In the early 1970s Pešić became the member of the Intellectuals' Movement for the Defense and Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms, popularly known as the “Belgrade opposition”. In 1982, she was arrested and imprisoned for organizing the protests against the arrest of a group of the University of Belgrade students.
It is worth a mention that Centre for Antiwar Action is organization largely supported by the National Endowment for Democracy, United States government institution.[3][4]
Her many honors include the Award for Democracy of the U.S. National Foundation for Democracy (1993), the W. Averell Harriman Award of the U.S. National Institute for Democracy (1997) from Washington, D.C., United States and the Andrei Sakharov Award from the Norwegian Helsinki Committee and the Sakharov Foundation for Freedom (1997). She is praised as '"contributor in developing democracy and civil society"' from Institute of Peace, founded by United States Congress.[citation needed]
In May 2008, after parliamentary elections in Serbia, Pešić ironically stated that "if pro-EU camp fails to form a government, elections should be nullified". In addition, in her opinion, any future elections should be prevented.[6]
Pešić was a Member of Serbian Parliament from 1993 to 1997 and from 2007 to 2012.[7]
Pešić is a senior scientific associate of the Institute of Philosophy and Social Theory.
During the parliamentary- and presidential election campaign of 2012. Pešić was the most prominent face of the 'Blank Ballot' campaign, which targeted corruption among the ruling party officials and promoted active boycott of election. Ultimately the campaign helped overthrow the democratic government and introduce an autocratic rule of now president Aleksandar Vucić. Since the 2012 election, civil freedoms and rule of law in Serbia have been gradually deteriorating, causing the Freedom House to label the country as 'Partially free' in 2020.
