DR. BOHDAN HAWRYLYSHYN

Bohdan Hawrylysyn was born on October 19, 1926, in Koropets village, Ternopil Oblast (at that time part of Poland). In 1930 his father bought 10 hectars of land between the town of Buchach and Zhyznomyr village, and built a house there. Bohdan Hawrylyshyn spent most of his childhood on his father’s farm.

For three years he has been studying at the elementary school in Zhyznomyr, later – at the Polish gymnasium in Buchach (1936-1938) which was made a secondary school during the bolshevik regime. From September 1941 he studied at Chortkiv Gymnasium, then in 1943-1944 at Drohobych Gymnasium.

During the World War II in 1944, he was captured by the Nazis and displaced to Germany. After the war, he spent almost two years in a displaced persons camp, and afterwards moved to Canada as a lumberjack.

While working at various jobs Hawrylyshyn was admitted at the University of Toronto. His admission received media coverage and public disrupt, as he was the first refugee to get admitted to the university in Canada. In 1952 he graduated with a BA and a MA in 1954 in engineering at the University of Tornto. From 1954 to 1960 Bohdan Hawrylysyn worked as an engineer, researcher and manager at the various enterprises in Canada. Since 1960 he resided in Geneva, Switzerland where in 1976 he was awarded Doctorate of Economics at the University of Geneva.

Since 1988 Dr. Hawrylyshyn has committed his activity to Ukraine and worked there on the voluntary basis. After Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, he acted as an advisor to the First President of Ukraine, several Premier-Ministers and Chairmen of Verkhovna Rada (Parliament of Ukraine).

More than 30 years of his professional career Dr Hawrylyshyn devoted to the educational sphere. Since 1960 he has been supervising training programs at IMI Geneva (now International Institute for Management Development), teaching economics, global business environment, international operations management and public administration. In 1968 Bohdan Hawrylyshyn became the Director of the institute and remained its head for eighteen years.

In 1989 He initiated the establishment of the International Management Institute (MIM-Kyiv) by the Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and IMI-Geneva. It was the first institution in the former USSR which provided MBA program training.

Bohdan Hawrylyshyn was a full member of the Club of Rome, a cofounder of the European Management Forum in Davos, a fellow and member of the Board of the World Academy of Art and Science. As an expert on issues of public administration and international business and cross-cultural relations, he has been a contributor, moderator and chairperson at international conferences and seminars in over 88 countries.

Hawrylyshyn was also an active member of the Lisovi Chorty fraternity within the Plast Ukrainian Scouting Organization. From 2006 to 2008 Bohdan Hawrylyshyn was a Chaiman of the Board of Plast.

In 2010 Dr. Hawrylyshyn founded Bohdan Hawrylyshyn Charitable Foundation, aimed to encourage and promote new generation of professional, patriotic and correct Ukrainians who care about common values and goods, who are proactive in social and political life of the country and who can peform its transformation.

Professor Hawrylyshyn was one of the members of December 1st Initiative Group.

Bohdan Hawrylhysyn died on 24 October 2016 at the age of 90 surrounded by his family in his flat in Kyiv, Ukraine.

DECLARATION OF HUMAN OBLIGATIONS:

As a member of the Board of Trustees of the World Academy of Art and Science at the beginning of 2010ths Bohdan Hawrylyshyn came to the conclusion that the world was not in a healthy state.

“One can conclude that Universal Declaration of Human Rights and harshly competitive relations has lead to a situation in the world of win-lose with rather few big winners and the majority big losers. The world needs some help in healing itself, in revitalizing its values of freedom, dignity of individual, supremacy of law, justice rather than money has the ultimate value and shifting from the win-lose mode (like in many wars going on) to win-win game through adoption of the sense of obligation in the spirit of cooperation. What the world needs therefore is a shift to a new paradigm, i.e. a Universal Declaration of Human Obligation and change from competitive to cooperative relations.”

The idea of creation of the Universal Declaration of Human Obligations was first discussed during the meeting of the members of WAAS Board of Trustees in September, 2013 in Ottawa, Canada. The need for it was mutually agreed, thus Bohdan Hawrylyshyn lately suggested the proposed list of human responsibilities.

“When the world will shift to a new paradigm, much larger part of its population will be able to ascertain their rights stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948)”

Bohdan Hawrylyshyn

1. Speak the truth, be honest, act according to moral ethical standards.

2. Maintain your health in the best possible state in order not to burden the society with the cost of your healthcare.

3. Learn, develop your talents, capabilities, competence throughout your life to be a productive member of the society.

4. Treat others as you want others to treat you.

5. Be a free person, i.e. the ultimate judge of what is true and what is not, what is good and what is bad, yet keep testing your judgment to make sure that it is in line with moral, ethical principles.

6. Search for harmony between your private, professional, social lives, and that as part of the community.

7 . While seeking to ascertain your rights, avoid constraining other members of the society to ascertain theirs.

8. Solve as many problems, issues as possible at individual, family, community levels to lighten the burden and cost of governance.

9. To family:

Cherish cultural heritage from your predecessors.
Treat parents with love and respect, help them if needed.
Deal with siblings as if they were your best friends.

10. To parents:

Love your children, inculcate in them ethical moral values.
Facilitate their education and development of their talents and personalities as free people.

11. To community:

Relate to people and communities with respect and empathy.
Help the community to be effective in supplying all services, such as primary education, healthcare, social services.
Contribute to the well being of all members of the community.
While maintaining your identity, be consciously part of the whole world community.

12. To the environment:

Use all resources sparingly, avoid pollution of the biosphere. Help preserve the biological and zoological diversity.

13. To your country:

Obey the laws of the country.
Help your country in line with your ability/capacity to maintain the priority of the common good: full political freedoms, a certain level of economic well-being of the whole population, social justice, healthy environment.

14. To future generations:

Leave the physical environment in a better state than inherited: with enhanced cultural heritage, values, to enable future generations to be more effective in political, economic, social, cultural aspects of their societies.

15. To the world:

Protect and promote resilience, creativity and equal opportunities for all.
Be tolerant and respectful of all races, ethnics, religions, languages.
Learn some languages and at least basic things about other civilizations.
Promote the understanding of the diversity of civilizations, their values, thus peaceful cooperation and fair trade.

Bohdan Hawrylyshyn