World BEYOND War invites you to this webinar featuring WBW board member John Reuwer, who has recently returned from Ukraine. John will report back on his first-hand observations of the ongoing conflict and share his insights on how we can move forward to push for peace in Ukraine and worldwide. Plus, we will hear from special guest speaker Yurii Sheliazhenko, WBW board member and executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, based in Kiev, Ukraine. Yurii will speak about peacemaking amidst war in his country. This webinar is sponsored by the WBW Central Florida Chapter and the Veterans For Peace, The Villages, FL. Chapter 136. RSVP.
About Our Speakers:
John Reuwer is treasurer and a member of the board of directors of World BEYOND War. He is a retired emergency physician whose practice convinced him of a crying need for alternatives to violence for resolving tough conflicts. This led him to the informal study and teaching of nonviolence for the last 35 years, with peace team field experience in Haiti, Colombia, Central America, Palestine/Israel, and several US inner cities. He worked in South Sudan with the Nonviolent Peaceforce, one of the few organizations practicing professional unarmed civilian peacekeeping. He also serves on the Committee to Abolish Nuclear Weapons with Physicians for Social Responsibility educating the public and politicians about the threat from nuclear weapons, which he sees as the ultimate expression of the insanity of modern warfare, so blatantly displayed in the current war in Ukraine. John has been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online courses “War Abolition 201” and “Leaving World War II Behind.”
Yurii Sheliazhenko, PhD, is a Member of the Board of Directors of World BEYOND War. He is based in Ukraine. Yurii is executive secretary of the Ukrainian Pacifist Movement, a board member of the European Bureau for Conscientious Objection, and a council member of the International Peace Bureau. He obtained a Master of Mediation and Conflict Management degree in 2021 and a Master of Laws degree in 2016 at KROK University. In addition to his participation in the peace movement, he is a journalist, blogger, human rights defender, and legal scholar, an author of academic publications and a lecturer on legal theory and history. He has been a facilitator for World BEYOND War’s online courses. Yurii is a winner of the International Peace Bureau’s 2022 Sean MacBride Peace Prize.
