Vote for your modern-day hero in our special New Statesman survey

Who are the men and women changing the world for the better? The NS invites you to nominate your hero. In week three, four more familiar names offer their thoughts - but ultimately it's up to you. So go online at www.newstatesman.com/heroes
or use the form attached and give a brief explanation if you wish. We shall publish some citations with our final list of 50 in May.

Our definition: a man or woman whose actions have been in the service of the greater good and whose influence is national or international: someone who is prepared to act in pursuit of a freer, more equitable and more democratic future without resorting to violence.

George Monbiot nominates
Guy Horton, activist against Burma atrocities

My hero is someone you won't have heard of. This is, I believe, one of the tests of true heroism. Guy Horton returned to Britain a few months ago after seven years in Burma. He has been documenting what is plainly an attempt at genocide, and recently published a 600-page report providing more evidence than has ever been compiled of one of the world's greatest and most neglected atrocities. Instead of relying on other accounts, he gathered this evidence himself, at tremendous risk, at the centre of the killings. He is still recovering from a murder attempt. Unlike the celebrity "heroes" who ensure that everyone knows just how brave and modest they have been, he has never sought public recognition.

David Hare nominates
Hans Blix, UN weapons inspector

Under considerable pressure from all sides, Hans Blix tried, with exceptional wisdom and humanity, to prevent the horror of the past three years by scrupulously carrying out the job he was assigned to do. From its reckless abortion, so much suffering has followed. Tony Blair frequently insists that we may not question the integrity of those involved, only their judgement. Even by that standard, of all the major characters in the drama, only Hans Blix triumphantly survives scrutiny.

Jacques Attali nominates
Muhammad Yunus, microfinance banker

Dr Muhammad Yunus is founder and general manager of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh. He has changed the lives of many millions by giving men and women in dozens of countries the chance to secure financing for their small businesses. There are now some 10,000 microfinance institutions in the world that follow the Grameen example. Microfinance is a key to fighting global poverty and Dr Yunus is one of the most prominent figures in this new venture.

Kate Allen nominates
Jody Williams, landmines ban activist

Landmines continue to claim roughly 20,000 new casualties every year, but how many more men, women and children around the world would have been killed or maimed were it not for Jody Williams, the founding co-ordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines?

Launched by six non-governmental organisations in October 1992, the campaign now involves more than 1,400 such groups. And Williams has achieved not just growth for the ICBL but success, too, with an international treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. Global trade in them has almost halted completely.

That astonishing achievement has helped to inspire Amnesty International, and others working with us in our campaign for an international arms trade treaty. Indeed, it was Williams and her fellow Nobel laureates who began the process by which we've ended up poised to take our "call on arms" to the UN.

To make a nomination online go to www.newstatesman.com/heros

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