Ernie Regehr

Ernie Regehr is a Canadian peace researcher and expert in security and disarmament.

With his wife Nancy, Regehr served with the Mennonite Central Committee from 1974 to 1976 in South Africa, Zambia and Botswana researching and writing about the role of churches in apartheid.

Upon his return to Waterloo, Regehr co-founded Project Ploughshares – a peace research organization based in Waterloo. Regehr served as its Executive Director for 30 years.

Regehr has been a Canadian non-government organization representative and expert advisor at numerous international disarmament forums including the United Nations Small Arms Review Conference. He is currently a Research Fellow at the Centre for Peace Advancement at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo and a Senior Fellow with The Simons Foundation in Vancouver.

Regehr serves on the Board of Directors of the African Peace Forum in Kenya. His work in conflict zones, especially in East Africa, has included diplomacy efforts related to the conflict in southern Sudan. In the early 1990s he was Canada’s representative on the United Nations Group of Governmental Experts on Arms Transfer Transparency that led to the creation in 1992 of the UN Conventional Arms Register. In 2001 he was an advisor to the Government of Kenya in the development of a regional arms control agreement on small arms.

Regehr’s peace and security work has been honoured by being named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 2003 and becoming the 26th laureate of the Pearson Peace Medal in 2011.

Photograph courtesy of Jim Forest.