February 14-16, 2008 State, Religion and Law in and beyond South Asia: Comparative Perspectives, New Delhi, India.
February 25, 2008 Why Religious Freedom? The Origins and Promise of U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy, Washington, D.C., USA.
April 3-6, 2008 Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Conscience, and Right of Association: International and Russian Experience in Implementation, Ekaterinburg, Russia.
March 31-April 1, 2008 Religion and Education: Russian and International Experience, Moscow, Russia.
April 21, 2008 A Decade of... more
- Meetings of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, Vienna, Austria, February 7-8, 2008. Click here for more information about the OSCE.
- Law and Religion Colloquium, Balliol College, University of Oxford, England, February 9, 2008. Politics, Law and Religion, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, March 18, 2008. Hosted by Boston College.
- A Common Morality for the Global Age: In Gratitude for What We are Given," Washington, D.C., USA, March 27-30, 2008. Hosted by The Catholic University of America’s Center for Law, Philosophy and Culture. Click
The International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) assisted Focus on Freedom of Religion or Belief (Focus on FoRB) in organizing the conference "Freedom of Religion or Belief and Protecting Vulnerable Identities: A Global Snapshot," held 20-22 June 2008, in Geneva, Switzerland, in conjunction with the convening of the annual meeting of UN Special Rapporteurs and Chairs of Treaty Bodies. Focus on FORB is an organization of international scholars, leaders, lawyers, and other experts in the field of freedom of religion and belief, created as a follow-up to the... more
On 10-12 December 2008, the Center co-sponsored;the conference "A National Workshop on Freedom of Religion or Belief as A Human Right in Indonesia: Recognizing, Protecting and Promoting." The conference was held in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, a spiritual capital of Indonesia. Professor Robert Smith, managing director of the Center, presented one of the opening addresses; his remarks were titled "Limiting Limitations: Recognizing the Proper Scope of Religious Freedom Limitations." Professor Tore Lindholm, a member of the Center's Academic Advisory Board and a member of the Oslo... more
Scholars, experts, and students from around the world came together 13-14 June 2008 at Budapest’s Central European University (CEU) to conduct a conference on the topic of "Emerging Legal Issues Involving Islam in Europe (Part II)." These experts included Professors Matthias Rohe (Germany), Jytte Klausen (U.S.-Denmark), Francis Messner (France), Sharyl Cross (U.S.), Supreme Court Justice Karim Pharaon (Jordan), and many others. The conference, sponsored by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) and CEU’s Department of Legal Studies, marked a follow-up to the 2007 Budapest conference of the same name. Participants examined contributions and challenges of the changing European Islamic dynamic from various perspectives of law, culture and public policy. From devout Muslim scholars to secular academicians, the program... more
Scholars, media representatives, and virtually all national and regional Ukrainian religious affairs officials attended the conference "Religion in Postmodern Society: Conceptual, Social-Political, and Legal Aspects," 20-21 May 2008, at the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine in Kiev. The conference was co-sponsored by the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University. Other sponsors included the State Committee of Nationalities and Religious Affairs of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Association of Religious Studies Scholars, and the Division of Religious Studies of The Skovoroda Institute of Philosophy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
Conference participants addressed questions of relationships between society and religion, particularly state-confessional relations in the context of global and regional changes in the postmodern era. Special focus was on processes taking place in the countries... more
The 2008 International Conference sponsored by CESNUR (Center for Studies on New Religions) and INFORM (Information Network on Religious Movements) was held 16-20 April 2008, at the London School of Economics. The Conference theme was "Twenty Years and More: Research into Minority Religions, New Religious Movements and 'the New Spirituality'." Participants consisted of experts and scholars who study individual religious movements as well as the interrelation between the movements, particularly new religious movements with the state. The International Center... more
With support from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the Russian State University for Humanities' Center for Religious Studies and the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University sponsored the conference "Religion and Education: Russian and International Experience," 31 March - 1 April 2008 in Moscow, Russia. This conference provided a tremendous opportunity for Russian and international scholars to discuss questions of the role of... more
On 8 December 2008, the Center co-sponsored a conference entitled, "Freedom of Religion or Belief: Perspectives and Challenges after Sixty Years of United Nations Protection." The conference was held in the Bahá’í International Community’s United Nations Office in New York City, and was in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the 27th Anniversary of the Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance based on Religion or Belief. Center director W. Cole Durham presented at the conference... more
On 10 October 2008, the Center co-sponsored the third and final conference in a series reviewing the International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA). This conference, titled “The Future of U.S. International Religious Freedom Policy: Recommendations for the Next Administration,” looked at IRFA and the U.S. international religious freedom policy in the specific contexts of religious extremism, public diplomacy, democracy, civil society, and the law. Professor Cole Durham, director of the Center, moderated the session dealing with U.S. International Religious Freedom... more