The Most Powerful Pictures of People Demanding Change

At great times of conflict and unrest throughout history, it is the power of the human spirit that shines through to make change.

The below photographs show a collection of moments in time where human beings around the world have made bold statements and moved metaphorical mountains, by fighting for what they believe in and making the world a better place.

A protester stands silently before a line of heavily-armed cops in Baton Rouge in 2016

500,000 people defend human’s rights at the Women’s March on Washington in January 2017

A Swedish woman defies neo-nazis alone at a rally in May 2016

Muslims form a human chain to protect Christians during mass in Pakistan in 2013

40,000 monks pray for world peace in 2010

A couple celebrates the legalization of gay marriage in Minnesota in 2013

A protestor plays music to calm the riot police in Ukraine in 2013

A 17-year-old offers a flower to soldiers during the Pentagon anti-war protest in 1967

A protestor rescues an injured police officer in Brazil in 2012

A child offers an inflatable white heart to police during a protest in Romania in 2012

A couple from Iowa finally gets married after 72 years together in 2014

An Irish teenager yells at British soldiers during unrest in Northern Ireland

A child is passed through a barbed wire fence to his grandparents at a refugee camp during the Kosovo War in 1999

A 10-year-old Yemeni girl smiles after she was granted a divorce in 2008 from her husband, a grown adult

A protesting student hugs a police officer in Colombia in 2011

A protesting student offers a kiss to a police officer in Colombia in 2011

A child brings water to police officers during protests in Sarajevo in 2014

An Afghan child holds the hand of an American soldier in 2010

A brave girl scout confronts a neo-nazi in Czech Republic in May 2017