Kathy Kelly (USA)

➡️ Kathy Kelly – Peace Activist, Pacifist, and Voice in the Wild

Kathy Kelly is a prominent American peace activist committed to nonviolent protest and her work in war-torn regions.

Throughout her career, she has received numerous awards and recognitions for her tireless efforts in peace activism, bringing humanitarian aid to war-affected populations, and educating the public about the atrocities of war and peaceful alternatives. She is a recipient of the U.S. Peace Memorial Foundation Prize and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize.

In attempts to silence further exposure of the atrocities and human costs of war, she has been arrested more than sixty times at home and abroad.

In 1996, she co-founded the organisation Voices in the Wilderness, a campaign to end the US and United Nations sanctions against Iraq. In direct violation of the sanctions, they sent over 70 delegations to Iraq to supply food and medicine to Iraqi citizens – Kathy joined on 26 of the trips.

They engaged in multiple negotiations with the Israeli Defense Forces and were the first outsiders to visit the Jenin refugee camp. Kathy went on to report her first-hand experiences of the heavy citizen toll after a recent attack at the camp. The organisation was fined $20,000 by the US Treasury in 2003 for exporting unspecified goods to Iraq, which it refused to pay.

Her work with Voices in the Wilderness led to a 3-month prison sentence, where her experiences formed much of the content for her book ‘Other Lands Have Dreams’. In this collection of essays, she shares her experiences in Iraq, the brutal story of the School of Americas. She also gives an account of life inside prison and the suffering that is endured by millions.

The organisation disbanded just two years later to be replaced with Voices for Creative Nonviolence, which challenged the US military and their warfare against Iraq and other places such as Afghanistan, Yemen, and Gaza. She visited many places to voice the experiences of Iraqi refugees, including Lebanon and Jordan.

During the 15 years of its operation Kathy occupied the offices of Senators, organised and took part in week-long vigils, entered military bases to protest drone attacks, demonstrated against torture at Guantanamo Bay, visited various warzones and refugee camps to document the deplorable conditions faced by ordinary people, interviewed aid workers, was part of the Freedom Flotilla II which sailed to Gaza from international waters in defiance of the Israeli naval blockade, visited 5 Russian cities to build activist connections opposing a new cold war, fasted for Yemen, took part in the Black Lives Matter demonstrations, and conducted multiple peace walks.

World Beyond War, Killer Drones & Merchants of Death

The Voices campaign ended in 2020, and Kathy refocused her work on campaigns with Ban Killer Drones (a campaign to end US drone warfare) and World Beyond War (a global nonviolent movement dedicated to ending war and establishing a just and sustainable peace) of which she is now president.

Most recently, in 2023, alongside fellow peace advocates Nick Mottern and Brad Wolf, she organised the Merchants of Death War Crimes Tribunal. It aims to hold US weapons manufacturers accountable for knowingly producing, selling, and making enormous profits from an industry which is responsible for the deaths of thousands in armed conflicts around the world.

The event has brought together some of the most well-known organisations in the peace movement, such as World Beyond War, Code Pink, Ban Killer Drones, PAX Christi USA, Veterans for Peace, and ourselves here at Better World Info – a much-needed step towards greater collaboration in the peace world.

Kathy Kelly is the author of the celebrated book "Other Lands Have Dreams: from Baghdad to Pekin Prison" and regularly contributes to excellent real news websites such as Democracy Now, Common Dreams, and Truthout. Her work has brought a human perspective to military policy discussions, filled with first-hand accounts, which challenge policymakers and leaders to think critically about the ethics, effectiveness, and costs of military intervention.

Kathy Kelly is a valued supporter of Better World Info, and we thank her for her tireless commitment to the peace movement and her ability to bring together like-minded peace advocates and organisations from around the world. Greater synergy brings greater strength to the enormous battle against war machines, weapons stockpiling, the arms trade, and rampant military funding.

➡️ Be sure to check out our comprehensive guides to peace and nonviolence, nuclear disarmament, conflict regions, and the military.

Author: Rachael Mellor, 10.01.25 licensed under CC BY-ND 4.0

For further reading on Kathy Kelly see below ⬇️