The Online International Fellowship Program on Non-Violence and Peace
IFPNP V, 2026-2027
October 2nd 2026
Good day from Beirut,
Thank you Dr. Siby, Thank you dear partners,
Dr. Siby K Joseph, Director, JBMLRCGS, Sevagram Ashram Pratishthan,
Wardha, MS India
Dr. D John Chelladurai, Dean, FIDS, MGM University, Chh. Sambhajinagar, MS
India
Prof. Michael Sonnleitner, Portland Community College, Portland, Oregon, USA
Dr. Dorcas Ettang, Former Acting Director, ICON., Durban
University of Technology, South Africa
Mr. Louis Campana, President, & Christophe Grigri, Gandhi International, France
Welcome to the Fellows in this Program, 90 applicants from 22 countries,
India, Nigeria, South Africa, Lebanon, Sri Lanka, Gambia,
Ghana, Kenya, Congo, Bangladesh, Nepal, Zimbabwe, Sudan, South Sudan, Turkey,
Ethiopia, Syria, Canada, Germany, France, Brazil, USA.
I
With my
love and solidarity, to all those here and around the world are suffering from
all kinds of violence and injustice,
Under the
weight of suffering, the devastating destruction, the unimaginable levels of
atrocity, the genocides, wars, hegemonies, weapons, we still believe and work
so that from an imminent peril a salvation of humanism has to be born…
On a day
like this, October 2nd, I find myself thinking that nonviolence has already its
own day—but what difference does it make!?
Whether it
has a day or not, whether we celebrate it or not, we need nonviolence.
We need
nonviolence—not so that small groups of nonviolent activists, students,
professors, here and there can celebrate it, but so that nonviolence can and
should be everywhere.
If
nonviolence doesn't become a powerful image, how can people flock to it, just
as they do to any new iPhone store, new chocolate, or new makeup, or other
‘trend’ on social media!?
We know
that people, every human being, need a powerful idea; we need to be able to
trust that what we are presenting to them can bring about change, can make a
difference in the face of the overwhelming violence that crushes life, in the
face of helplessness, the lack of solutions…
In this
way, I always invited people to be educated on the difference between Violence
and Power or Force. This is a crucial point.
"Force
does not equate violence.
Violence
does not equate force.
Of
course, we need to be strong, but violent!?
The
notion of force is distorted when it is associated with violence.
The
notion of violence is beautified when it is alleged to signify strength.
We carry
out executions and we call this ‘justice’; we commit crimes of passion and kill
family members in the name of ‘honor’; we declare ‘peace’ yet we wage war; we
speak of ‘resorting to force’ when we promote militancy; we speak of
‘revolution’ and then commit murder; we speak of ‘education’ and then we slap
children…
Our
primary cultural responsibility is therefore to re-associate the values of
Non-Violence with the notion of force, of strength, and to expose violence for
what it truly is. " (Ogarit
Younan)
October 2nd
is the International Day of Non-Violence: What a
message for the world! I wish for the world to be on the path of Gandhi’s
values which Professor Morris-Jones qualify as “Saintly Politics” سياسة القدّيسين.
October 2nd
is also the “National Day for the Culture of Non-Violence in Lebanon”,
established officially by the Government since 2016 at the initiative of our
university, AUNOHR.
The concept
of NON-VIOLENCE: we have already embarked on its second century: 106 years
since 1920 to 2026. A lot of achievements worldwide, of course, but a lot more
to do, more and more…
For me, I had
always this feeling that Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi is a friend, best friend
for Humanity. He was young, at 24 only, when he started to be a nonviolent
militant and didn’t stop day by day until his assassination in 1948: 55 years
of his life, entirely on the path of nonviolence philosophy and strategy: 22 in
South Africa and 33 after his permanent return to India.
How
grateful we are to have had Gandhi!
However, I
like to repeat this idea each time: it is remarkable that many everywhere love Gandhi and do
not like Non-Violence! How? Gandhi is the symbol of Non-Violence; His name
has become a label enough by itself. So, how can we love him and not like
what he was! This is a serious question.
We need new
Gandhi(s), in plural; man and woman... We need it, not to be another Gandhi
(copy paste), but to Be nonviolent and to “Be the Change that You want to See
in the World”.
II
NON-VIOLENCE
is a choice for life. It is a life, a way of life.
We know that
human being has, by nature, the potential the capacity of violence and the
potential of Non-Violence. So, it is my rational and conscious choice to prevail nonviolence in me, and this will
not be able unless I turn my violence my potential violence Silent
without voice, efficiency, like this universal sculpture
of nonviolence, the knotted gun, created by the Swedish artist Carl
Fredrik Reuterswärd in 1980 to say that: Violence and weapons will remain, but
our strong stance, which is stronger than violence, is to silence the voice of
the weapon and bind its muzzle so that it can no longer be used for killing and
destruction; it becomes as if it does not exist and loses all power. This is
the message.
As you may know,
AUNOHR established this sculpture in Beirut, the first Arab capital to welcome
and unveil this symbol of peace on its seaside promenade since 2018.
Since many
years, I used to present nonviolence in a simplified methodology in 5 points:
1: Me, I will not be violent. I do not want
to reinforce my desire for violence or give in to my capacity for violence.
This is my own decision and choice regarding myself, my personality, my being,
my relations to others, and my existence in life.
I do not like to
be that harsh, cold, rigid, spiteful, harmful person...
Regardless of
others’ actions, their violence, or their injustice toward me, I have chosen
not to be violent, and not to let my actions be a reaction: violence begetting
violence. I don’t want to be a ‘parrot’!
My fundamental
question to myself is: Who am I, and who do I want to be? A violent person or a
nonviolent one?
Of course, I will
make mistakes and resort to violence sometimes, just like everyone else, but
they will be mistakes, not a pattern of violence.
2. I
refuse to be abused—that is, I refuse to be mistreated, humiliated, subjugated
by anyone, or to have my rights violated or my humanity my dignity trampled
upon. So, it’s not only, not to use violence myself, to be polite, pacifist,
but to not accept at the same level to receive and be under violence and
injustice.
3. I do not make distinctions: I say no to violence against oneself and
violence perpetrated by others (individuals, regimes, institutions, etc.). I reject both
equally. I do not justify any violence whatsoever, but without equating the
violence of the oppressor to the violence of the oppressed. I first take responsibility for my own violence
before pointing the finger at the violence of others. Nonviolence is a
responsibility toward oneself just as much as it is a responsibility toward the
violence of others. People have gotten into the habit of complaining about
others' violence. For
example, many oppressed
people tend to speak first about the violence of the oppressors—it’s evident,
but most of the time they do so to portray themselves as victims, only, and
most of the time to justify their own violence.
4.
I do not achieve my goals through violence or harm. I do not respond to
violence with violence. My ends and my means are one; they are interconnected
and complementary, like a tree and a seed, as Gandhi said. A noble end requires
noble means.
5.
I do not merely reject violence; I confront violence and injustice. I
address conflict. I engage in struggle. I resist violence without resorting to
violence. I offer solutions and alternatives; I engage in dialogue.... to
replace violence with justice. Merely rejecting violence—merely lighting a
candle—is a pacifist stance, one in which we are peaceful but not nonviolent.
Nonviolence is radical; it requires confronting violence with courageous
struggle.
When we said
that we want nonviolence, that we are
nonviolent, or we wish to learn nonviolence, etc., this cannot be comprehensive
without thinking and living the 5 points as one.
III
I like
to share with you two great achievements on NON-VIOLENCE from Lebanon to the
region and worldwide:
As many
already know, our story began
four decades ago since 1983, to spread and institutionalize the culture
of Non-Violence in Lebanon and many other Arab countries: it was a challenge,
even like an adventure starting in the midst of the civil war in Lebanon, and
since under many other wars, conflicts, crisis and so on…
What we have done
established Non-Violence forever and made it rooted in society. It’s done. This is history. I used
to say that we are able to make such history…
*One of our latest achievements was the creation of a
university totally designed for Non-Violence fields in nine
specializations: AUNOHR, the Academic University for
Non-Violence and Human Rights, a first of its kind in Lebanon and the region, and unique in the world,
with students from different Arab countries, where many of them participated in
the IFPNP program and some are today with us.
*And lately, we
succeeded to abolish the death penalty in Lebanon. August 11, 2026, will
remain a historic day for Lebanon and a first model for the region, where
Lebanon become the 114th State in the world to ban the death penalty for all
crimes, joining the 113 countries that had already done so. This victory is the
culmination of an unprecedented nonviolent national campaign launched in 1997
by Walid Slaiby and me. Walid Slaiby, the nonviolent thinker in the Arab world,
my lifelong companion for forty years, passed away three years ago, without
witnessing the fruits of the path he had inspired. During the debates that
preceded the vote, many members of parliament paid tribute to us, to him,
quoting some of Walid’s writings on the death penalty. Congratulations to
Lebanon, waiting to see other Arab countries do the same.
For me, these
extraordinary achievements, I have wished to see them reached under better
circumstances, as Lebanon endures a chaotic crisis and a war that has claimed
thousands of lives and is still ongoing…
*************************************************
This is what I
have for today, for this celebrating session of October 2nd -the
nonviolence day / Gandhi’s day-, and the celebration of the continuity of the
IFPNP program and its new version of 2026-2027 which started today.
THANK
YOU
Wishing
you all successful program.
Ogarit
Younan
Founder
of the University for Non-Violence and Human Rights – AUNOHR
Beirut, 2
October 2026.
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