Posted on by Jason Mansmann

Conference: Freedom of Religion or Belief (Rome, Nov. 8)

On November 8, the International Development Law Organization (IDLO), jointly with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, will host a conference titled “Freedom of Religion or Belief: Promoting Peaceful Coexistence Through Human Rights”  at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Rome. A brief description of the event follows:

IDLO.jpgIDLO jointly with the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation will organize a half-day conference on “Freedom of Religion or Belief: Promoting Peaceful Coexistence Through Human Rights” to discuss the role of the rule of law in enabling the right to freedom of religion or belief.

The event will mark the launch of IDLO’s report Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Law: Current Dilemmas and Lessons Learned, a study offering informed reflections on the critical importance of religious tolerance in contributing to respect for other human rights, strengthening good governance and the rule of law, and enabling peaceful coexistence.

IDLO’s report intends to contribute to the public debate by showing that just and equitable rule of law frameworks are an essential requirement for societies to safeguard the right to freedom of religion or belief, and to balance this right fairly with other rights and interests. Strong legal frameworks can also help to reduce the capacity of extremist organizations to draw public support and legitimacy from politicized religious rhetoric.

Format:

The conference will take place during the morning of Tuesday 8 November 2016 at the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in Rome. The event is scheduled to start at 9.30am and will close at 12.30pm.

IDLO’s new report Freedom of Religion or Belief and the Law: Current Dilemmas and Lessons Learned will be distributed to participants during the conference.

Working languages: English and Italian (with simultaneous translation)

Participation:

Event participation is by invitation only.

More information on the event can be found here.

Posted on by Jason Mansmann

“Violence and the World’s Religious Traditions” (Juergensmeyer et. al., eds.)

In December, Oxford University Press will release Violence and the World’s Religious Traditions: An Introduction edited by Mark Juergensmeyer (University of California), Margo Kitts (Hawai’i Pacific University), and Michael Jerryson (Youngstown State University). The publisher’s description follows:

violence-and-the-worlds-religious-traditionsIs religion inherently predisposed to violence? Or has religion been taken hostage by a politics of aggression? The years since the end of the Cold War have shown a noticeable shift in patterns of religious extremism, accentuating the uncomfortable, complex, and oft-misunderstood relationship between religion and violence. The essays in this succinct new volume examine that relationship by offering a well-rounded look at violence as it appears in the world’s most prominent religious traditions, exploring Hindu, Buddhist, Chinese, Sikh, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, African, and Pacific Island texts and practices.

The essays in Violence and the World’s Religious Traditions explore the ways in which specific religions have justified acts of destruction, in history, in scripture, and in the contemporary world. But the collection also offers an investigation of religious symbols and practices, shedding new light on the very nature of religion and confronting the question of how deeply intertwined are violence and faith.