List of people declared persona non grata

Persona non grata (Latin, plural: personae non gratae), literally meaning "an unwelcome person", is a legal term used in diplomacy that indicates a proscription against a foreign person entering or remaining in the country. It is the most serious form of censure which one country can apply to foreign diplomats, who are otherwise protected by diplomatic immunity from arrest and other normal kinds of prosecution.

Historical examples

• The Treaty of Lausanne in 1923 included the list of 150 personae non gratae of Turkey, which forbade the entry of mainly a group of former Ottoman Empire officials and AbOUT 100 other persons to Turkey, until the lifting of this status in 1938.
• Kurt Waldheim, former Secretary-General of the United Nations and President of Austria, and his wife were given persona non grata status in the U.S. and other countries when he was accused of having known about [...] war crimes and not having done anything about them.
• In September 1952, the American Ambassador to the Soviet Union, George F. Kennan, was declared persona non grata after making a statement which the Soviets believed linked them to [...] Germany. The Soviets refused to allow Kennan to reenter the Soviet Union.
• In 1995, Croatia declared Carl Bildt persona non grata announcing that he had "lost the credibility necessary for the role of a peace mediator". Bildt had suggested that the President of Croatia, Franjo Tuđman was as guilty of war crimes as the Krajina Serb leader, Milan Martić.
• In 2000, Israel declared Austrian politician Jörg Haider persona non grata following the Austrian legislative election of 1999, since his right-wing populist Freedom Party of Austria (, FPÖ) was a member of the Austrian coalition government.
• In 2007, the Commonwealth of the Northern Marianas Islands House of Representatives voted a Saipan resident and US citizen Ron Hodges persona non grata by resolution. Hodges was castigated for his letter writing campaign critical of CNMI governance and abuses against alien workers, entitled Chamberonomics. His letters supported a US takeover of CNMI labor and immigration. Labor and human abuses in the CNMI garment industry had long been the subject of international criticism. The resolution's validity hinged on the question of CNMI sovereignty, but was never enforced and became moot after President Bush signed PL-2739 into law, thus federalizing CNMI labor and immigration.
• In 2008, President of Bolivia Evo Morales declared U.S. Ambassador Philip Goldberg persona non grata, claiming that the U.S. government conspired against him and supported his opponents.
• Soon after Bolivia's expulsion of Goldberg, President of Venezuela Hugo Chavez declared U.S. Ambassador Patrick Duddy persona non grata in solidarity with Morales' action. Chavez did not cite any specific alleged infractions by Duddy.
• In October 2008 Serbia expelled ambassadors of Montenegro and the Republic of Macedonia after these countries recognized the independence of Kosovo. In November 2008 Serbia also expelled the ambassador from Malaysia after Malaysia recognized Kosovo's independence.
• In 2008 the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel declared a UN staffer persona non grataForeign Ministry of Israel declares UN expert persona non grata, Trend News Agency, December 15, 2008.
• Mel Frykberg, When You Shoot the Messenger, Inter Press Service, July 3, 2008.
• David Cronin, Cornering of Civilians Unprecedented, Says UN Official, Inter Press Service, January 22, 2009.

  American Princeton University professor emeritus of international law Richard A. Falk when he was the United Nations Human Rights Council's United Nations Special Rapporteur on "the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories occupied since 1967." Stating this was because Falk previously had compared Israel's treatment of Palestinians to [...] treatment of Jews, Israel barred him in May 2008 and December 2008. As of March 2011 Falk was still banned from Israel.

• On December 23, 2008 Fiji followed through on a threat to expel New Zealand's high commissioner to the island nation. The expulsion came a day after the interim Prime Minister of Fiji announced he would not expel New Zealand's top diplomat because he wanted to improve his relationship with New Zealand. In retaliation to the expulsion, New Zealand declared Fiji's High Commissioner in Wellington persona non grata as Prime Minister of New Zealand John Key had stated the day before that there would be retaliatory action if its commissioner was expelled.
• In January 2009, following Venezuela expelling Israeli diplomats due to Israel's offensive in the Gaza Strip, Israel ordered Venezuelan diplomats to leave the country, declaring them personae non gratae in Israel".
• In March 2009, President Evo Morales of Bolivia declared a member of the US embassy (political division) persona non grata.
• On April 8, 2009, President of Moldova Vladimir Voronin declared Romanian Ambassador Filip Teodorescu and Councilor-Minister, Ioan Gaborean, personae non gratae, claiming that "their activity was inconsistent with their diplomatic status" after the Moldovan flag on the Parliament building was torn down and replaced with Romanian and EU flags during post-election riots in Moldova.
• In May 2009, the United Kingdom banned American conservative radio host and author Michael Savage from entering the country, allegedly for "seeking to provoke others to serious criminal acts and fostering hatred".
• On June 8, 2009, Russia declared Finnish diplomat Simo Pietiläinen, persona non grata, due to a controversial action by Pietiläinen where he smuggled Anton Salonen out of Russia following a long custody dispute between his Finnish father and Russian born lover.
• On August 21, 2009 Slovakia declared Hungarian President László Sólyom persona non grata (the Latin term was not used, only "unwelcome person", and he was not allowed to cross the border), on the day when the president had been due to unveil a statue of Saint Stephen of Hungary in Komárno. The date is the next day after the Hungarian national holiday celebrating the saint king. The main reason of the ban was that this date is also the day of the anniversary of the Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia in which Hungary's armed forces also took part in order to crush the Prague Spring of 1968. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has also expressed his concerns that the president "attempted to stress the Hungarian statehood on sovereign Slovak soil".
• On November 3, 2009, the Prime Minister of Fiji declared Australian and New Zealand diplomats to Fiji personae non gratae. In response, one day later the Australian and New Zealand Governments declared the respective Fijian Representatives personae non gratae and they were given 24 hours to depart the country. The move came as international tension between Fiji and Australia/New Zealand intensified following a decision by Fijian Prime Minister – Commodore Josaia Voreqe Bainimarama's decision to indefinitely delay elections in the country.
• On January 8, 2010, the Egyptian Foreign Ministry declared Respect MP George Galloway "persona non grata" after he attempted to take 200 aid trucks into the Gaza Strip, along with international activists. He was subsequently deported from Egypt back to the UK.
• On August 29, 2010, American hacker Charlene Lucinda Henderson was declared persona non grata by the Canadian government after defacing the Royal Canadian Mint's website, describing the Canadian dollar as "fake dollars".
• On March 30, 2011, The Kuwaiti Minister of Foreign Affairs, declared three Iranian diplomats, including the Ambassador, persona non grata for allegedly spying. Upon on orders from His Highness the Emir of Kuwait, the deputy prime minister, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, expelled the high ranking Iranian diplomats.
• On April 5, 2011, the Ecuador Ministry declared U.S. Ambassador Heather Hodges persona non grata after she did not provide sufficient answers about a leaked diplomatic cable related to Ecuador. In retaliation the U.S. declared the Ecuadorean Ambassador Luis Gallegos persona non grata on April 7, 2011.
• On April 27, 2011, Malawi declared British High Commissioner Fergus Cochrane-Dyet persona non grata a week after a diplomatic cable had been leaked in which Cochrane-Dyet stated that Malawian President Bingu wa Mutharika was "becoming ever more autocratic and intolerant of criticism".
• On May 1, 2011 The Libyan ambassador to the United Kingdom, Omar Jelban, was given 24 hours to leave the country after Foreign Secretary William Hague said he was persona non grata. The expulsion was in response to attacks on British embassy premises in Tripoli following the death of Colonel Gaddafi's son in a NATO air strike.
• May 6, 2011 the fourteen Libyan ambassadors to France were declared personae non gratae because of "conduct and activities that are not compatible with the UN resolutions, particularly resolution 1973" and "going against the protection of Libyan civilians".
• On May 19, 2011 the Russian Foreign Ministry said Israel's military attaché to Moscow Col. Vadim Leiderman was declared persona non grata after being caught receiving secret information from a Russian citizen.
• On January 6, 2012 the United States notified the Venezuelan government of the declaration of Venezuelan diplomat Livia Acosta Noguera as a persona non grata and demanded that she leave the United States by January 10, 2012. The declaration was announced by the United States on January 8, and came after an FBI investigation into allegations reported in a Univision documentary. The documentary purported that several diplomats from various countries, including Iran and Cuba had been in contact with a group of Mexican hackers connected with the National Autonomous University of Mexico.
• On April 8, 2012 Israel declared German poet Günter Grass, recipient of the 1999 Nobel Prize in Literature, persona non grata because of his poem What Must Be Said which warned that Israel threatened an "already fragile world peace".
• On May 29, 2012, in response to the May 25, 2012 Houla massacre in Syria, the French government declared Syrian Ambassador Lamia Shakkour, and two other embassy officials, personae non gratae. The Syrian ambassador to the Netherlands was also declared persona non grata by Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal.
• On September 7, 2012, the Canadian government declared all Iranian diplomats in Canada personae non gratae. The Canadian embassy in Tehran also was closed.