This is a list of murdered political dissidents and human rights activists. The list is chronological.
| Intended victims | Year | Date | Title at the time | Place | Country | Assassin(s) | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1793 | 3 November | French playwright and political activist whose writings on women's rights and abolitionism brought her execution by guillotine | Paris |  France | Executioner | ||
| 1837 | 7 November | American journalist, newspaper editor and abolitionist | Alton, Illinois |  United States | mob | ||
| 1865 | 15 April | President of the U.S. and anti-slavery activist | Washington, D.C. | United States | John Wilkes Booth | ||
| 1913 | 22 February | American state senator who assisted freed slaves | Yanceyville, North Carolina | United States | Ku Klux Klan | ||
| 1913 | 22 February | President of Mexico | Mexico City |  Mexico | Victoriano Huerta | ||
| 1913 | 22 March | Chinese republican leader of Kuomintang | Shanghai |  China | Wu Shiying | ||
| 1914 | 31 July | French Marxist anti-war activist | Paris | France | Raoul Villain | ||
| 1915 | 3 February | Malawian philosopher and educator | Shire Highlands | British colonial officers | |||
| 1919 | 10 March | German Marxist revolutionary | Berlin |  Germany | Freikorps | ||
| 1919 | 15 January | German revolutionary | Berlin | Germany | Freikorps | ||
| 1919 | 15 January | Polish-German revolutionary | Berlin | Germany | Freikorps | ||
| 1919 | 1 November | Haitian nationalist leader | Port-au-Prince |  Haiti | U.S. Marines | ||
| 1919 | 10 April | Mexican peasant leader | Chinameca | Mexico | Jesús Guajardo | ||
| 1921 | 28 January | Turkish communist leader | Black Sea |  Turkey | Turkish agents | ||
| 1922 | 22 August | Irish independence leader | Béal na Bláth |  Ireland | Irish Civil War | ||
| 1924 | 10 June | Italian anti-fascist | Rome |  Italy | Blackshirts | ||
| 1924 | 22 April | Albanian teacher and activist | Tirana |  Albania | Jusuf Reçi | ||
| 1933 | 20 February | Japanese author | Tokyo |  Japan | police | ||
| 1934 | 21 February | Nicaraguan revolutionary | Managua |  Nicaragua | United States Marine Corps | ||
| 1935 | 8 May | Cuban politician | Matanzas |  Cuba | Cuban government | ||
| 1935 | 9 December | American journalist | Minneapolis, Minnesota | United States | Blumenfeld | ||
| 1940 | June | Syrian nationalist | Damascus | Syria | National Bloc members | ||
| 1940 | 21 August | Soviet dissident | Coyoacán, Mexico City | Mexico | Ramón Mercader | ||
| 1941 | 26 July | French socialist politician | Montélimar | France | Comité secret d'action révolutionnaire | ||
| 1943 | 11 January | American newspaper editor | New York City | United States | NKVD | ||
| 1948 | 30 January | Indian independence movement leader | New Delhi |  India | Nathuram Godse | ||
| 1948 | 9 April | Bogotá |  Colombia | El Bogotazo | |||
| 1950 | 18 August | Belgian Republican politician | Seraing |  Belgium | François Goossens | ||
| 1952 | 21 October | Venezuelan lawyer | Caracas | police | |||
| 1954 | 18 June | American attorney | Phenix City, Alabama | United States | Sheriff Albert Fuller | ||
| 1955 | 7 May | American civil rights leader and minister | Midnight, Mississippi | United States | Unidentified shooter | ||
| 1955 | 13 August | American civil rights leader, farmer, and veteran | Brookhaven, Mississippi | United States | Unidentified shooter | ||
| 1956 | 18 February | American co-founder of a NAACP chapter | Columbus, Georgia | United States | Luico Flowers | ||
| 1957 | 23 March | Algerian militant and lawyer | El Biar | French Algeria | Paul Aussaresses | ||
| 1957 | 11 June | Algerian student | Algiers | French Algeria | André Charbonnier | ||
| 1958 | 13 September | Cameroonian anti-colonialist | Boumnyébel |  Cameroon | French army | ||
| 1961 | 12 August | Tunisian lawyer and politician | Frankfurt | Tunisian agents | |||
| 1961 | 25 September | American civil rights and voting rights activist | Liberty, Mississippi | United States | E. H. Hurst | ||
| 1962 | 15 March | Algerian journalist and translator | Algiers |  Algeria | OAS | ||
| 1963 | 23 April | American protesting racial segregation | Attalla, Alabama | United States | Unidentified/disputed shooter | ||
| 1963 | 27 May | Greek anti-war activist | Thessaloniki |  Greece | Emannouel Emannouilides and Spyros Gotzamanis | ||
| 1963 | 12 June | American civil rights activist | Jackson, Mississippi | United States | Byron De La Beckwith | ||
| 1964 | 31 January | American voting rights activist | Amite County, Mississippi | United States | Disputed | ||
| 1964 | 21 June | American civil rights | Mississippi | United States | Ku Klux Klan | ||
| 1964 | 21 June | American civil rights activist | Mississippi | United States | Ku Klux Klan | ||
| 1964 | 21 June | American civil rights activist | Philadelphia, Mississippi | United States | Ku Klux Klan | ||
| 1965 | 13 February | Portuguese anti-fascist | Olivenza |  Spain | PIDE | ||
| 1965 | 21 February | American human rights activist | New York City | United States | members of the Nation of Islam | ||
| 1965 | 24 February | Kenyan journalist | Nairobi |  Kenya | police | ||
| 1965 | 11 March | American minister and civil rights activist | Alabama | United States | mob | ||
| 1965 | 25 March | American civil rights activist | Selma, Alabama | United States | Ku Klux Klan | ||
| 1965 | 20 August | American civil rights activist | Hayneville, Alabama | United States | Tom Coleman | ||
| 1965 | 29 October | Moroccan revolutionary fighter and politician | Paris | France | French intelligence agents | ||
| 1966 | 3 January | American civil rights and voting rights activist | Tuskegee, Alabama | United States | Marvin Segrest | ||
| 1966 | 10 January | American civil rights and voting rights activist | Hattiesburg, Mississippi | United States | Ku Klux Klan | ||
| 1966 | 15 March | Cameroonian economist | Ndélélé | Cameroon | Cameroonian Armed Forces | ||
| 1966 | 5 May | Thai Marxist historian | Waritchaphum |  Thailand | local villagers | ||
| 1966 | 17 October | American civil rights activist | Columbus, Ohio | United States | unknown | ||
| 1967 | 27 February | American NAACP chapter treasurer | Natchez, Mississippi | United States | unknown | ||
| 1967 | 2 June | German anti-war activist | West Berlin | Karl-Heinz Kurras | |||
| Che Guevara | 1967 | 9 October | Argentine revolutionary | La Higuera | CIA-assisted Bolivian forces | ||
| 1968 | 4 April | American civil rights activist | Memphis, Tennessee | United States | James Earl Ray | ||
| 1968 | 6 June | U.S. presidential candidate | Los Angeles, California | United States | Sirhan Bishara Sirhan | ||
| 1969 | 5 July | Kenyan Cabinet Minister | Nairobi | Kenya | Nahashon Isaac Njenga Njoroge | ||
| 1969 | 4 December | American civil rights activist | Chicago, Illinois | United States | members of the Chicago Police Department | ||
| 1970 | 18 October | Algerian revolutionary fighter and politician | Frankfurt | unknown | |||
| 1971 | 29 March | East Pakistani lawyer | Moynamoti |  East Pakistan | Pakistani Army | ||
| 1971 | 23 May | Dominican Republic politician |  Dominican Republic | orders of Joaquin Balaguer | |||
| 1972 | 8 July | Palestinian writer | Beirut |  Lebanon | Mossad | ||
| 1973 | 26 August | Chadian medical doctor and politician | Paris | France | French secret service and Chadian Government | ||
| 1973 | 20 January | Guinea-Bissauan and Cape Verdean intellectual, poet, theoretician, and revolutionary | Conakry |  Guinea | Portuguese intelligence agents | ||
| 1973 | 16 September | Chilean teacher and theater director | Santiago |  Chile | Pedro Barrientos | ||
| 1974 | 27 September | Argentine intellectual and lawyer | Buenos Aires |  Argentina | Argentine Anticommunist Alliance | ||
| 1974 | 11 May | Argentine Roman Catholic priest and activist | Villa Luro | Argentina | Rodolfo Almirón | ||
| 1974 | 15 March | Chilean journalist | Santiago | Chile | military | ||
| 1975 | 18 December | Moroccan journalist and trade union activist | Casablanca |  Morocco | Chabiba islamia | ||
| 1975 | 18 March | Rhodesian ZANU-activist | Lusaka |  Zambia | Rhodesian Security Forces | ||
| 1975 | 2 March | Kenyan socialist politician | Nairobi | Kenya | Kenyan police | ||
| 1975 | 10 May | Salvadoran poet, essayist, journalist, political activist, and intellectual | San Salvador |  El Salvador | People's Revolutionary Army | ||
| 1976 | 28 February | Thai socialist politician | Bangkok | Thailand | unknown | ||
| 1976 | 4 August | Bishop of La Rioja | Sañogasta | Argentina | Argentinian military | ||
| 1976 | 21 September | Chilean economist, ex-ambassador | Washington, DC | United States | Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional | ||
| 1977 | 12 September | South African anti-apartheid activist | Pretoria |  South Africa | South African Police Forces | ||
| 1977 | 17 February | Ugandan archbishop | Kampala |  Uganda | Idi Amin regime | ||
| 1977 | 12 March | Salvadoran priest | Aguilares | El Salvador | mob | ||
| 1978 | 17 April | Afghan intellectual and editor | Kabul |  Afghanistan | |||
| 1978 | 4 May | Egyptian left-wing political activist | Paris | France | OAS and Charles Martel Group | ||
| 1978 | 11 September | Bulgarian dissident | London |  United Kingdom | Bulgarian secret service | ||
| 1978 | 27 November | American LGBT human rights activist | San Francisco, California | United States | Dan White | ||
| 1978 | 27 November | Mayor of San Francisco | San Francisco, California | United States | Dan White | ||
| 1978 | 21 December | Spanish Basque activist | Anglet | France | car bomb | ||
| 1980 | 14 March | American civil rights activist | New York City | United States | Dennis Sweeney | ||
| 1980 | 24 March | Archbishop of San Salvador | San Salvador | El Salvador | mob | ||
| 1980 | 13 June | Guyanese historian, political activist and scholar | Georgetown |  Guyana | unknown | ||
| 1980 | 17 July | Bolivian writer, dramatist, and journalist | La Paz | Luis Garcia Meza | |||
| 1980 | 27 November | Salvadoran politicians | San Salvador | El Salvador | Brígada Anticomunista Maximiliano Hernández Martínez | ||
| 1980 | 8 December | British anti-war activist and ex-Beatle | New York City | United States | Mark David Chapman | ||
| 1981 | 19 September | French New Caledonian politician | Nouméa |  New Caledonia | unknown | ||
| 1981 | 6 October | President of Egypt and peace activist | Cairo, Egypt |  Egypt | Egyptian Islamic Jihad | ||
| 1983 | 24 March | Malawian dissident | Harare |  Zimbabwe | Malawian agents | ||
| 1983 | 21 August | Filipino opposition leader |  Philippines | Filippino agents | |||
| 1984 | 1 January | American attorney and talk radio show host | Denver, Colorado | United States | Silent Brotherhood | ||
| 1984 | 15 October | Taiwanese writer and journalist | Daly City, California | United States | Bamboo Union | ||
| 1984 | 19 October | Polish Roman Catholic priest | Włocławek |  Poland | Polish Security Service | ||
| 1985 | 29 November | Seychellois politicians | London | United Kingdom | France-Albert René regime | ||
| 1985 | 18 July | Pakistani democracy activist | Nice | France | Zia ul-Haq regime | ||
| 1985 | 20 September | Pakistani democracy activist | Karachi | Pakistan | police | ||
| 1985 | 12 January | New Caledonian Kanak politician | Canala | New Caledonia | French gendarme | ||
| 1985 | 27 June | South African anti-apartheid activist | Port Elizabeth | South Africa | South African Police Forces | ||
| 1985 | 27 June | South African anti-apartheid activist | Port Elizabeth | South Africa | South African Police Forces | ||
| 1985 | 27 June | South African anti-apartheid activist | Port Elizabeth | South Africa | South African Police Forces | ||
| 1985 | 27 June | South African anti-apartheid activist | Port Elizabeth | South Africa | South African Police Forces | ||
| 1985 | 13 September | Panamanian activist | La Concepción |  Panama | Panamanian government | ||
| 1986 | 28 February | Prime Minister of Sweden | Stockholm |  Sweden | unknown | ||
| 1987 | 11 October | Colombian lawyer and union leader | La Mesa | Colombia | Colombian mafia | ||
| 1988 | 29 March | South African anti-apartheid political activist | Paris | France | South African agents | ||
| 1988 | 22 December | Brazilian trade unionist and environmentalist | Xapuri |  Brazil | Darci and Darly Alves da Silva, Jerdeir Pereira | ||
| Pat Finucane | 1989 | 12 February | Irish lawyer | Belfast | Ken Barrett | ||
| 1989 | 1 May | South African anthropologist | Troyeville | South Africa | South African Civil Cooperation Bureau | ||
| 1989 | 4 May | New Caledonian Kanak politician | Ouvéa | New Caledonia | Djubelly Wéa | ||
| 1989 | 13 July | Head of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan | Vienna |  Austria | Iranian agents | ||
| 1989 | 18 August | Colombian journalist | Bogotá | Colombia | Colombian mafia | ||
| 1989 | 12 September | Namibian anti-apartheid activist | Windhoek |  Namibia | South African Civil Cooperation Bureau | ||
| 1989 | 16 November | Salvadoran priest | San Salvador | El Salvador | Salvadoran army | ||
| 1989 | 16 November | Salvadoran philosopher and theologian | San Salvador | El Salvador | Salvadoran army | ||
| 1990 | 18 February | Sri Lankan journalist and actor | Rajagiriya |  Sri Lanka | Sri Lanka-linked death squad | ||
| 1992 | 9 June | Egyptian professor | Heliopolis | Egypt | Al-Gama'a al-Islamiyya | ||
| 1992 | 4 July | Gay liberation and AIDS activist | New York City | Unknown (described by witnesses as a "group of thugs") | |||
| 1992 | 29 July 1992 | Togolese politician | Lomé |  Togo | police | ||
| 1993 | 26 May | Algerian journalist and poet | Algiers | Algeria | Armed Islamic Group | ||
| 1993 | 10 April | South African Anti-apartheid activist | Boksburg | South Africa | Janusz Waluś | ||
| 1993 | 21 October | Burundian intellectual and politician | Bujumbura |  Burundi | Burundi Army | ||
| 1993 | 3 July | Guatemalan newspaper publisher | Chichicastenango |  Guatemala | mob | ||
| 1994 | 29 September | Algerian musician | Oran | Algeria | Armed Islamic Group | ||
| Jon Simmons | 1994 | 1 October | LGBT rights activist | Los Angeles | Unknown | ||
| 1994 | 5 November | South African Anti-apartheid activist | Pretoria | South Africa | White South African extremists | ||
| 1995 | 16 April | Pakistani child activist | Muridke | Pakistan | Carpet Mafia | ||
| 1995 | 6 September | Indian human rights activist | Jhabal | India | Kanwar Pal Singh Gill | ||
| 1995 | 4 November | Prime Minister of Israel and peace activist | Tel Aviv, Israel |  Israel | Yigal Amir | ||
| 1996 | 9 June | spouse of Nigerian presidential candidate Moshood Abiola | Lagos |  Nigeria | team of six men | ||
| 1997 | 28 January | Algerian trade unionist | Algiers | Algeria | unknown | ||
| 1998 | 25 June | Algerian musician | Beni Aïssi | Algeria | police | ||
| 1998 | 12 September | Albanian anti-communists | Tirana | Albania | Fatmir Haklaj, Jaho Mulosmani, and Naim Cangu | ||
| 1998 | 2 October | Mongolian activist | Ulaanbaatar |  Mongolia | unknown | ||
| 1998 | 20 November | Russian dissidents | St Petersburg | Russian state security service | |||
| 1998 | 13 December | Burkinabé publisher | Sapouy |  Burkina Faso | Burkinabé agents | ||
| 1998 | 26 April | Guatemalan Roman Catholic bishop | San Sebastian Church | Guatemala | Guatemalan military personnels | ||
| 1998 | 8 June | Russian journalist | Elista | unknown | |||
| 1999 | 17 February | Ecuadorian politician | Quito |  Ecuador | Christian Steven Ponce | ||
| 2000 | 3 April | Haitian journalist | Port-au-Prince | Haiti | unknown | ||
| 2000 | 22 November | Mozambican journalist | Maputo |  Mozambique | Nyimpine Chissano and Aníbal dos Santos | ||
| 2001 | 6 February | Filipino workers' leader | Quezon City | Philippines | unknown | ||
| 2001 | 25 July | Indian activist | New Delhi | India | |||
| 2002 | 6 May | Dutch politician and LGBT human rights activist | Hilversum, Netherlands |  Netherlands | Volkert van der Graaf | ||
| 2002 | 28 December | Yemeni politician, intellectual | Sana'a |  Yemen | Ali Ahmad al-Jarallah | ||
| 2004 | 13 February | Chechen exiled separatist writer | Doha |  Qatar | FSB agents | ||
| 2004 | 5 June | Jamaican LGBT+ rights activist | Kingston | Dwight Hayden | |||
| 2004 | 7 September | Indonesian human rights activist | Schiphol | Netherlands | |||
| 2004 | 28 September | LGBT rights activist | Freetown | Unknown | |||
| 2004 | 16 December | Gambian newspaper reporter | Banjul |  Gambia | Yahya Jammeh regime | ||
| 2005 | 2 March | Azerbaijani journalist | Baku |  Azerbaijan | Azerbaijani regime | ||
| 2005 | 15 March | Brazilian-American missionary | Anapu | Brazil | Clodoaldo Carlos Batista and Raifran das Neves Sales | ||
| 2005 | 23 September | Puerto Rican independence activist | Hormigueros |  Puerto Rico | FBI | ||
| 2006 | 7 October | Russian journalist | Moscow | three Chechen men | |||
| 2006 | 23 November | Russian dissident | London | United Kingdom | FSB agents | ||
| 2007 | 19 January | Turkish-Armenian editor, journalist and columnist | Istanbul | Turkey | Ogün Samast | ||
| Gareth Williams | 2007 | 14 February | Gay rights activist | Mandeville | mob | ||
| 2008 | 1 April | Swazi opposition leader | Nelspruit | South Africa | Swaziland government agents | ||
| Tonderai Ndira | 2008 | 13–22 May | Zimbabwean political dissident | Harare | Zimbabwe | Zimbabwean agents | |
| 2009 | 15 July | Russian human rights activist | Ingushetia | unknown | |||
| 2011 | 27 January | Gay rights activist and teacher | Mukono Town | Sidney Nsubuga Enoch | |||
| 2012 | 17 April | LGBT rights activist | Halifax | Andre Noel Denny | |||
| 2013 | 9 January | Turkish Kurdish women's rights activist | Paris | France | Turkish agents | ||
| 2013 | 6 February | Tunisian lawyer | El Menzah |  Tunisia | Kamel Gaghgadhi | ||
| 2015 | 26 February | Bangladeshi online activist | Dhaka |  Bangladesh | Ansarullah Bangla Team | ||
| 2015 | 27 February | Russian political activist | Moscow | two Chechen men | |||
| 2015 | 13 October | Argentinian transgender rights activist | Buenos Aires | Argentina | Gabriel David Marino | ||
| 2016 | 3 March | Honduran environmental activist, indigenous leader | La Esperanza |  Honduras | employees of DESA | ||
| 2016 | 25 April | Bangladeshi LGBT rights activist | Dhaka | Bangladesh | Ansar-al-Islam, an Al-Qaida affiliate | ||
| 2018 | 14 March | Brazilian politician, feminist, and human rights activist | Rio de Janeiro | Brazil | the Brazilian Government, allegedly | ||
| 2019 | 2 February | Pashtun civil rights activist | Balochistan | Pakistani Police[1] | |||
| 2020 | 11 July | US Men's Rights Activist and Attorney | California, US | United States | Roy Den Hollander [2] | ||
| 2022 | 8 March | Activist and leader of shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo and the eKhenana Commune | Durban, South Africa | South Africa | Hitmen linked to African National Congress [3] [4] | ||
| 2022 | 5 May | Activist and leader of shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo and the eKhenana Commune | Durban, South Africa | South Africa | Hitmen linked to African National Congress [5] [6] | ||
| 2022 | 20 August | Activist and leader of shack dwellers' movement Abahlali baseMjondolo and the eKhenana Commune | Durban, South Africa | South Africa | Hitmen linked to African National Congress [7] |