Draft:Walid Slaiby

Walid Slaiby
Born	(1955-12-25)December 25, 1955 Beirut, Lebanon
Died	May 3, 2023(2023-05-03) (aged 67) Beirut, Lebanon
Occupation(s)	Thinker, writer, activist
Years active	1980–2023
Known for	Nonviolent philosophy, founder of AUNOHR
Spouse	Ogarit Younan

Introduction

Walid Slaiby (1955 - 2023), was an Arab nonviolent thinker from Lebanon. He was born in Beirut on December 25, 1955, and lived most of his life there. He passed away on May 3, 2023, after a 20-year battle with cancer.

A writer and activist, Slaiby was one of the pioneers of the nonviolence movement in Lebanon and the Arab region. He was a leading figure in the movement to abolish the death penalty in Lebanon. He founded the Academic University for Non-Violence and Human Rights (AUNOHR), the first of its kind in Lebanon and the Arab world. UNESCO described the university as globally unique.

He embraced the principles of secularism, humanistic socialism, and the philosophy of nonviolence. He grew up rebelling against injustice and valuing individual freedom, deep culture, and music, embodying these values in his life through thought, social, and political activism. Leo Tolstoy had a profound influence on him while he was still a student, especially through Resurrection. In interviews and conversations, he also mentioned that his father, Elias Slaiby, had a significant impact on his upbringing.

He taught himself music later in life, and the piano became a central element of the home

Over time, he accumulated extensive readings, followed by research, translations, and critical articles. He drew from the legacies of Karl Marx, Erich Fromm, Shakespeare, Einstein, Gibran Khalil Gibran, Wilhelm Reich, Baudelaire, the absurdist theater, and later Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr., and the leaders of nonviolence.

A unique intellectual, his philosophy combined concepts and innovations interwoven with mathematics, physics, economics, theater, literature, psychology, sociology, ethology, political strategy, and the philosophy of nonviolence, along with music from the Beatles, opera, Georges Brassens, as well as Assi Rahbani...

Early Life and Education

He studied at The Grand Lycée Franco-Libanais, which was the leading school in Lebanon at the time in terms of academic standards and non-discrimination based on sect or gender. Afterward, he earned a degree in physics from the Lebanese University (1977). He studied telecommunications engineering in France at ENST (1978) but he dropped out and returned to Lebanon before finishing his degree. He then pursued civil engineering at Saint Joseph University (ESIB) (1979), a master's in economics from the American University of Beirut (AUB) (1979-1980), a Master of Advanced Studies in social sciences from the Lebanese University (1981), a doctorate in global economics from Rennes 2 University and then the Sorbonne – Paris I in France (1989), and a PhD in the philosophy of political economy from Saint George's University of London (2000). His initial activism began with a group of friends through political and intellectual discussions aimed at opposing war and militias as well as delving into the meanings of love and freedom. These intellectual and political discussions developed into lifelong friendships.

He then embarked on his first experience in culture and art to raise awareness and influence the youth. This took place in the early 1980s during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) through a cinema and theater club. His goal was to write theatrical scripts and build a cinematic library as part of a transformative effort, especially with the youth, for interactive awareness and to create a space for them to gather and work against gender discrimination. This led to the launch of the first youth theater experiment through a cultural club he founded with a group of friends, working to raise awareness among the many young people who gathered there. However, the club was discontinued, as the center was closed. Despite this, he still strived to establish a cinema club. Eventually, he launched the first cinema club in Beirut right after the war ended, organized by the Movement for People's Rights (MPR). He entrusted a group of young people with its coordination, and it remained active in the Lebanese capital for seven continuous years, with notable success. The weekly screenings became a meeting place for people from all across the country, where they continued engaging in free discussions on deep topics and issues until midnight, despite the barriers that still existed between different areas.

Philosophy and Nonviolent Thought

His initial activism began with a group of friends through political and intellectual discussions aimed at opposing war and militias as well as delving into the meanings of love and freedom. These intellectual and political discussions developed into lifelong friendships.

He then embarked on his first experience in culture and art to raise awareness and influence the youth. This took place in the early 1980s during the Lebanese civil war (1975-1990) through a cinema and theater club. His goal was to write theatrical scripts and build a cinematic library as part of a transformative effort, especially with the youth, for interactive awareness and to create a space for them to gather and work against gender discrimination. This led to the launch of the first youth theater experiment through a cultural club he founded with a group of friends, working to raise awareness among the many young people who gathered there. However, the club was discontinued, as the center was closed. Despite this, he still strived to establish a cinema club. Eventually, he launched the first cinema club in Beirut right after the war ended, organized by the Movement for People's Rights (MPR). He entrusted a group of young people with its coordination, and it remained active in the Lebanese capital for seven continuous years, with notable success. The weekly screenings became a meeting place for people from all across the country, where they continued engaging in free discussions on deep topics and issues until midnight, despite the barriers that still existed between different areas.

First Book

In the early 1980s, amidst the Lebanese war, he wrote his first nonviolent text against the war and the futility of violence. He dedicated it to the fighters, all fighters, and it was published in his first book titled Al-Qissa Hiya Al-Hissa (The Portion is the Question) in 1984.

In 1982, he met Ogarit Younan

Walid Slaiby and his lifelong companion, Ogarit Younan (1983-2023).

Within a year (1983), they embarked together on a journey of life and struggle, finding that they were ready to develop a strategy for a nonviolent, non-sectarian change program. They began working on it immediately during the war so that the foundations and early achievements would be ready when peace arrived. Little did they know then that they would be able to build this program and achieve fundamental accomplishments over forty years, day by day, and under extraordinary circumstances, for the sake of freedom, justice, non-sectarianism, and love. Slaiby and Younan formed a unique duo. What they accomplished was foundational work, avant-garde as many acknowledge. Its impact resonated with many civil movements worldwide, especially among peace and nonviolence movements.

Partial Struggles Against Generalized Violence

Slaiby described his strategy by “Partial Struggles Against Generalized Violence." He and Younan gradually discovered that it was effective and attracted people, despite the uncertainties of that period and the constant threat of death. The goal was to build new cadres and a motivated youth with innovative ideas and tools at a time when militias and war forces had consumed the energy of young people, activists, and intellectuals. Emigration, despair, withdrawal, and attachment to traditional, ineffective ideas and tools all played a role in paralyzing the population. Despite this, some people were still active in one way or another. Building cadres and civil groups with a dynamic and modern professionalism, while engaging in partial struggles for the rights of certain groups and winning those rights, and empowering existing groups, associations, and unions to continue with qualitative renewal—this was the cornerstone of the civil movement that Slaiby and Younan led, which was officially established between 1986 and 1988. It was called the Movement for People's Rights (MPR), initially bearing the name Association Social Culturelle (French for Social Cultural Association ASC) since the Ministry of Interior at the time refused to allow the use of the term "movement" or "people's rights" in its name. This was the first nonviolent change movement of its kind in Lebanon and the region. Slaiby summarized his vision for this movement in A Comprehensive Charter for People's Rights, which served as a civil manifesto encompassing political, economic, educational, social, environmental, and cultural aspects, with a methodology that was far removed from power relations and participation in power.

He introduced this strategy outside Lebanon for the first time during his invitation to the World Conference on Nonviolence in Paris in 1989, which was held to commemorate the bicentennial of the French Revolution and its launch of human rights principles. There, he met the philosopher Jean-Marie Muller, one of the founders of the French nonviolence movement, and a friendship developed between them that lasted for thirty years until Muller's passing in 2021 . Their friendship was not without differences in the philosophy of nonviolence and its connection to political and transformative work, but they also influenced each other. Slaiby and Younan are credited with introducing Muller to Lebanon and the Arab world for a quarter of a century, starting in 1990, by regularly inviting him to Lebanon and later to Syria, Jordan, Iraq, and Palestine. Muller considered Lebanon his second home. In addition, nine of his books were translated into Arabic, along with dozens of other texts, and he was welcomed as a member of the Global Advisory Council of AUNOHR, where he also gave lectures to students. (Source: Muller’s Website)

In the 1990s, a period many describe as the "golden age" for civil society in Lebanon, Walid Slaiby was established as a pioneering innovator. He became known for his influence on youth, activists, and many intellectuals, introducing concepts, methodologies, experiences, and tools in organized resistance that became part of the civil society lexicon, with some translated into foreign languages.

Key Movements and Activism

Nonviolent Resistance

Walid Slaiby introduced this concept in the context of the training programs he developed with Ogarit Younan in the 1980s. The first newspaper article that laid out the foundations of this approach to resistance against violence was published in 1996, and he received threats because of it. Later, in 2005, his seminal book titled Na’am Lil-Muqāwama, Lā Lil-’unf (Yes to Resistance, No to Violence) became a self-explanatory slogan. Then came the article in which he proposed a plan for nonviolent resistance in South Lebanon, Tahrīr Shib’a. Mukhayyam Al-Wihda Al-Wataniyya (Liberating Shebaa. The National Unity Camp), published in 2005. This article garnered support from prominent figures known for their stance on the Palestinian cause. Despite embodying many principles of nonviolent resistance in his journey, even if partially, he had planned a pivotal movement to confront occupation and trained groups of activists, including Palestinians. However, his illness disrupted this path, and these activists continue to echo that "Walid's plan is still valid." For Slaiby, change in Lebanon can only be nonviolent, and liberation in Palestine will only be nonviolent. His research on global revolutions, both violent and nonviolent, and the strategies of change and experiences of peoples in confronting injustice led him to develop a comprehensive philosophy. In his view, this philosophy or strategy could only be considered a noble one if it involved a revision of violence. He considered this the primary responsibility of every intellectual and activist fighting for just causes and humanity. He began disseminating this philosophy and strategy with precision in planning, in calculating outcomes, and particularly in the commitment to human dignity, where the ends and means are harmoniously intertwined, "like the tree and the seed," as Gandhi put it.

The book “Yes to Resistance, No to Violence,” first edition 2005, second edition 2015. Translated into English in 2018.

"The most dangerous thing in political work is justifying a just cause with means that do not resemble it; justifying them even if they are unethical. Most ideologies have went from justifying the cause to justifying the means... Morality and effectiveness at once: this is what distinguishes nonviolent action. Nonviolence has two 'No's': No to self-violence, and No to the violence of others, that is, no to injustice. The first 'No' is moral, meaning it restrains oneself from committing an act that we would not accept from others against us. The second 'No' is effective, as it seeks to be effective in confronting the oppressor, in eliminating injustice. A moral 'No' and an effective 'No': this is the essence of nonviolent action, and this is what distinguishes it from violent action..." (From his book: Yes to Resistance, No to Violence).

Abolition of the Death Penalty

Walid Slaiby is considered a pioneer in the movement to abolish the death penalty in Lebanon. Since 1997, he served as the general coordinator of the National Campaign Against the Death Penalty, which gradually included 84 associations and parties, as well as hundreds of supporting members from across Lebanon. Slaiby developed a well-organized nonviolent strategy that, for the first time in Lebanon’s history (and in the region), established a professional civil effort against the culture of the death penalty, which he described as "killing." This strategy encompassed all levels of society and involved unprecedented street actions and confrontations, beginning with the 1998 Tabarja Sit-in, education in schools for the first time, and training for activists, youth, and journalists in pioneering programs. The campaign achieved its first legal victory by partially repealing the death penalty law in 2001, with the creation of the first civil network across Lebanon coordinated by the Movement for People's Rights, as well as a de facto moratorium which has so far lasted 20 years (by 2024).

Historic photo: Slaiby signing his book “The Death Penalty Kills” for former Prime Minister Salim Hoss, at the Arab and International Book Fair in Beirut, on December 10, 1997.

In 1997, Slaiby also influenced the stance of former Prime Minister Salim Al-Hoss, who refused to sign two death penalty decrees for two young men in 2000, a unique phenomenon at the time. Al-Hoss later became a member of the National Campaign.

Slaiby authored two books on this subject: ’Uqūbat Al-I’dām Taqtul (The Death Penalty Kills, a key reference, 1997) and ’Uqūbat Al-I’dām Fi Al-Tadāwul Al-’Ām (The Death Penalty in Public Discourse, 2001). During a tribute to him after his passing at the opening of the Fourth Regional Conference Against the Death Penalty in the Middle East in Amman, Jordan, in July 2023, a farewell and thank-you message echoed: "You will be with us in every victory against the death penalty."

Lebanese Personal Status Law

His favorite place was the arena of direct confrontation. He demonstrated in the streets to introduce the civil personal status law proposal to Parliament.

Walid Slaiby and Ogarit Younan have been closely associated with the issue of the Lebanese personal status law since the early 1990s. Slaiby served as the general coordinator for the largest civil campaign in Lebanon's history advocating for a Lebanese personal status law. This campaign officially launched in 1998 with the support of 75 associations and parties, and more than 60,000 active supporters from across Lebanon, coordinated by the Movement for People's Rights, forming a unified civil force. The campaign revived this still-taboo issue, establishing a professional approach at various levels in society, with extraordinary street actions innovated by Slaiby, along with the creation of a simplified awareness guide that spread across all regions, universities, and media outlets. The campaign's first five-year strategy culminated in 2002 with the introduction of the first comprehensive draft law into the Parliament, signed by 10 deputies. This was followed by a renewed draft law in 2011, which Slaiby co-prepared with Ogarit Younan. The draft was introduced to the Parliament by the CHAML movement through bold action and confrontation with the authorities and security forces. The movement was successful, and the first nonviolent civil tent holding the banner "Personal Status Tent" was established in Riad Al Solh Square in the heart of Beirut, near the Grand Serail. The tent remained in place for an entire year after the draft law was placed on the agenda of the joint parliamentary committees for the first time in Lebanon's history. In 2013, Slaiby launched his radical plan through a study published in a book titled Al-Tanfīdh Al-Dhāti Lil-Zawāj Al-Madani (Self-Implementation of Civil Marriage,) preparing many young people to undertake this defiant and courageous implementation.

Youth, Labor and Union Rights

Friend of the Youth

Walid Slaiby was a pioneer in social training through modern interactive methods and the founder of training camps focused on nonviolence in philosophy, behavior, and strategic struggle. He became known for his engaging and impactful sessions with trainees, thousands of whom came from all over Lebanon and other Arab countries. They referred to him as the "Friend of the Youth," and as "the thinker who preserved the child within him." Many expressed that their encounters with him marked a turning point in their lives. Some of them went on to establish new civil organizations, groups, and advocacy campaigns, participated in elections, took on political roles, or founded training associations where they spread their knowledge to others, who in turn trained new generations from one to the next. Many of these individuals went on to become leaders in revolutionary movements and campaigns, often saying, "If we hadn't trained with you before, we wouldn't be here today." His most recent contribution with the youth was the founding of the nonviolent, non-sectarian youth movement CHAML whose members trained with him for years before managing their association independently.

With Workers

The working class was one of Slaiby’s core points of focus. Stemming from his economic philosophy and principles of social justice, Slaiby engaged in years of rights-based and union struggles with hundreds of workers, both during and after the civil war (1984-1994). These efforts resulted in comprehensive rights for tens of thousands of workers in 25 of Lebanon's major factories. As part of his work in this context, Slaiby prepared and simplified economic studies on workers' rights and union organization for dissemination and training, including his study "Additional Profit at the Expense of Wages" during the collapse of the national currency in the mid-1980s. These models using nonviolent methods succeeded in attracting workers, some of whom became prominent union leaders, despite having no prior experience. They led fierce and bold struggles, often facing threats from militias which were collaborating with factory owners against the workers. Slaiby himself received multiple death threats during that time. This experience has remained unpublished.

Teachers and Unions

During the war from 1987 to 1992, Slaiby launched another initiative, with teachers and teachers’ unions. The initiative was taken by Slaiby and Younan and later taken over by a group of union leaders. Despite the war, the fragmentation of regions, and the weakening of collective and union work, Slaiby succeeded in preparing new cadres for teachers' unions and leagues in both private and public schools. Many of these figures continue to lead the teachers' union movement in Lebanon today. This was a foundational effort whose impact continues to accumulate. Slaiby also contributed to the unification of the private school teachers' unions after twenty years of division, with the first union elections held in 1992 in which new cadres were successful.

Protest Movements

Protest movements were the hallmark of Slaiby's journey. He initiated an/or played a principal role in protests against war, for peace, for a Lebanese personal status law, for the abolition of the death penalty, for environmental rights, for freedoms, for workers' rights, for teachers' rights, for the rights of people with disabilities, in support of unions, against gender discrimination, for nonviolent mothers, for nonviolent resistance in South Lebanon and Palestine, for free and fair elections, for holding sectarian leaders accountable, for changing the sectarian system... This is not just a list of movements he participated in, but rather causes that Walid Slaiby either planned or contributed to.

An Illustrative Story

Slaiby participated in all the demonstrations against war, sectarian division, and impoverishment during the Lebanese Civil War (1975-1990). The first popular march he organized himself was in the late 1980s, where he visited hundreds of homes and shops in the streets, distributing leaflets and inviting people to a march akin to a "revolt" against themselves and the current situation. For the first time, they moved despite the divided regions towards the demarcation line at the museum between the two sides of Beirut. There, they met with thousands who had come from the other side in one of the most significant peaceful national demonstrations of that time. The youth and protesters from both sides embraced each other, despite not knowing each other. Slaiby had prepared a song titled Nihna w al-Darak Ikhwān (The Police and Us are Brothers), set to the tune of Fairouz and the Rahbani Brothers' song Nihna w al-Amar Jirān (We and the Moon are Neighbors), which the youth chanted during the march. The song became famous and later turned into a 'ritual' in more than one movement. Slaiby was also the first to distribute a flower to security officers in a popular demonstration at that time. He trained the youth on the deep meaning of this gesture, which, despite its simplicity, was fraught with danger. Slaiby and a group of youth faced a confrontation with security forces because of it, but in the end, the soldiers placed the flower in the barrels of their rifles. The scene transformed along the route as machine guns adorned with yellow flowers were pointed at the ground, as if they had taken on a different name and function.

AUNOHR: Academic University for Non-Violence and Human Rights

The Logo of AUNOHR university

The last achievement that Slaiby dreamed of, along with Ogarit Younan, was the founding of the Academic University College of Non-Violence and Human Rights - AUNOHR. Slaiby said, "At the beginning of our journey, they rejected nonviolence or mocked it. After sowing its seeds for over thirty years, Slaiby observed a concerning trend. Despite numerous initiatives, training courses, publications, and nonviolent political movements, as well as the expansion of nonviolence through the internet, its principles were at risk. Some were confusing violence with nonviolence, exploiting it for opportunistic reasons, or spreading it without a deep understanding. So, he and Younan decided that there must be an academic reference and professionalization in nonviolent change. Thus, the university was launched in the summer of 2008. The model experience for it began in 2009, followed by official recognition by the Lebanese Council of Ministers with Decree No. 487 dated September 4, 2014, and the commencement of teaching by a decision from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education dated August 19, 2015.

Slaiby talking to Lebanese Security Forces officer during a demonstration

AUNOHR is both an institution for academic professionalism and societal change with modern skills, as well as for the personal development of each student alongside their studies and graduation with a degree. It is the first higher education institution of its kind in Lebanon and the region, and unique in the world. Its students come from Lebanon and other Arab countries, and its professors are from around the world. It offers master's and university diploma degrees in several specializations, with approximately 60% of its curricula being innovative. It is also supported by a global advisory council of philosophers and Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

In short video testimonials titled "The University in the Eyes of Its Students," a common sentiment is echoed: "It's a turning point."

Ever since it was founded to spread the culture and skills of nonviolence, AUNOHR has been working on establishing cooperation agreements with local, Arab, and international universities to introduce new academic courses and programs from its curriculum into those institutions. Among the first agreements were with the Lebanese University (2016), Birzeit University in Palestine (2021), An-Najah National University in Nablus, Palestine (2022), and Bordeaux Montaigne University in France (2023-2024) with a partnership in the "UNESCO Chair in Social Work and Nonviolence - ISNoV" (2022-2023). Additionally, it signed a unique agreement with the Ministry of Education and the Center Educational for Research and Development (CERD) in Lebanon in 2018 to include "nonviolence culture" in the educational curricula, from kindergarten to high school, for all private and public schools in Lebanon, as part of the curriculum reform plan.

The Knotted Gun in Beirut

Walid Slaiby with Arun Gandhi, grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and Ogarit Younan, during the inauguration of the global nonviolence statue, “The Knotted Gun,” in Beirut on October 2, 2018, initiated by AUNOHR.

In a pioneering initiative by the university, the "National Day for Nonviolence in Lebanon" was established in Lebanon in 2016 by a decree from the Council of Ministers on October 2nd, modeled after the "International Day of Nonviolence" at the United Nations, which was adopted on October 2nd, Gandhi's birthday, by an initiative from India in 2007. The day was first celebrated in Lebanon on October 2, 2018, with the inauguration of the universal nonviolence statue The Knotted Gun in Beirut, the first Arab capital to receive this symbol. The university purchased two replicas of the statue from the partner organization The Non-Violence Project Foundation – NVP. A major artistic and cultural celebration took place in the presence of Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Arun Gandhi.

Illness and Passing

At the beginning of his treatment in Paris, Walid Slaiby, influenced by the Impressionists, visited the house of painter Claude Monet in France, in the summer of 2003

At the age of 47, Slaiby was diagnosed with cancer. This impacted not only his life but also delayed the idea of founding a nonviolent political movement, which he was preparing to launch with Ogarit Younan in late 2002. The illness struck him in the first month of 2003 and persisted for twenty years. Many consider it a lost opportunity for society, as it could have resulted in the emergence of a new movement akin to the struggles of Gandhi and King, thereby applying contemporary models of nonviolent resistance in Lebanon and the Arab region.

This brought him great bitterness in continuing his journey. Nonetheless, he remained steadfast and fought the illness with his characteristic humor, continuing his activism and founding new groups as much as possible, ultimately establishing the AUNOHR university. Treatment was carried out in Lebanon and Paris, and more than once he was close to death. In his final years, he underwent three years of complete isolation during the COVID-19 pandemic. He passed away on May 3, 2023, in the intensive care unit, with his lifelong companion by his side. The last thing he heard was the voice of their friend, the internationally acclaimed Lebanese artist Lydia Canaan, who visited him for a final farewell and sang him a song he loved in French, L’amour viendra.

Awards and Honors

• The Human Rights Prize of the French Republic (2005): The Human Rights Prize of the French Republic in 2005 as the founder and president of the Lebanese Association for Civil Rights (LACR), for his pioneering role in the abolition of the death penalty. It was the first time the award was granted to an entity or individual in the Arab world.

• The Gandhi International Award (2022): presented by the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation in India.

Legacy and Commemoration

As a tribute from AUNOHR students, a cedar tree was planted in his name in the Barouk Cedar Reserve in the Chouf Mountains of Lebanon on September 16, 2023, bearing the number 8141.

Planting a cedar tree in the name of Walid Slaiby in the Barouk Reserve in Chouf - Mount Lebanon (2023)

Walid Slaiby lived freely, by his own choice, far from fame, positions, money, and power. Those who knew him refer to him as a one-of-a-kind personality. He never liked titles, yet some bestowed upon him names such as "Icon of Nonviolence," "Pioneering Role Model," "Teacher in Strategic Nonviolent Struggle," "Exceptional Flame," "The Charming Humorist," among others. However, the title dearest to his heart was "the nonviolent militant"; he chose the role of the intellectual militant in a beautiful friendship with passion, humor, and daily work.

In his later years, he often repeated that love and music are at the end of the day the soul of life and that the difference one can make is when facing injustice, saying, "The oppressor deserves that we never stop confronting him until we prevail. We are not in a world where violence has won; we are in a world where nonviolence has not yet won enough."

Organizations and Initiatives Founded or Co-Founded

• CHAML – Nonviolent, Nonsectarian Citizens’ Youth Movement (Founded in 2008), a Lebanese activist youth movement.
• Nonviolence Without Borders – Arab Non-Violent Group (Since 2004), training and building the first Arab nonviolent network. It’s a group that met over the years, lived together, and trained in the same philosophy and strategy, aiming to professionally spread the culture of nonviolence, support the establishment of nonviolent militant bodies and movements, and train youth and new senior leadership cadres in multiple Arab countries.
• Nonviolent Nonsectarian Democratic Houses (Bilad) – Launched in 2004 to establish community centers known as "Workshops for Life." These centers were set up in ordinary houses that blended seamlessly into the village landscape, offering villagers a place to gather. They aimed to foster education, promote constructive conflict resolution, and build lasting resilience against violence by empowering communities to choose nonviolence. Additionally, they facilitated deep connections between different areas through accessible and meaningful ideas.
• The Lebanese Association for Civil Rights (LACR) (Since 2003). (Member of the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty - WCADP)
• Movement for People's Rights (Founded in 1988; one of the first human rights organizations in Lebanon and the region, pioneering in its modern working style).
• Member of the National Coordination Committee of the "Permanent Congress of Secularists in Lebanon" (Founded in 1983).
• Founding member of the "Nonviolence Movement in Lebanon" (Founded in 1986).
• Member of the “National Congress of Civil Society and Unions”, the most significant anti-war and anti-poverty gathering during the civil war (1987).
• Founding member of the "Anti-war March with the Disabled Community from North to South Lebanon" (1988).
• Pioneer trainer on nonviolence and human rights in the UNICEF Project for All of Lebanon, "Education for Peace" (1989-1992).
• Founding member of the "First National Environmental Congress in Lebanon" (1994).
• Founding member of the Baladi, Baldati, Baladiyyati Campaign (My Country, My Town My Municipality), the first civil campaign to restore municipal elections in Lebanon after the war (1998).
• Founder and General Coordinator of the "National Campaign for a Lebanese Personal Status Law in Lebanon" (Since 1998).
• Founder and General Coordinator of the "National Campaign for the Abolition of the Death Penalty in Lebanon" (Since 1997).
• Trainer and coordinator of a youth group that participated in the "Non-violent Liberation of Arnoun village from Israeli Occupation" (1999, a victory for nonviolent action).
• Accountability for Sectarian Incitement Campaign - "Legal notice against the Seven Leaders" launched by Slaiby in an unprecedented movement based on a statistical study on the speeches and sectarian stances of leaders, conducted by a specialized statistics center, followed by training for youth in multiple regions, then street movements under the slogan "Accountability for Sectarian Incitement Campaign – Article 317 of the Penal Code," and a press conference during which the youth boldly announced the research results with the leaders' sectarian speeches verbatim and called for action against "all the leaders, all of them." The legal notice was then officially registered at the Public Prosecution Department, despite the reluctance of judges to accept it.
• Slaiby launched the "Tomato Revolution", initially against the extension of the parliamentary council's term and the continuity of those in political power in Lebanon since the years of war and militias. He also launched the first collective image of all Lebanese politicians’ faces on a giant billboard carried by demonstrators to the streets in front of the Parliament. The movement continued, unlocking other forms of nonviolent opposition, which led to strategic participation in the subsequent uprisings in Lebanon, including the “Waste uprising” and the “October 17 Revolution.”

Selected Works and Publications

His book titled “Report on the International Monetary Fund: National Betrayal,” 2002.

1. Pieces of Theatre (1980-1984).
2. The Portion is the Question: Sectarian Conflicts in Lebanon during the feudal era 1590-1820 (Moukhtarat Publishing House, 1984).
3. Banking Capital and Development in Industrial Countries in the 19th century (a study in French; 1985).
4. The Lebanese Economic Structure (report, 1985).
5. New Strategies for the Unions (report, 1987).
6. Extra Profits at the Expense of Workers’ Salaries (article, 1987).
7. The Non-Violent Strategy of Solidarność in Poland (report, 1989).
8. The Palestinian Intifada (report, 1989).
9. Non-Violence: Ethics and Effectiveness (article, 1994).
10. Violent Resistance – Non-violent Resistance (article, 1996). Co-written with Ogarit Younan, it was the first article of its kind to feature a call for nonviolent resistance in Southern Lebanon and for Palestine.
11. The Death penalty kills (book, 1997).
12. The Death Penalty in Public Discourse (book, 2001).
13. Economic Treason: A Report on the IMF (book, 2002). In this book, Slaiby invented an econometric model.
14. Liberating the Shebaa Farms – Nonviolent Resistance (article 2005, co-written with Ogarit Younan).
15. Yes to Resistance, No to Violence (book, 2005 (1st edition); 2015 (2nd edition)). English translation published in 2018 & 2023.
16. The Non-Country – A Guide to Rebuilding Nations (long article, 2007).
17. Clash of Totalitarians and the Horizon of Peace in the Arab region (research and report, 2007-2008).
18. In the Name of Love, Justice, and Freedom (a call for action, 2010).
19. Reverse Nonviolent Liberation (booklet, 2010, with a supplement in 2015).
20. Violence and Human Nature (book, 2015).
21. Life Forces and Death Forces (booklet, 2015).
22. War through Civilians (booklet, 2015).
23. Quotes on Non-Violence (book, 2020, co-written with Ogarit Younan in Arabic and English. It was written a hundred years after Gandhi coined the term “Nonviolence” in 1920).

Translations

Slaiby launched and supervised the “Series of Non-Violent Translations in Arabic” since the nineties. He also translated some of the works himself.

1. Signification de la Non-violence (Jean-Marie Muller, Translated by Antoine Khoury Tawq, 1993).
2. Civil Disobedience (Gene Sharp, Translated by Walid Slaiby, 1996).
3. Gandhi, Artisan de la Non-violence (NVA, Translated by Antoine Abu Zaid, 1996).
4. All men are brothers (Gandhi, Translated by Antoine Abu Zaid, 1997).
5. Gandhi Le Pèlerin de la Paix (Comic book by B. Marchon, Translated by Walid Slaiby, 1997).
6. Social and Political Non-Cooperation (Gene Sharp, Translated by Sumaia Aboud, 1997).
7. Methods of Direct Intervention (Gene Sharp, Translated by Hadi Habib, 1997).
8. Economic Non-Cooperation (Gene Sharp, Translated by Georges Medbek, 1997).
9. Acts of Protests and Persuasion (Gene Sharp, Translated by Nidal Khoury, 1997).
10. The Heart of Man (Erich Fromm, Translated by Hadi Habib, 1998).
11. Stratégie de l’Action Non-Violente (Jean-Marie Muller, Translated by Marie Tawq with the final revision by Walid Slaiby, 1999).
12. The Power of Love (Martin Luther King, Translated by Antoine Khoury Tawq, 1999).
13. Martin Luther King (NVA, Translated by Sumaia Aboud, 1999).
14. Martin Luther King (Comic book by B. Marchon, Translated by Walid Slaiby, 1999).
15. Abdul Ghafar Khan: The Founder of Khudai Khidmatgar, a Pashtun Nonviolent Resistance Movement (Translated by Slaiby, 2007).
16. Unarmed against Hitler (Jacques Semelin, Translated by Walid Slaiby, 2007; full translation by Antoine Abu Zaid, 2018).
17. The Fear of Freedom, Disobedience, Freedom is a Psychological Issue, Fear of Freedom, and To Be or to Own (Erich Fromm, Translated by Walid Slaiby, 2018).

This is in addition to hundreds of lectures, workshops, and unpublished works.

Memorable Quotes

"Non-Violence is two ‘NOs’: No to self-violence, and No to the others’ violence, to injustice. The first No is individual ethics, and the second No is an efficacy both social and political."

"As violence and non-violence might be used against the tyranny of others, by non-violence alone we can counteract the tyranny of oneself."

"While the human being has both the potential of violence and non-violence by nature, and it is up to education, the environment and the path of life to reinforce either of the two, then Hope exists."

"Non-Violence is the love of life and the courage to reject injustice."

"The violence of the oppressor serves the cause of the oppressor. The violence of the oppressed serves the cause of the oppressor too."

"The violence of the oppressed caused by anger and despair that comes as a spontaneous, individual reaction to oppression and humiliation is a human phenomenon whose reasons can be well understood; however, it is not justified. But to ideologize violence and make it into a theory and a strategy of action, nay, to glorify it, this is a very serious matter!"

"I do not think that violence yields a desired just goal, for a simple reason: it’s not because it cannot win over the bearer of the unjust scheme, but because it defeats the bearer of the just cause. And you can say that the moment of the peak of the military victory over the adversary is the moment of the peak of the militant’s defeat. The adversary is defeated militarily, the militant is defeated humanely; violence has won."

"We are not in a world where violence has triumphed. We are in a world where non-violence has not yet triumphed enough."

"The best interest of ‘death forces’ is militarizing peaceful struggles. The best interest of ‘life forces’ is de-militarizing violent struggles. Death penalty kills. Two crimes do not make justice."

"Mourning should be declared twice—once at the moment of the crime and once at the moment of execution, for in both cases, justice is being assassinated."

"The Death penalty is an absolute sentence on a relative responsibility."

"A small slap on a child’s cheek is a big slap for democracy everywhere."

"If, for one reason or another, I am forced to send my children to school, I will enroll them only during recess."