislation on August 27, 2011. They hope that this will persuade Anna to end his hunger strike.

===Swami Nigamanand===

Indian seer Swami Nigamanand went on a fast unto death to protest against illegal mining on the bank of the Ganga in Haridwar. Nigamanand, who was on fast beginning February 19, 2011 was declared dead the following June 13, after being on a hunger strike for 115 days. He was shifted to the district government hospital after his health deteriorated on April 27, and thereafter to the Himalayan Institute Hospital Trust hospital in Dehra Dun in a state of coma on May 2. Nigamanand was on fast to force the state government to issue an order to stop quarrying in the Ganga. He also wanted the works of Himalaya Stone Crusher to be shifted from the Kumbh Mela area.

===Thileepan – Fast to Death===
[[Image:Thileepan fasting.jpg|thumb|200px|right|"I am confident that our people will, one day, achieve their freedom. It gives me great satisfaction and contentment that I am fulfilling a national responsibility to the nation."]]
{{Main|Thileepan}}
On 15 September 1987 at 9.30 a.m at the [[Nallur Murugan Temple]], Thileepan began his fast. His main objective was to bring awareness and action to a list of public demands made by himself and the [[Tamil Tigers]], considered<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.publicsafety.gc.ca/prg/ns/le/cle-eng.aspx#LTTE%23LTTE |title=Currently listed entities |publisher=Publicsafety.gc.ca |date=2010-03-05 |accessdate=2010-09-01}}</ref> to be a terrorist group.

The publicly stated goals of his fast were:

* All [[Sri Lankan Tamils|Tamils]] detained under the [[Prevention of Terrorism Act (Sri Lanka)|Prevention of Terrorism Act]] should be released.
* The [[colonisation of Sinhalese in Tamil areas]] under the guise of rehabilitation should be stopped.
* All such rehabilitation should be stopped until an interim government is formed.
* The Sri Lankan government should stop opening new Police stations and camps in the [[North Eastern Province, Sri Lanka|Northeastern]] province.
* The [[Sri Lankan Army]] and Police should withdraw from schools in Tamil villages and the weapons given by the Sri Lankan government to 'homeguards' should be withdrawn under the supervision of the Indian army. Just prior to his fast the relationship between the LTTE and the IPKF administration was its lowest point.

Although several groups requested Thileepan as well as the local [[IPKF]] administration to intervene and stop the fast, Thileepan died on the 26th of September 1987. There was widespread grief in Tamil areas. Thousands of people from the North and East flooded [[Jaffna]] as news of his death spread{{Citation needed|date=March 2007}}. His death created an anti-Indian mood in Jaffna, which had been pro-India until then.

===Tibetan diaspora===
In 2008, [[phayul.com]] posted a picture of people in a camp; the website called them [[Tibetan people|Tibetan]]s hunger striking in [[Kathmandu]] after they were arrested for trying to cross into [[Tibet Autonomous Region|Tibet]], China.<ref>[http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22166&t=3&c=1 Tibetans sit on hunger strike unto death in Kathmandu]</ref> Members of the [[Tibetan Youth Congress]] hunger striked in July 2008 in [[New Delhi]] against China's hosting of the [[2008 Summer Olympics]].<ref>[http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22217 Conditions deteriorate as TYC hunger strikers complete a week]</ref> The six strikers, mostly monks, were taken to hospital by police when they reached critical situation.<ref>[http://www.phayul.com/news/article.aspx?id=22258&t=1&c=1 Police Take Hunger Strikers to Hospital for Medical Care]</ref>

===Gandhi & Bhagat Singh===
[[Mohandas Gandhi]] was imprisoned in 1922, 1930, 1933 and 1942. Because of Gandhi's stature around the world, [[United Kingdom|British]] authorities were loath to allow him to die in their custody. It is likely Britain's reputation would have suffered as a result of such an event. Gandhi engaged in several famous hunger strikes to protest [[British Empire|British]] rule of India. Fasting was a non-violent way of communicating the message and sometimes dramatically achieve the reason for the protest. This was keeping with the rules of [[Satyagraha]].

In addition to Gandhi, various others have used the hunger strike option during the Indian independence movement. Such figures include [[Jatin Das]] and [[Bhagat Singh]] 116th day of their fast, on October 5, 1929 that Bhagat Singh and Dutt gave up their strike (surpassing the 97 day world record for hunger strikes which was set by an Irish revolutionary). During this hunger strike that lasted 116 days and ended with the British succumbing to his wishes, he gained much popularity among the common Indians. Before the strike his popularity was limited mainly to the Punjab region.

After Indian Independence, freedom fighter [[Potti Sreeramulu]] used hunger strikes to get a separate state for Telugu-speaking people. Morarji Desai went on fast twice during NAVNIRMAN in sventies and prior to that Indulal Yagnik alias Indu Chacha went on a long fast during MahaGujarat and thereafter in seventies.

===Amarajeevi Potti Sriramulu===
[[Potti Sriramulu]] was an Indian revolutionary. He became famous for undertaking a fast-unto-death to make Madras city as the capital of the newly announced Andhra State and losing his life in the process. He is revered as Amarajeevi (Immortal being) in Coastal Andhra for his sacrifice. As a devout follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he worked life long to uphold principles such as truth and non-violence, patriotism and objectives such as Harijan upliftment. He fasted for 58 days before passing away.In Indian history only one another indian revolutionary who fasted till death, [[Jatin Das]]


==Examples==
{{See also|List of hunger strikes}}
{{Globalize|section|date=January 2024}}
===British and American suffragettes===
===British and American suffragettes===
[[File:Poster - Votes for Women - Man Prisoner Fed by Force, March 1911. (22896718036).jpg|thumb|A 1911 headline in ''[[Votes for Women (newspaper)|Votes for Women]]'' about [[William Ball (suffragist)|William Ball]] being force-fed in prison to end his hunger strike|alt=|224x224px]]
[[File:Djuna Barnes Clipping.jpg|thumb|Clipping from ''World Magazine'', September 6, 1914.]]
In the early 20th century [[Women's suffrage|suffragettes]] frequently endured hunger strikes in British prisons. [[Marion Wallace Dunlop|Marion Dunlop]] was the first in 1909. She was released, as the authorities did not want her to become a [[martyr]]. Other suffragettes in prison also undertook hunger strikes. The prison authorities subjected them to force-feeding, which the suffragettes categorized as a form of [[torture]]. [[Emmeline Pankhurst]]'s sister [[Mary Jane Clarke|Mary Clarke]] died shortly after being force-fed in prison, and others including [[Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton]] are believed to have had serious health problems caused by force feeding, dying of a [[myocardial infarction|heart attack]] not long after.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wilson|first=Simon|title=Psychiatry in Prisons: A Comprehensive Handbook|url=https://archive.org/details/psychiatryprison00wils|url-access=limited|year=2009|publisher=Jessica Kingsley Publishers|isbn=978-1843102236|author2=Ian Cumming|page=[https://archive.org/details/psychiatryprison00wils/page/n156 156]}}</ref> [[William Ball (suffragist)|William Ball]], a working class supporter of women's suffrage, was the subject of a pamphlet ''Torture in an English Prison'' not only due to the effects of force-feeding, but a cruel separation from family contact and mental health deterioration, secret transfer to a lunatic asylum and needed lifelong mental institutional care.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Rise up, women! : the remarkable lives of the suffragettes|last=Atkinson|first=Diane|publisher=Bloomsbury|year=2018|isbn=9781408844045|location=London|pages=289, 293|oclc=1016848621}}</ref> In December 1912, a Scottish prison put four suffragettes in the '[[political prisoner]]' category rather than 'criminal' second division, but staff at [[HM Prison Aberdeen|Craiginches Prison]], Aberdeen still subjected them to force-feeding when they went on hunger strike.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Pedersen |first=Sarah |title=The Aberdeen Women's Suffrage Campaign |url=https://suffrageaberdeen.co.uk/ |access-date=March 18, 2023 |website=suffrageaberdeen.co.uk |publisher=copyright WildFireOne |archive-date=March 18, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230318133553/https://suffrageaberdeen.co.uk/ |url-status=live }}</ref>


In 1913 the [[Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913]] (nicknamed the "Cat and Mouse Act") changed policy. Hunger strikes were tolerated but prisoners were released when they became sick. When they had recovered, the suffragettes were taken back to prison to finish their sentences. About 100 women received [[Hunger Strike Medal|medals]] for hunger striking or enduring force-feeding.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
[[Image:Djuna Barnes Clipping.jpg|thumb|Clipping from ''World Magazine'', September 6, 1914.]]
In the early 20th century [[Women's suffrage|suffragettes]] frequently endured hunger strikes in British prisons. [[Marion Wallace Dunlop|Marion Dunlop]] was the first in 1909. She was released, as the authorities did not want her to become a [[martyr]]. Other suffragettes in prison also undertook hunger strikes. The prison authorities subjected them to [[force-feeding]], which the suffragettes categorized as a form of [[torture]]. Mary Clarke, Jean Hewart, Katherine Fry and several others died as a result of force-feeding.{{Citation needed|date=August 2011}}


Like their British counterparts, American suffragettes also used this method of political protest. A few years before the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], a group of American suffragettes led by [[Alice Paul]] engaged in a hunger strike and endured forced feedings while incarcerated at the [[Occoquan Workhouse]] in Virginia.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
In 1913 the [[Prisoner's Temporary Discharge of Ill Health Act]] (nicknamed the "Cat and Mouse Act") changed policy. Hunger strikes were tolerated but prisoners were released when they became sick. When they had recovered, the suffragettes were taken back to prison to finish their sentences.


===Ireland===
Like their British counterparts, American suffragettes also used this method of political protest. A few years prior to the passage of the [[Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution]], a group of American suffragettes led by [[Alice Paul]] engaged in a hunger strike and endured forced feedings while incarcerated at the [[Occoquan Workhouse]] in Virginia.
[[File:Remember the Hunger Strikers Glasnevin Cemetery Dublin.JPG|thumb|Irish Hunger Strikers Memorial Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin]]
Hunger strikes have deep roots in Irish society and in the Irish psyche. Fasting in order to bring attention to an injustice which one felt under his lord, and thus shame him, was a common feature of [[Brehon Laws|early Irish]] society and this tactic was fully incorporated into the [[Brehon]] legal system. The tradition is ultimately most likely part of the still older Indo-European tradition of which the Irish were part.<ref>[[D.A. Binchy]], "A Pre-Christian Survival in Mediaeval Irish Hagiography", in ''Ireland in Early Mediaeval Europe'' (Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 168–178</ref><ref>[[Rudolf Thurneysen]], "Das Fasten beim Pfändungsverfahren", ''Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie'' 15 (1924–25) 260–275.</ref> Within the 20th century a total of 22 Irish republicans died on hunger strike with survivors suffering long-term health and psychological effects.


The tactic was used by [[Physical force Irish republicanism|physical force republicans]] during the [[Irish revolutionary period|1916–23 revolutionary period]]. Early use of hunger strikes was countered with [[force-feeding]], culminating in 1917 in the death of [[Thomas Ashe]] in [[Mountjoy Prison]]. During the [[Anglo-Irish war]], in October 1920, the [[Lord Mayor]] of [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Terence MacSwiney]], died on hunger strike in [[Brixton prison]]. At the same time, the [[1920 Cork hunger strike]] took place. Two other Cork [[Irish Republican Army (1919–1922)|Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) men, [[Joe Murphy (Irish Republican)|Joe Murphy]] and [[Michael Fitzgerald (Irish Republican)|Michael Fitzgerald]], died in this protest. Demanding reinstatement of political status and release from prison, nine men undertook a hunger strike at [[Cork County Gaol]] for 94 days, from August 11 to November 12, 1920.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/11/13/109801275.pdf | work=The New York Times | title=END HUNGER STRIKE OF CORK PRISONERS; Sinn Féin Leader Absolves Them and They Take Food After 94 Days' Fast. AMBUSH FIVE JOURNALISTS Soldiers Kill Two and Capture Seven of the Attackers—Mrs. MacSwiney Coming Here | date=November 13, 1920 | access-date=June 14, 2018 | archive-date=February 25, 2021 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210225134614/https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1920/11/13/109801275.pdf | url-status=live }}</ref><ref>''Guinness Book of Records 1988'', p. 21</ref> [[Arthur Griffith]] called off the strikes after the deaths of MacSwiney, Murphy and Fitzgerald.
===Irish republicans===
[[Image:Raymond Mc Cartney Mural SMC May 2007.jpg|thumb|200px|right|"This Mural Is Dedicated To The H Block & Armagh Prison Struggle And In Memory Of Bobby Sands, Kevin Lynch, Frank Hughes, Kieran Doherty, Raymond McCreesh, Tom McElwee, Patsy O'Hara, Michael Devine, Martin Hurson, Joe McDonnell."]]
Hunger strikes have deep roots in Irish society and in the Irish psyche. Fasting in order to bring attention to an injustice which one felt under his lord, and thus embarrass him into a solution, was a common feature of society in [[Brehon Laws|Early Irish]] society and this tactic was fully incorporated into the [[Brehon]] legal system. The tradition is ultimately most likely part of the still older Indo-European tradition of which the Irish were part.<ref>[[D.A. Binchy]], "A Pre-Christian Survival in Mediaeval Irish Hagiography," in ''Ireland in Early Mediaeval Europe'' (Cambridge University Press, 1982), pp. 168–178; [[Rudolf Thurneysen]], "Das Fasten beim Pfändungsverfahren," ''Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie'' 15 (1924–25) 260–275.</ref>


During the early 1920s, the vessel {{HMS|Argenta}} was used as a [[prison ship]] for the holding of [[Irish republican]]s by the British. Conditions on board were "unbelievable"<ref name="Kleinrichert, Denise 2000">{{cite book| last = Kleinrichert| first = Denise| title = Republican internment and the prison ship Argenta 1922| year = 2001| publisher = Irish Academic Press| isbn = 978-0-7165-2683-4 }}</ref> and there were several hunger strikes, including one involving upwards of 150 men in the winter of 1923.<ref>{{cite book| last = Hopkinson| first = Michael| title = The Irish War of Independence| year = 2004| publisher = M.H. Gill & Company U. C.| isbn = 978-0-7171-3741-1 }}</ref>
The tactic was used by Irish republicans from 1917 and, subsequently, during the [[Anglo-Irish War]], in the 1920s. Early use of hunger strikes by republicans had been countered by the British with [[force-feeding]], which culminated in 1917 in the death of [[Thomas Ashe]] in [[Mountjoy Prison]].


====Irish hunger strikes between 1923 and 1976====
In October 1920, the [[Lord Mayor]] of [[Cork (city)|Cork]], [[Terence MacSwiney]], died on hunger strike in [[Brixton]] prison. Two other Cork IRA men, [[Joe Murphy (Irish Republican)|Joe Murphy]] and [[Michael Fitzgerald (Irish Republican)|Michael Fitzgerald]], also died on hunger strike in this protest along with Monaghan native, [[Conor McElvaney]] who lasted 79 days before death. The ''[[Guinness Book of Records]]'' lists the world record in hunger strike (without forced feeding) as 94 days, which was set from August 11 to November 12, 1920 by John and Peter Crowley, Thomas Donovan, Michael Burke, Michael O'Reilly, Christopher Upton, John Power, Joseph Kenny and Seán Hennessy at the prison of Cork. [[Arthur Griffith]] called off the strikes after the deaths of MacSwiney, Murphy and Fitzgerald.
{{See also| 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes}}
In February 1923, 23 women (members of Cumann na mBan) went on hunger strike for 34 days over the arrest and imprisonment without trial of Irish republican prisoners. The Free State subsequently released the women republican prisoners. Most of the male republicans were not released until the following year.<ref>McCarthy, Pat, (2015), ''The Irish Revolution, 1912–1923'', Four Courts Press, Dublin, p.132, ISBN 978-1-84682-410-4</ref> After the end of the [[Irish Civil War]] in October 1923, up to 8,000 [[Irish Republican Army (1922–1969)|IRA]] prisoners went on hunger strike to protest their continued detention by the [[Irish Free State]] (a total of over 12,000 republicans had been interned by May 1923).<ref>The Forgotten Hunger Strikes". hungerstrikes.org.</ref> Three men, [[Denny Barry]], [[Joseph Whitty]], and [[Andy O'Sullivan (Irish Republican)|Andy O'Sullivan]], died during the 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes. The strike, however, was called off by Republican leadership in the camps (November 23, 1923) before any more deaths occurred.


Under [[Éamon de Valera|de Valera]]'s [[Government of the 7th Dáil|first Fianna Fáil government]] in 1932, military pensions were awarded to dependants of republicans who died in 1920s hunger strikes on the same basis as those who were [[killed in action]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1932/act/24/section/5/enacted/en/html#sec5|title=Army Pensions Act, 1932, Section 5(2)|work=[[Irish Statute Book]]|access-date=July 17, 2017|quote=the word "killed" includes ... death as an immediate result of refusing to take nourishment while detained in prison|archive-date=October 31, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171031012544/http://www.irishstatutebook.ie/eli/1932/act/24/section/5/enacted/en/html#sec5|url-status=live}}</ref> During [[The Emergency (Ireland)|the state of emergency]] of [[World War II]] [[Government of the 10th Dáil|another De Valera government]] interned many IRA members, three of whom died on hunger strike: [[Sean McCaughey]], [[Tony D'Arcy]] and [[Jack McNeela]]. Hundreds of others carried out shorter hunger strikes during the de Valera years.
After the end of the [[Irish Civil War]] in October 1923, up to 8000 IRA prisoners went on hunger strike to protest their continued detention by the [[Irish Free State]] (a total of over 12,000 republicans had been interned by May 1923). Two men, [[Denny Barry]] and [[Andrew O'Sullivan]], died on the strike. The strike, however, was called off before any more deaths occurred. The Free State subsequently released the women republican prisoners. Most of the male Republicans were not released until the following year.


The tactic was revived by the [[Provisional Irish Republican Army]] (IRA) in the early 1970s, when several republicans successfully used hunger strikes to get themselves released from custody without charge in the [[Republic of Ireland]]. [[Michael Gaughan (Irish republican)|Michael Gaughan]] died after being force-fed in [[Parkhurst Prison]] in 1974. [[Frank Stagg (Irish republican)|Frank Stagg]], an IRA member being held in [[Wakefield Prison]], died in 1976 after a 62-day hunger strike which he began as a campaign to be [[repatriate]]d to Ireland.<ref>{{cite book | last = White | first = Robert | title = Ruairí Ó Brádaigh: The Life and Politics of an Irish Revolutionary | publisher = [[Indiana University Press]] | year = 2006 | isbn = 978-0253347084 | pages = 246–247}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = O'Donnell | first = Ruán | title = Special Category: The IRA in English Prisons Vol.1: 1968–78 | publisher = [[Irish Academic Press]] | year = 2012 | isbn = 978-0-7165-3142-5 | page = 364 }}</ref>
Under the [[Éamon de Valera|de Valera]] [[Fianna Fáil]] government three hunger strikers died in the Republic of Ireland in the 1940s. They were [[Sean McCaughey]], [[Tony D'Arcy]] and [[Sean (Jack) McNeela]]. Hundreds of others carried out shorter hunger strikes during the de Valera years with no sympathy from the Government.


Members of other movements like [[Holger Meins]] of German [[Red Army Faction|Red Army Fraction]] used hunger strikes as a political weapon at this time. Meins went on hunger strike for the first time in 1973 together with other prisoners in protest against the prison conditions. The RAF prisoners wanted to be pooled together and claimed prisoner of war status. The 1.83m tall Meins still weighed 39 kg in November 1973 and died in prison.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Sontheimer |first=Michael |date=2007-11-08 |title=RAF |url=https://www.spiegel.de/geschichte/raf-a-948828.html |access-date=2024-06-03 |work=Der Spiegel |language=de |issn=2195-1349}}</ref>
The tactic was revived by the [[Provisional IRA]] in the early 1970s, when several republicans such as [[Sean MacStiofain]] successfully used hunger strikes to get themselves released from custody without charge in the [[Republic of Ireland]]. [[Michael Gaughan (Irish republican)|Michael Gaughan]] died after being force-fed in a British prison in 1974. [[Frank Stagg]], an IRA member being held in a British jail, died after a 62-day hunger strike in 1976 which he began as a campaign to be repatriated to Ireland.


====Irish hunger strike of 1981====
====Irish hunger strike of 1981====
{{Main|1981 Irish hunger strike}}
{{Main|1981 Irish hunger strike}}
{{See also|Anti H-Block|HM Prison Maze}}
In 1980, seven Republican prisoners in the [[Maze Prison]] launched a hunger strike as a protest against the revocation by the [[British government]] of a [[prisoner of war|prisoner-of-war]]-like [[Special Category Status]] for [[paramilitary]] prisoners in [[Northern Ireland]]. The strike, led by [[Brendan Hughes]], was called off before any deaths, when Britain seemed to offer to concede their demands; however, the British then reneged on the details of the agreement. The prisoners then called another hunger strike the following year. This time, instead of many prisoners striking at the same time, the hunger strikers started fasting one after the other in order to maximise publicity over the fate of each one.
In 1980, seven Irish Republican prisoners, six from the IRA and one from the [[Irish National Liberation Army]], in the [[Maze Prison]] launched a hunger strike as a protest against the revocation by the [[British Government]] of a [[prisoner of war|prisoner-of-war]]-like [[Special Category Status]] for [[paramilitary]] prisoners in [[Northern Ireland]].<ref>{{cite book | last = White | first = Robert | title = Out of the Ashes: An Oral History of the Provisional Irish Republican Movement | publisher = Merrion Press | year = 2017 | page = 173 | isbn = 9781785370939}}</ref><ref>{{cite book | last = Dillon | first = Martin | author-link = Martin Dillon | title = The Dirty War | publisher = [[Arrow Books]] | year = 1991 | page = 288 | isbn = 978-0-09-984520-1}}</ref> The strike, led by [[Brendan Hughes]], was called off before any deaths, when the British government seemed to offer to concede their demands; however, the British Government then reneged on the details of the agreement. The prisoners then called another hunger strike the following year. This time, instead of many prisoners striking at the same time, the hunger strikers started fasting one after the other in order to maximise publicity over the fate of each one.<ref>{{cite book | last = Taylor | first = Peter | author-link = Peter Taylor (Journalist) | title = Provos The IRA & Sinn Féin | publisher = [[Bloomsbury Publishing]] | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-7475-3818-2 | page = 237}}</ref>


[[Bobby Sands]] was the first of ten [[Irish republican]] [[paramilitary]] prisoners to die during a [[1981 Irish Hunger Strike|hunger strike]] in 1981. There was widespread support for the hunger strikers from Irish republicans and the broader [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]] community on both sides of the [[Ireland|Irish]] border. Some of the hunger strikers were elected to both the [[Dáil Éireann|Irish]] and [[Westminster parliament|British]] parliaments by an electorate who wished to register their support for the hunger strikers. The ten men survived without food for 46 to 73 days,<ref>[http://www.morrigan.net/starryplough/apr2005/apr2005.pdf The Starry Plough on 1981 Irish hunger strikes]</ref> taking only water and salt, before succumbing. After the deaths of the men and severe public disorder, the British government granted partial concessions to the prisoners, and the strike was called off. The hunger strikes gave a huge propaganda boost to a severely demoralised [[Provisional IRA]].
[[Bobby Sands]] was the first of ten Irish republican [[paramilitary]] prisoners to die after 66 days during the 1981 hunger strike, with [[Michael_Devine_(hunger_striker)|Mickey Devine]] being the last to die after 60 days. There was widespread sympathy for the hunger strikers from Irish republicans and the broader [[Irish nationalism|nationalist]] community on both sides of the [[Irish border]]. Sands was elected as an MP for [[Fermanagh and South Tyrone (UK Parliament constituency)|Fermanagh and South Tyrone]] to the United Kingdom's [[House of Commons]] and two other prisoners, [[Paddy Agnew (Irish republican)|Paddy Agnew]] (who was not a hunger striker) and [[Kieran Doherty (hunger striker)|Kieran Doherty]], were elected to [[Dáil Éireann]] in the [[Republic of Ireland]] by electorates who wished to register their opposition to the British Government's policy. The ten men survived without food for 46 to 73 days,<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.morrigan.net/starryplough/apr2005/apr2005.pdf |title=The Starry Plough on 1981 Irish hunger strikes |access-date=June 22, 2006 |archive-date=February 24, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224042207/http://www.morrigan.net/starryplough/apr2005/apr2005.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> taking only water and salt, before succumbing. After the deaths of the men and severe public disorder, the British Government granted partial concessions to the prisoners, and the strike was called off. The hunger strikes gave a significant [[propaganda]] boost to a previously severely demoralised IRA.


===Cuban dissidents===
===Gandhi and Bhagat Singh===
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2020}}
{{See also|Human rights in Cuba|Censorship in Cuba}}
[[File:Mahatma Gandhi and Indira Gandhi in 1924.jpg|alt=Mahatma Gandhi with a young Indira Gandhi, during his fast in 1924, (remastered)|thumb|Mahatma Gandhi with a young [[Indira Gandhi]], during his fast in 1924, (remastered)]]
{{see also|List of fasts undertaken by Mahatma Gandhi|Indian independence movement}}


[[Mahatma Gandhi]] was imprisoned in 1908, 1909, 1913, 1917, 1919, 1922, 1930, 1932, 1933, and 1942.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Years of Arrests & Imprisonments of Mahatma Gandhi |url=https://www.mkgandhi.org/chrono/arrestofmahatma.php |access-date=September 19, 2022 |website=Chronology of Mahatma Gandhi |archive-date=September 20, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220920163859/https://www.mkgandhi.org/chrono/arrestofmahatma.php |url-status=live }}</ref> Because of Gandhi's stature around the world, British authorities were loath to allow him to die in their custody; Gandhi engaged in several famous hunger strikes to protest [[British Raj|British rule in India]].
On April 3, 1972, [[Pedro Luis Boitel]], an imprisoned poet and dissident, declared himself on hunger strike. After 53 days on hunger strike, receiving only liquids, he died of starvation on May 25, 1972. His last days were related by his close friend, poet [[Armando Valladares]]. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the [[Colon Cemetery, Havana|Cólon Cemetery]] in [[Havana]].


In addition to Gandhi, various others used the hunger strike option during the Indian independence movement, including [[Jatin Das]], who fasted to death, and [[Bhagat Singh]] and [[Batukeshwar Dutt]] in 1929<ref>{{Cite web |title=Bhagat Singh: Latest News, Videos and Photos of Bhagat Singh |url=https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/bhagat-singh |access-date=November 3, 2023 |website=The Times of India |language=en |archive-date=November 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103111954/https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/topic/bhagat-singh |url-status=live }}</ref>
[[Guillermo Fariñas]] did a seven-month hunger strike to protest against the extensive [[Censorship in Cuba|Internet censorship in Cuba]]. He ended it in Autumn 2006, with severe health problems although still conscious.<ref name="RWB">{{cite web|url=http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=16397|title=Guillermo Fariñas ends seven-month-old hunger strike for Internet access|publisher=Reporters Without Borders|date=1 September 2006}}</ref> [[Reporters Without Borders]] awarded its cyber-freedom prize to Guillermo Fariñas in 2006.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=20125|title=Cyber-freedom prize for 2006 awarded to Guillermo Fariñas of Cuba|publisher=Reporters Without Borders}}</ref>


===Potti Sriramulu===
[[Jorge Luis García Pérez]] (known as Antúnez) has done hunger strikes. In 2009, following the end of his 17-year imprisonment, Antúnez, his wife Iris, and Diosiris Santana Pérez started a hunger strike to support other political prisoners. Leaders from Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Argentina declared their support for Antúnez.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.directorio.org/pressreleases/note.php?note_id=2389|title=Additional Latin American Leaders Join in Solidarity with Antúnez}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.directorio.org/pressreleases/note.php?note_id=2357|title=Young Uruguayans Support Antúnez, Cuban Political Prisoners}}</ref>
In 1952, in independent India, revolutionary [[Potti Sriramulu]] undertook a hunger strike for 56 days in an attempt to achieve the formation of a separate state, to be known as [[Andhra State]]. His death on December 15 became instrumental in the [[States Reorganisation Commission|linguistic re-organisation of states]].<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Mary |first=S. B. Vijaya |date=December 13, 2022 |title=Actor Saichand pays tribute to Potti Sriramulu on his 70th death anniversary |language=en-IN |work=The Hindu |url=https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/the-actor-is-set-to-undertake-a-300-km-padayatra-from-sriramulus-memorial-in-chennai-to-his-native-village-in-prakasam-district-in-ap-on-december-15/article66257601.ece |access-date=November 3, 2023 |issn=0971-751X |archive-date=November 3, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231103113702/https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/the-actor-is-set-to-undertake-a-300-km-padayatra-from-sriramulus-memorial-in-chennai-to-his-native-village-in-prakasam-district-in-ap-on-december-15/article66257601.ece |url-status=live }}</ref>


He is revered as ''Amarajeevi'' (Immortal being) in Coastal Andra for his role in achieving the linguistic re-organisation of states. As a devout follower of [[Mahatma Gandhi]], he worked for much of his life to uphold principles such as truth, non-violence and patriotism, as well as causes such as [[Harijan]] movement to end the traditional alienation of, and accord respect and humane treatment to those traditionally called "[[untouchability|untouchables]]" in Indian society.<ref name=":0" />
[[File:Orlandozapata martir vtrtxtr.jpg|thumb|[[Orlando Zapata]]]]


===Cuban dissidents===
On February 23, 2010, [[Orlando Zapata Tamayo]], a dissident arrested in 2003 as part of a crackdown on opposition groups, died in a hospital while undertaking a hunger strike that had been ongoing for 83 days, in Cuba's "Kilo 8" prison. He had declared the hunger strike in protest of the poor conditions of the prison in which he was held.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8533350.stm|title=Cuban prison hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo dies|publisher=BBC News|date=2010-02-24}}</ref> He was one of 55 prisoners of conscience in Cuba to have been adopted by Amnesty International. He was charged with an array of offences including “resistance,” “contempt” and “disrespect”. Such charges are commonplace in Cuba, where freedom of expression is severely limited and political power remains centralized.
{{See also|Human rights in Cuba|Censorship in Cuba|Political career of Fidel Castro|category=}}


On April 3, 1972, [[Pedro Luis Boitel]], an imprisoned poet and dissident, declared himself on hunger strike. After 53 days on hunger strike, receiving only liquids, he died of starvation on May 25, 1972. His last days were related by his close friend, poet [[Armando Valladares]]. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the [[Colon Cemetery, Havana|Cólon Cemetery]] in [[Havana]]. {{citation needed | date = February 2024}}
===Political prisoners in Turkey===
Inspired by the Irish Republicans,{{Citation needed|date=March 2010}} Turkish [[political prisoner]]s developed a tradition of hunger strikes, which continues to this day. After the suppression of rising civil socialist movements by a [[Kenan Evren|military coup]] in 1980, many militants as well as civil activists were imprisoned under highly inhumane conditions. In response to torture and mistreatment of political prisoners, the first hunger strike was launched in 1984,{{Citation needed|date=April 2010}}taking the lives of 4 [[DHKP-C|Dev-Sol]] militants, Abdullah Meral, Haydar Başbağ, Fatih Öktülmüş and Hasan Telci.


[[Guillermo Fariñas]] did a seven-month hunger strike to protest against the extensive [[Censorship in Cuba|Internet censorship in Cuba]]. He ended it in Autumn 2006, with severe health problems although still conscious.<ref name="RWB">{{cite web |url=https://rsf.org/en/news/guillermo-farinas-ends-seven-month-old-hunger-strike-internet-access |title=Guillermo Fariñas ends seven-month-old hunger strike for Internet access |publisher=Reporters Without Borders |date=January 20, 2016 |access-date=November 20, 2018 |archive-date=November 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120221112/https://rsf.org/en/news/guillermo-farinas-ends-seven-month-old-hunger-strike-internet-access |url-status=live }}</ref> [[Reporters Without Borders]] awarded its cyber-freedom prize to Guillermo Fariñas in 2006.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://rsf.org/en/news/cyber-freedom-prize-2006-awarded-guillermo-farinas-cuba |title=Cyber-freedom prize for 2006 awarded to Guillermo Fariñas of Cuba |publisher=Reporters Without Borders |date=January 20, 2016 |access-date=November 20, 2018 |archive-date=November 20, 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181120221242/https://rsf.org/en/news/cyber-freedom-prize-2006-awarded-guillermo-farinas-cuba |url-status=live }}</ref>
In the following years, socialist movements have been increasingly marginalized and moved underground. However, many militant Marxist/Leninist groups have survived. For this reason, the number of political prisoners has always been high. In 1996, when the [[Mehmet Agar|nationalist minister]] of the [[Necmettin Erbakan|Islamist]]/[[Tansu Çiller|conservative]] government launched a policy on segregation of political prisoners from each other, another hunger strike broke down, with the participation of several leftist militant groups. The strike lasted 69 days, took 12 lives, and the indifferent attitude of the government provoked a strong public protest. As a result, with the initiative of intellectuals including [[Yaşar Kemal]], [[Zülfü Livaneli]], and [[Orhan Pamuk]], a deal was achieved between the government and prisoners. The prisoners took most of their rights back, which they recall as a victory.


[[Jorge Luis García Pérez]] (known as Antúnez) has done hunger strikes. In 2009, following the end of his 17-year imprisonment, Antúnez, his wife Iris, and Diosiris Santana Pérez started a hunger strike to support other political prisoners. Leaders from Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Argentina declared their support for Antúnez.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.directorio.org/pressreleases/note.php?note_id=2389 |title=Additional Latin American Leaders Join in Solidarity with Antúnez |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027130847/http://www.directorio.org/pressreleases/note.php?note_id=2389 |archive-date=October 27, 2012 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.directorio.org/pressreleases/note.php?note_id=2357 |title=Young Uruguayans Support Antúnez, Cuban Political Prisoners |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121027130843/http://www.directorio.org/pressreleases/note.php?note_id=2357 |archive-date=October 27, 2012 }}</ref>
The last wave of hunger strikes in Turkey, which has become chronic in recent years, was started against F-type prisons, which were designed for efficient segregation of political prisoners. The project was developed starting in 1997, and the strike was started on October 20, 2000, demanding F-type prisons not to be opened, by a large coalition of militant groups, this time including the Kurdish-separatist militants of [[PKK]]. The result was tragic. On December 19, 2000, the now democratic left-extreme nationalist coalition decided to break the strike using force, which was named "Back to life" operation. The operation was faced by a well-organized resistance of prisoners, resulting in the death of 28 prisoners and 2 soldiers. Since then, both F-type prisons and related hunger strikes have become an issue of daily life. According to the organization of prisoner relatives, 101 prisoners have died and above 400 have suffered from unrecoverable disease, particularly [[Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome]]. The governments have consistently denied claims about mistreatment of prisoners, and president [[Ahmet Necdet Sezer]] has been pardoning diseased prisoners, only to be criticized by the extreme right, since many of the released militants have been seen in different demonstrations against F-type prisons. The government maintains that 189 hunger strikers received presidential pardons since 2000.


On February 23, 2010, [[Orlando Zapata]], a dissident arrested in 2003 as part of a crackdown on opposition groups, died in a hospital while undertaking a hunger strike that had been ongoing for 85 days. His hunger strike was a protest against poor prison conditions. Amnesty International had declared him a prisoner of conscience.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8533350.stm|title=Cuban prison hunger striker Orlando Zapata Tamayo dies|work=BBC News|date=February 24, 2010|access-date=February 24, 2010|archive-date=November 14, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171114220653/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/8533350.stm|url-status=live}}</ref>
===Animal rights===
British animal-rights activist [[Barry Horne]] died on November 5, 2001 after a series of four hunger strikes, the longest of which lasted 68 days from October 6 to December 13, 1998, leaving him partially blind and with [[kidney]] damage.

===Fathers' rights===
American [[fathers' rights]] activist John Murtari engaged in an action throughout his jail sentence, which he described as "not a hunger strike", but which involved complete non-cooperation, including refusing to eat or drink. <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.akidsright.org/support_jm.htm |title=Child Support Disaster |publisher=Akidsright.org |date= |accessdate=2010-09-01}}</ref> Other fathers' rights activists in Canada and elsewhere have staged hunger strikes after being unable to see their children for extended periods of time. {{Citation needed|date=February 2007}}

===Akbar Ganji===
[[Akbar Ganji]] is an [[Iran]]ian journalist imprisoned in [[Evin prison]] since April 22, 2000. Ganji was on a hunger strike between May 19, 2005 <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ifex.org/fr/content/view/full/66875 |title=Imprisoned journalist Akbar Ganji launches hunger strike |publisher=IFEX |date= |accessdate=2010-09-01}}</ref> and early August, 2005, except for a 12-day period of leave he was granted on May 30, 2005 ahead of the [[Iranian presidential election, 2005|ninth presidential elections]] on June 17, 2005. He is represented by a group of lawyers, including the 2003 [[Nobel Peace Prize]] Laureate, [[Shirin Ebadi]]. While on hunger strike Ganji wrote two letters to the free people of the world: [http://freeganji.blogspot.com/2005/07/letter-to-free-people-of-world.html 1] [http://freeganji.blogspot.com/2005/07/second-letter-to-free-people-of-world.html 2]. On July 12, 2005 the White House press secretary Scott McClellan said in a statement that the US president, [[George W. Bush]], called on Iran to release Ganji "immediately and unconditionally." "Mr. Ganji is sadly only one victim of a wave of repression and human rights violations engaged in by the Iranian regime", "His calls for freedom deserve to be heard. His valiant efforts should not go in vain. The president calls on all supporters of human rights and freedom, and the United Nations, to take up Ganji's case and the overall human rights situation in Iran." "Mr. Ganji, please know that as you stand for your own liberty, America stands with you", the statement said.

===Mother Poopathy – Fast to Death===

{{Main|Poopathy Kanapathipillai}}

===Guantánamo Bay hunger strikes===
{{main|Guantánamo Bay hunger strikes}}
During the middle of 2005, detainees held by the [[United States]] at the [[Guantánamo Bay detention camp]] initiated two hunger strikes.

On December 30, 2005, the military reported that there were eighty-four strikers as of Christmas Day, forty-six having joined that day.

In the April 14, 2008, edition of the New Yorker magazine, Jeffrey Toobin reported that there are currently only about ten hunger strikers at Guantánamo.

====Force-feeding====
On 9 February 2006, ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that hunger strikers in Guantánamo were being strapped into restraining chairs for hours a day for force-feeding and to prevent vomiting up the food as attempts at suicide. An officer said the number of strikers peaked at 131 around September 11, 2005. Reportedly there was concern over the international impact if a striker were to die. Detainees' lawyers called the methods brutal and inhumane, and said other coercive methods were used, such as being placed in cold air-conditioned isolation cells. The assistant secretary of defense for health affairs said it was a moral question: allow suicide, or take steps to preserve life.<ref name=golden>{{cite news|url=http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/09/politics/09gitmo.html|title=Tough U.S. Steps in Hunger Strike at Camp in Cuba|author=Tim Golden|date= February 9, 2006|publisher=New York Times|accessdate=2009-05-09}}</ref>
On 21 February 2006, the military commander at Guantánamo conceded that the authorities were using restraining chairs as reported earlier. (NY Times 22 February)

The September 28, 2006 issue of the ''[[New England Journal of Medicine]]'' contained an article examining the [[medical ethics]] of physician-supervised [[force-feeding]] of hunger-striking detainees. The article questioned the legal and ethical foundation for physician participation in the force-feeding, writing that "...military physicians cannot follow military orders to force-feed competent prisoners without violating basic precepts of medical ethics never to harm them by means of their medical knowledge."<ref>{{cite journal |author=Annas GJ |title=Hunger strikes at Guantanamo—medical ethics and human rights in a "legal black hole" |journal=N. Engl. J. Med. |volume=355 |issue=13 |pages=1377–82 |year=2006 |pmid=17005959 |doi=10.1056/NEJMhle062316}}</ref>

On April 9, 2007, the ''New York Times'' reported that according to military officials and detainees' lawyers a new hunger strike has broken out at Guantanamo, with thirteen detainees being force-fed daily. In the April 14, 2008, edition of the New Yorker Magazine, Jeffrey Toobin reported that two detainees are currently being force-fed.

===Sami Al-Arian===
On December 6, 2005, a federal jury acquitted Dr. [[Sami Al-Arian]] on 8 of 17 counts against him, while deadlocking 10–2 in favor of acquittal on the other 9.<ref name="Laughlin">{{cite news
| first = Meg | last = Laughlin | coauthors = Jennifer Liberto and Justin George
| title = 8 times, Al-Arian hears 'Not guilty' | url = http://www.sptimes.com/2005/12/07/Tampabay/8_times__Al_Arian_hea.shtml | work = St. Petersburg Times | date = December 7, 2005
| accessdate = 2007-03-26 }}</ref> On March 2, 2006, Al-Arian pled guilty to one count of [[Conspiracy (crime)|conspiracy]] to contribute services to or for the benefit of the [[Palestine Islamic Jihad]], a [[Specially Designated Terrorist]] organization, and was later sentenced to the maximum 57 months in prison [http://www.flmd.uscourts.gov/Al-Arian/8-03-cr-00077-JSM-TBM/docs/2929176/0.pdf]<ref>[http://news.oneindia.in/2006/05/01/ex-professor-gets-over-4-years-in-florida-jihad-case-1146512148.html "Ex-professor gets over 4 years in Florida Jihad case"], Reuters, May 1, 2006</ref> The deal came after 11 years of FBI investigations, wiretaps, and searches, 3 years of trial preparation by federal prosecutors, and a 5-month trial, during which time Al-Arian spent more than three years in jail, most of it in solitary confinement, which counted toward the time he was sentenced to. [http://www.sptimes.com/2006/04/24/Hillsborough/Plea_deal_overcame_th.shtml] [[Amnesty International]] said Al-Arian's pre-trial detention conditions "appeared to be 'gratuitously punitive' " and stated "the restrictions imposed on Dr Al-Arian appeared to go beyond what were necessary on security grounds and were inconsistent with international standards for humane treatment." These include: 23 hour cell-confinement, routine shackling, deprivement of tools and communication to prepare for his defense, and a third of the cell space required by UN international standards.<ref name="AI30July2003">[http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR511102003?open&of=ENG-360 Amnesty International raises concern about prison conditions of Dr Sami Al-Arian]</ref>

Al-Arian was subpoenaed three times to testify in terrorism-related investigations before Virginia federal grand juries between 2006 and 2008. Each time, he refused to testify. He maintained that in a verbal agreement that appears in court transcripts, federal prosecutors agreed that Al-Arian would not have to testify before the grand jury.<ref name="Laughlin2">[http://www.sptimes.com/2007/03/20/Hillsborough/Gaunt_Al_Arian_shocks.shtml Gaunt Al-Arian shocks family] by Meg Laughlin. ''St. Petersburg Times''. March 20, 2007.</ref> He challenged the initial subpoena in four different federal courts, each of which held that he was in fact required to testify. On January 22, 2007, Al-Arian began a hunger strike to "protest continued government harassment" after he was held in [[contempt of court]] for refusing to testify before a federal grand jury.<ref name="Markon">[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/13/AR2006111301205.html Witness Is Silent in Terror Probe: Ex-Professor Says Grand Jury Testimony Would Endanger Him.] ''Washington Post''. November 14, 2006.</ref><ref>[http://www.wilmingtonstar.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070217/NEWS/702170359/-1/State Family says inmate's hunger strike not near end.] ''Wilmington Star'' (NC). February 17, 2007.</ref> He was imprisoned for 13 months for civil contempt for failing to testify in compliance with the first subpoena. He is awaiting trial as well for criminal contempt for his failure to testify in compliance with the second and third subpoenas.

===Japan===
Foreign detainees in [[Ushiku, Ibaraki]] are on hunger strike as of May 2010 regarding the conditions in which they are being held.

===Venezuela===
[[Franklin Brito]], a Venezuelan farmer died on August 30, 2010 after a series of hunger strikes.

===Cornwall===
[[Cornish people|Cornish]] campaigner [[Michael J Chappell|Michael Chappell]] was on hunger strike from 10th October 2010 until the 21st October regarding the British government's treatment of both the Cornish and the territorial integrity of [[Cornwall]]. <ref>http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/news/Hunger-strike-man-protest-constituency-change/article-2752299-detail/article.html</ref>
<ref>http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/grahamsmith/2010/10/mike_chappell_quits_hunger_str.html</ref>

===Refugees in Greece===
Over 400 refugees were on hunger strike during March 2011.

===Iranian pro-democracy activists in London===
6 pro-democracy campaigners have been on strike since 05 April 2011 in protest at the hadling of their asylum cases and to hightlight the hypocrisy of the West supporting the Green Revolution in Iran in 2009 but not supporting people who fled from the torture in Iranian prisons afterwards.

===Maikel Nabil Sanad===
{{Main|Maikel Nabil Sanad}}
{{more|Human rights in Egypt under the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces}}
[[File:Maikel Nabil Sanad.gif|thumb|Maikel Nabil Sanad by [[Carlos Latuff]].]]
Maikel Nabil Sanad,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maikelnabil.com/2010/12/my-cv.html |title=Maikel Nabil Sanad مايكل نبيل سند: About me |publisher=Maikelnabil.com |date=2010-12-05 |accessdate=2011-08-14}}</ref> a political activist and blogger. In April 2009 he founded the No to Compulsory Military Service movement. He declared his [[conscientious objection]], demanding to be exempted from military service. Instead, he was arrested on 12 November 2010 by military police but was released two days later, and finally exempted from service on medical grounds. Sanad participated actively in the Egyptian revolution, highlighting the fact that Egypt has effectively been ruled by the military for six decades. He was arrested on 4 February by military police and tortured, but released 27 hours later. He was arrested in his home in the Ain Shams neighbourhood in Cairo at about 10 PM on 28 March 2011 by military police. He was only able to call his brother the next day to inform him of his arrest.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wri-irg.org/node/12513 |title=EGYPT: Egyptian pacifist Maikel Nabil Sanad arrested for insulting the military &#124; War Resisters' International |publisher=Wri-irg.org |date= |accessdate=2011-08-14}}</ref> Sanad was sentenced to three years' imprisonment on charges of "insulting the military" in his post "The Army and The People Were Never One Hand" on maikelnabil.com<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.maikelnabil.com/2011/03/army-and-people-wasnt-ever-one-hand.html |title=Maikel Nabil Sanad مايكل نبيل سند: The Army and The People Were Never One Hand |publisher=Maikelnabil.com |date=2011-03-08 |accessdate=2011-08-14}}</ref> by the 10th of Ramadan military court in Nasr City near Cairo on 10 April. Before this, he was imprisoned in a special punishment cell at El Marg prison, which did not allow him any sunlight. In addition, his cell mates threatened him. Sanad demanded a doctor, as he suffers from unstable blood pressure and needs regular medication and medical attention.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.wri-irg.org/node/13004 |title=EGYPT: Imprisoned pacifist blogger Maikel Nabil Sanad in solitary confinement &#124; War Resisters' International |publisher=Wri-irg.org |date= |accessdate=2011-08-14}}</ref> Maikel Nabil has been on hunger strike since August 23, 2011.<ref>http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/22687/Egypt/Politics-/Advocates-Egyptian-blogger-Nabil-on-hunger-strike-.aspx</ref>.


==Legal situation==
==Legal situation==
Article 6 of the 1975 [[World Medical Association]] Tokyo Declaration states that doctors can undertake force-feeding under certain restricted rules and only where a second, independent physician is consulted and agrees to the move:-
Article 8 of the 1975 [[World Medical Association]] [[Declaration of Tokyo]] states that doctors are not allowed to force-feed hunger strikers. They are supposed to understand the prisoner's independent wishes, and it is recommended to have a second opinion as to the capability of the prisoner to understand the implication of their decision and be capable of informed consent.


:"Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgment concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, he or she shall not be fed artificially. The decision as to the capacity of the prisoner to form such a judgment should be confirmed by at least one other independent physician. The consequences of the refusal of nourishment shall be explained by the physician to the prisoner."
:Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgement concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, they shall not be fed artificially. The decision as to the capacity of the prisoner to form such a judgement should be confirmed by at least one other independent physician. The consequences of the refusal of nourishment shall be explained by the physician to the prisoner.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-tokyo-guidelines-for-physicians-concerning-torture-and-other-cruel-inhuman-or-degrading-treatment-or-punishment-in-relation-to-detention-and-imprisonment/ | title=WMA – the World Medical Association – WMA DECLARATION OF TOKYO – GUIDELINES FOR PHYSICIANS CONCERNING TORTURE AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT IN RELATION TO DETENTION AND IMPRISONMENT | access-date=January 28, 2020 | archive-date=January 17, 2020 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200117195626/https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-tokyo-guidelines-for-physicians-concerning-torture-and-other-cruel-inhuman-or-degrading-treatment-or-punishment-in-relation-to-detention-and-imprisonment/ | url-status=live }}</ref>


The World Medical Association recently revised and updated its Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers (see: http://www.wma.net/en/30publications/10policies/h31/index.html). Among many changes, it unambiguously states that force feeding is a form of inhuman and degrading treatment in its Article 21.
The World Medical Association (WMA) recently revised and updated its Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers.<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-malta-on-hunger-strikers/ | title=WMA – the World Medical Association-WMA Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers | access-date=August 29, 2017 | archive-date=August 29, 2017 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170829162730/https://www.wma.net/policies-post/wma-declaration-of-malta-on-hunger-strikers/ | url-status=live }}</ref> Among many changes, it unambiguously states that force feeding is a form of inhumane and degrading treatment in its Article 21.


The [[American Medical Association]] (AMA) is a member of the WMA, but the AMA's members are not bound by the WMA's decisions, as neither organization has formal legal powers. The AMA has formally endorsed the WMA Declaration of Tokyo and has written several letters to the US government and made public statements in opposition to US physician involvement in force feeding of hunger strikers in contravention of medical ethics.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/04/30/1940121/ama-force-feeding-gitmo|title=American Medical Association Opposes Force-Feeding Prisoners On Hunger Strike At Gitmo|website=[[ThinkProgress]]|access-date=October 2, 2014|archive-date=October 6, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006072527/http://thinkprogress.org/security/2013/04/30/1940121/ama-force-feeding-gitmo/|url-status=live}}</ref> The United States [[Code of Federal Regulations]] rule on hunger strikes by prisoners states, "It is the responsibility of the Bureau of Prisons to monitor the health and welfare of individual inmates, and to ensure that procedures are pursued to preserve life." It further provides that when "a medical necessity for immediate treatment of a life or health threatening situation exists, the physician may order that treatment be administered without the consent of the inmate."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=6d4a56492db450206fc427b40751ae2a&rgn=div6&view=text&node=28:2.0.3.3.21.5&idno=28 |title=Title 28: Judicial Administration |publisher=Electronic Code of Federal Regulations |access-date=September 1, 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110612141625/http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=6d4a56492db450206fc427b40751ae2a&rgn=div6&view=text&node=28%3A2.0.3.3.21.5&idno=28 |archive-date=June 12, 2011 }}</ref>
The [[American Medical Association]] is a member of the [[World Medical Association]], but the AMA's members are not bound by the WMA's decisions, and neither organization has formal legal powers.

The [[Code of Federal Regulations]] rule on inmate hunger strikes states, "It is the responsibility of the Bureau of Prisons to monitor the health and welfare of individual inmates, and to ensure that procedures are pursued to preserve life." It further provides that when "a medical necessity for immediate treatment of a life or health threatening situation exists, the physician may order that treatment be administered without the consent of the inmate."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=6d4a56492db450206fc427b40751ae2a&rgn=div6&view=text&node=28:2.0.3.3.21.5&idno=28 |title=Electronic Code of Federal Regulations: |publisher=Ecfr.gpoaccess.gov |date= |accessdate=2010-09-01}}</ref>


==See also==
==See also==
* [[List of hunger strikes]]
* [[Independent Royalist Party of Estonia]] held an ''eating strike'' to ridicule a hunger strike, widely deemed ridiculous, by [[Riigikogu]] members Lebedev and Petinov.{{Citation needed|date=December 2009}}
* [[Fasting]]


==References==
==References==
{{reflist|colwidth=30em}}
{{Ibid|date=March 2010}}

{{reflist}}
*[http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/mahatma_ghandi.htm Mahatma Gandhi and India]
*[http://flatrock.org.nz/topics/odds_and_oddities/brains_courage_integrity.htm Brains, Courage, Integrity]
*[[1981 Irish Hunger Strike]]
* [http://www.activistmagazine.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=53 ACTivist Magazine Fast for Peace 2003]
* [http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2004/41713.htm Turkey Country Reports on Human Rights Practices – 2004]
<!--See: Ahmet Taskin, Türkiye’de ve Dünyada Açlık Grevleri, Ankara, 2005.-->


==External links==
==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20150404232634/http://www.globallawyersandphysicians.org/storage/JAMA%20Hunger%20Strikes.pdf "Hunger Strikes, Force-feeding, and Physicians' Responsibilities"]
* [http://haifaisr.library.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/csms/2005/00000004/00000003/art00005] Striking Differences: Hunger strikes in Israel and the United States
* [http://www.preventgenocide.org/action/during/fasting/ Fasting as a Method To Demand International Protection For the People of Darfur, Sudan]
* [http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/08/21/6574363 Infoshop News] – Palestinian Strike
* [http://righttohealthifhhro.pbworks.com/enwiki/w/page/78933383/Hunger%20Strikes%20Resources Bibliography on hunger strikes and force-feeding in the IFHHRO Right to Health Wiki]
* [http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/Whunger.htm Women’s Suffrage]
* [https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/heritage/the-long-history-of-the-irish-hunger-strike-1.3228103 "The long history of the Irish hunger strike: New exhibition in Kilmainham Gaol tells the story from Thomas Ashe to Bobby Sands" Irish Times 2017-09-21]
* [http://www.slate.com/id/2102228/ How Long Can You Go Without Food? Hunger strikes 101], ''[[Slate (magazine)|Slate]]'' magazine, June 10, 2004

* [http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1681680,00.html Scandal of force-fed prisoners] Hunger strikers are tied down and fed through nasal tubes, admits Guantánamo Bay doctor ([[The Guardian]], January 8, 2006)
{{Organized labor}}
* [http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/forumy/2006/06/guantanamo-and-medical-ethics.php Guantanamo and Medical Ethics], [[JURIST]]
* [http://www.preventgenocide.org/action/during/fasting/] Fasting as a Method To Demand International Protection For the People of Darfur, Sudan


{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunger Strike}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hunger Strike}}
[[Category:Hunger strikes| ]]
[[Category:Civil disobedience]]
[[Category:Civil disobedience]]
[[Category:Protest tactics]]
[[Category:Protest tactics]]
[[Category:Strikes (protest)]]
[[Category:Strikes (protest)]]
[[Category:Fasting]]
[[Category:Fasting]]

[[cs:Hladovka]]
[[de:Hungerstreik]]
[[et:Näljastreik]]
[[es:Huelga de hambre]]
[[eo:Fastostriko]]
[[fa:اعتصاب غذا]]
[[fr:Jeûne#Jeûne politique]]
[[gl:Folga de fame]]
[[ko:단식파업]]
[[id:Mogok makan]]
[[it:Sciopero della fame]]
[[he:שביתת רעב]]
[[kk:Аштық жариялау]]
[[nl:Hongerstaking]]
[[ja:ハンガー・ストライキ]]
[[no:Sultestreik]]
[[pl:Strajk głodowy]]
[[pt:Greve de fome]]
[[ro:Greva foamei]]
[[ru:Голодовка]]
[[simple:Hunger strike]]
[[sk:Hladovka (odmietanie potravy)]]
[[fi:Nälkälakko]]
[[sv:Hungerstrejk]]
[[ta:உண்ணாநிலைப் போராட்டம்]]
[[tr:Açlık grevi]]
[[vi:Tuyệt thực]]
[[zh-yue:絕食]]
[[zh:絕食]]

Latest revision as of 05:28, 24 December 2024

Residents of Dobrzeń Wielki, Poland, in 2017, protesting the planned incorporation of their community to the city of Opole

A hunger strike is a method of non-violent resistance where participants fast as an act of political protest, usually with the objective of achieving a specific goal, such as a policy change.[1][2] Hunger strikers that do not take fluids are named dry hunger strikers.[3]

In cases where an entity (usually the state) has or is able to obtain custody of the hunger striker (such as a prisoner), the hunger strike is often terminated by the custodial entity through the use of force-feeding.[4]

Early history

[edit]

Fasting was used as a method of protesting injustice in pre-Christian Ireland, where it was known as Troscadh or Cealachan.[5] Detailed in the contemporary civic codes, it had specific rules by which it could be used, and the fast was often carried out on the doorstep of the home of the offender.[6] Scholars speculate that this was due to the high importance the culture placed on hospitality. Allowing a person to die at one's doorstep, for a wrong of which one was accused, was considered a great dishonor.[7] Others say that the practice was to fast for one whole night, as there is no evidence of people fasting to death in pre-Christian Ireland. The fasts were primarily undertaken to recover debts or get justice for a perceived wrong. Legends of Saint Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, have used the hunger strike as well.[8]

In India, the practice of a hunger protest, where the protester fasts at the door of an offending party (typically a debtor) in a public call for justice, was abolished by the government in 1861; this indicates the prevalence of the practice prior to that date, or at least a public awareness of it.[8]

Medical view

[edit]

In the first three days, the body still uses energy from glucose.[9] After that, the liver starts processing body fat, in a process called ketosis. After depleting fat, the body enters a "starvation mode".[9] At this point the body "mines" the muscles and vital organs for energy, and loss of bone marrow becomes life-threatening. There are examples of hunger strikers dying after 46 to 73 days of strike, for example the 1981 Irish hunger strike.[8] Hunger strikers can experience hallucinations[10] and delirium.[11] Death usually occurs when a hunger striker has lost about 40–50% of their pre-strike weight at about 60–70 days in.[12] Obese individuals can last longer.[13]

Examples

[edit]

British and American suffragettes

[edit]
A 1911 headline in Votes for Women about William Ball being force-fed in prison to end his hunger strike
Clipping from World Magazine, September 6, 1914.

In the early 20th century suffragettes frequently endured hunger strikes in British prisons. Marion Dunlop was the first in 1909. She was released, as the authorities did not want her to become a martyr. Other suffragettes in prison also undertook hunger strikes. The prison authorities subjected them to force-feeding, which the suffragettes categorized as a form of torture. Emmeline Pankhurst's sister Mary Clarke died shortly after being force-fed in prison, and others including Lady Constance Bulwer-Lytton are believed to have had serious health problems caused by force feeding, dying of a heart attack not long after.[14] William Ball, a working class supporter of women's suffrage, was the subject of a pamphlet Torture in an English Prison not only due to the effects of force-feeding, but a cruel separation from family contact and mental health deterioration, secret transfer to a lunatic asylum and needed lifelong mental institutional care.[15] In December 1912, a Scottish prison put four suffragettes in the 'political prisoner' category rather than 'criminal' second division, but staff at Craiginches Prison, Aberdeen still subjected them to force-feeding when they went on hunger strike.[16]

In 1913 the Prisoners (Temporary Discharge for Ill Health) Act 1913 (nicknamed the "Cat and Mouse Act") changed policy. Hunger strikes were tolerated but prisoners were released when they became sick. When they had recovered, the suffragettes were taken back to prison to finish their sentences. About 100 women received medals for hunger striking or enduring force-feeding.[citation needed]

Like their British counterparts, American suffragettes also used this method of political protest. A few years before the passage of the Nineteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, a group of American suffragettes led by Alice Paul engaged in a hunger strike and endured forced feedings while incarcerated at the Occoquan Workhouse in Virginia.[citation needed]

Ireland

[edit]
Irish Hunger Strikers Memorial Glasnevin Cemetery, Dublin

Hunger strikes have deep roots in Irish society and in the Irish psyche. Fasting in order to bring attention to an injustice which one felt under his lord, and thus shame him, was a common feature of early Irish society and this tactic was fully incorporated into the Brehon legal system. The tradition is ultimately most likely part of the still older Indo-European tradition of which the Irish were part.[17][18] Within the 20th century a total of 22 Irish republicans died on hunger strike with survivors suffering long-term health and psychological effects.

The tactic was used by physical force republicans during the 1916–23 revolutionary period. Early use of hunger strikes was countered with force-feeding, culminating in 1917 in the death of Thomas Ashe in Mountjoy Prison. During the Anglo-Irish war, in October 1920, the Lord Mayor of Cork, Terence MacSwiney, died on hunger strike in Brixton prison. At the same time, the 1920 Cork hunger strike took place. Two other Cork Irish Republican Army (IRA) men, Joe Murphy and Michael Fitzgerald, died in this protest. Demanding reinstatement of political status and release from prison, nine men undertook a hunger strike at Cork County Gaol for 94 days, from August 11 to November 12, 1920.[19][20] Arthur Griffith called off the strikes after the deaths of MacSwiney, Murphy and Fitzgerald.

During the early 1920s, the vessel HMS Argenta was used as a prison ship for the holding of Irish republicans by the British. Conditions on board were "unbelievable"[21] and there were several hunger strikes, including one involving upwards of 150 men in the winter of 1923.[22]

Irish hunger strikes between 1923 and 1976

[edit]

In February 1923, 23 women (members of Cumann na mBan) went on hunger strike for 34 days over the arrest and imprisonment without trial of Irish republican prisoners. The Free State subsequently released the women republican prisoners. Most of the male republicans were not released until the following year.[23] After the end of the Irish Civil War in October 1923, up to 8,000 IRA prisoners went on hunger strike to protest their continued detention by the Irish Free State (a total of over 12,000 republicans had been interned by May 1923).[24] Three men, Denny Barry, Joseph Whitty, and Andy O'Sullivan, died during the 1923 Irish Hunger Strikes. The strike, however, was called off by Republican leadership in the camps (November 23, 1923) before any more deaths occurred.

Under de Valera's first Fianna Fáil government in 1932, military pensions were awarded to dependants of republicans who died in 1920s hunger strikes on the same basis as those who were killed in action.[25] During the state of emergency of World War II another De Valera government interned many IRA members, three of whom died on hunger strike: Sean McCaughey, Tony D'Arcy and Jack McNeela. Hundreds of others carried out shorter hunger strikes during the de Valera years.

The tactic was revived by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) in the early 1970s, when several republicans successfully used hunger strikes to get themselves released from custody without charge in the Republic of Ireland. Michael Gaughan died after being force-fed in Parkhurst Prison in 1974. Frank Stagg, an IRA member being held in Wakefield Prison, died in 1976 after a 62-day hunger strike which he began as a campaign to be repatriated to Ireland.[26][27]

Members of other movements like Holger Meins of German Red Army Fraction used hunger strikes as a political weapon at this time. Meins went on hunger strike for the first time in 1973 together with other prisoners in protest against the prison conditions. The RAF prisoners wanted to be pooled together and claimed prisoner of war status. The 1.83m tall Meins still weighed 39 kg in November 1973 and died in prison.[28]

Irish hunger strike of 1981

[edit]

In 1980, seven Irish Republican prisoners, six from the IRA and one from the Irish National Liberation Army, in the Maze Prison launched a hunger strike as a protest against the revocation by the British Government of a prisoner-of-war-like Special Category Status for paramilitary prisoners in Northern Ireland.[29][30] The strike, led by Brendan Hughes, was called off before any deaths, when the British government seemed to offer to concede their demands; however, the British Government then reneged on the details of the agreement. The prisoners then called another hunger strike the following year. This time, instead of many prisoners striking at the same time, the hunger strikers started fasting one after the other in order to maximise publicity over the fate of each one.[31]

Bobby Sands was the first of ten Irish republican paramilitary prisoners to die after 66 days during the 1981 hunger strike, with Mickey Devine being the last to die after 60 days. There was widespread sympathy for the hunger strikers from Irish republicans and the broader nationalist community on both sides of the Irish border. Sands was elected as an MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone to the United Kingdom's House of Commons and two other prisoners, Paddy Agnew (who was not a hunger striker) and Kieran Doherty, were elected to Dáil Éireann in the Republic of Ireland by electorates who wished to register their opposition to the British Government's policy. The ten men survived without food for 46 to 73 days,[32] taking only water and salt, before succumbing. After the deaths of the men and severe public disorder, the British Government granted partial concessions to the prisoners, and the strike was called off. The hunger strikes gave a significant propaganda boost to a previously severely demoralised IRA.

Gandhi and Bhagat Singh

[edit]
Mahatma Gandhi with a young Indira Gandhi, during his fast in 1924, (remastered)
Mahatma Gandhi with a young Indira Gandhi, during his fast in 1924, (remastered)

Mahatma Gandhi was imprisoned in 1908, 1909, 1913, 1917, 1919, 1922, 1930, 1932, 1933, and 1942.[33] Because of Gandhi's stature around the world, British authorities were loath to allow him to die in their custody; Gandhi engaged in several famous hunger strikes to protest British rule in India.

In addition to Gandhi, various others used the hunger strike option during the Indian independence movement, including Jatin Das, who fasted to death, and Bhagat Singh and Batukeshwar Dutt in 1929[34]

Potti Sriramulu

[edit]

In 1952, in independent India, revolutionary Potti Sriramulu undertook a hunger strike for 56 days in an attempt to achieve the formation of a separate state, to be known as Andhra State. His death on December 15 became instrumental in the linguistic re-organisation of states.[35]

He is revered as Amarajeevi (Immortal being) in Coastal Andra for his role in achieving the linguistic re-organisation of states. As a devout follower of Mahatma Gandhi, he worked for much of his life to uphold principles such as truth, non-violence and patriotism, as well as causes such as Harijan movement to end the traditional alienation of, and accord respect and humane treatment to those traditionally called "untouchables" in Indian society.[35]

Cuban dissidents

[edit]

On April 3, 1972, Pedro Luis Boitel, an imprisoned poet and dissident, declared himself on hunger strike. After 53 days on hunger strike, receiving only liquids, he died of starvation on May 25, 1972. His last days were related by his close friend, poet Armando Valladares. He was buried in an unmarked grave in the Cólon Cemetery in Havana. [citation needed]

Guillermo Fariñas did a seven-month hunger strike to protest against the extensive Internet censorship in Cuba. He ended it in Autumn 2006, with severe health problems although still conscious.[36] Reporters Without Borders awarded its cyber-freedom prize to Guillermo Fariñas in 2006.[37]

Jorge Luis García Pérez (known as Antúnez) has done hunger strikes. In 2009, following the end of his 17-year imprisonment, Antúnez, his wife Iris, and Diosiris Santana Pérez started a hunger strike to support other political prisoners. Leaders from Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Argentina declared their support for Antúnez.[38][39]

On February 23, 2010, Orlando Zapata, a dissident arrested in 2003 as part of a crackdown on opposition groups, died in a hospital while undertaking a hunger strike that had been ongoing for 85 days. His hunger strike was a protest against poor prison conditions. Amnesty International had declared him a prisoner of conscience.[40]

[edit]

Article 8 of the 1975 World Medical Association Declaration of Tokyo states that doctors are not allowed to force-feed hunger strikers. They are supposed to understand the prisoner's independent wishes, and it is recommended to have a second opinion as to the capability of the prisoner to understand the implication of their decision and be capable of informed consent.

Where a prisoner refuses nourishment and is considered by the physician as capable of forming an unimpaired and rational judgement concerning the consequences of such a voluntary refusal of nourishment, they shall not be fed artificially. The decision as to the capacity of the prisoner to form such a judgement should be confirmed by at least one other independent physician. The consequences of the refusal of nourishment shall be explained by the physician to the prisoner.[41]

The World Medical Association (WMA) recently revised and updated its Declaration of Malta on Hunger Strikers.[42] Among many changes, it unambiguously states that force feeding is a form of inhumane and degrading treatment in its Article 21.

The American Medical Association (AMA) is a member of the WMA, but the AMA's members are not bound by the WMA's decisions, as neither organization has formal legal powers. The AMA has formally endorsed the WMA Declaration of Tokyo and has written several letters to the US government and made public statements in opposition to US physician involvement in force feeding of hunger strikers in contravention of medical ethics.[43] The United States Code of Federal Regulations rule on hunger strikes by prisoners states, "It is the responsibility of the Bureau of Prisons to monitor the health and welfare of individual inmates, and to ensure that procedures are pursued to preserve life." It further provides that when "a medical necessity for immediate treatment of a life or health threatening situation exists, the physician may order that treatment be administered without the consent of the inmate."[44]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]
  1. ^ Engelbrecht, Cora (May 2, 2023). "Hunger Strikes Have Long Served as a Tool of Nonviolent Protest". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 29, 2024. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
  2. ^ "Hunger strike definition and meaning". www.collinsdictionary.com. Collins English Dictionary. Archived from the original on April 6, 2015. Retrieved October 21, 2021.
  3. ^ Foltynova, Kristyna. "Anatomy Of A Hunger Strike: Why Is It Done And What Does It Do To The Human Body?". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved March 25, 2024.
  4. ^ Savage, Charlie (October 11, 2017). "Military Is Waiting Longer Before Force-Feeding Hunger Strikers, Detainees Say". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Archived from the original on January 29, 2024. Retrieved January 29, 2024.
  5. ^ Ellis, Peter Bereford. The Druids (Eerdmans, 1998). pp. 141–142.
  6. ^ Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Brehon Laws" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 490.
  7. ^ Joyce, Patrick Weston, A Smaller Social History of ancient Ireland (Longman, Green & Co, 1906), Chapter IV: The Administration of Justice, p.86. Found online at https://www.libraryireland.com/SocialHistoryAncientIreland/I-IV-6.php Archived February 24, 2020, at the Wayback Machine
  8. ^ a b c Beresford, David (1987). Ten Men Dead. New York: Atlantic Press. ISBN 978-0-87113-702-9.[page needed]
  9. ^ a b Coffee, C. J. (2004). Quick Look: Metabolism. Hayes Barton Press. p. 169. ISBN 978-1593771928.
  10. ^ Miller, Ian (2018). Medical History. Bloomsbury Publishing.
  11. ^ Psychiatry in Prisons A Comprehensive Handbook. Jessica Kingsley. 2018. p. 156.
  12. ^ Stevenson, R. J., & Prescott, J. (2014). Human diet and cognition. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 5(4), 463–475.
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