Human Rights and Religious Summer School to take place in Trinity

Posted on: 16 June 2017

The Human Rights and Religions Summer School will focus on the intersection between human rights and religious traditions and their importance in a global context.

International experts in areas such as human rights, law, religious studies, and peace studies are to take part in a summer school which aims to discuss the place of religious freedoms within contemporary human rights frameworks. 

Assistant Professor in Islamic Civilisations in the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Studies and co-director of the summer school Dr Roja Fazaeli said, “Questions around the relationship between religious identities and human rights norms press upon so many aspects of our contemporary understandings of self and society. These questions encompass both theoretical frameworks and concrete civil spaces – everything from the idea of liberty, to practices of sexuality, to instances of conflict resulting in the displacement of peoples.

“This summer school brings leading and emerging scholars and practitioners to Trinity to address and work on these complicated questions in a mutually supportive interdisciplinary setting. It is a place where those drawn to the multiple intersections across the fields of religions and human rights can gather and learn together.” 

The summer school’s keynote address will be given by the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief Dr Ahmed Shaheed. Other notable speakers will include chairperson of the UN Committee for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (CERD) Anastasia Crickley, and Professor of Social Ethics at the University of Vienna Ingeborg Gabriel.  

This event will broadly explore themes including the relationship between religion, human rights, and the state, the idea of non-discrimination, the problem of hate speech, and the rights of religious minorities.

The summer school will consist of talks, discussions and Q&A sessions with experts in the various fields.

Registration is available at the following link: https://www.rightsandreligions.org