Conference on Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights
March 15 and March 16, 2007
Copley Formal Lounge
KEYNOTE ADDRESS:
Are Religion and Human Rights Contradictory or Complementary?
Kenneth Roth
Executive Director, Human Rights Watch
Thursday, March 15, Copley Formal Lounge
CONFERENCE PANELS:
Friday, March 16, Copley Formal Lounge
Are “universal” human rights in fact an imposition of western or Christian ideas? Is democracy, the “rule of the people,” compatible with God’s law? How does religion inform – and impede – the struggle for human rights around the world?
The Berkley Center conference on “Religion and the Global Politics of Human Rights” brought together leading anthropologists, sociologists, historians, and political scientists to explore questions on the ways in which Religion intersects with the global human rights agendas. It breaks with the dominant “top down” approach centered on the principles found in sacred texts and authoritative theological and legal interpretations. Participants grappled with the issue “bottom up” – the interaction of human rights and religion in practice and the challenges they pose for national and international politics. The juxtaposition of key cases from around the world deepened our knowledge about the interplay of religion, politics, and society, and provided signposts for policymakers in Washington, DC, and elsewhere, grappling with an increasingly salient issue area.
This conference, convened by Thomas Banchoff, Director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown University, and Robert Wuthnow, Director of the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, was the third in a series. In April 2005 Georgetown University sponsored a conference on “The New Religious Pluralism and Democracy.” In March 2006, the Berkley Center’s inaugural conference addressed the “The New Religious Pluralism in World Politics.” Two books based on the conferences are forthcoming with Oxford University Press.
Participants
Thomas Banchoff, Georgetown University (co-convener)
Robert Wuthnow, Princeton University (co-convener)
Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, Brown University
Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, Georgetown University
Paul Freston, Calvin College
Yvonne Haddad, Georgetown University
Robert Hefner, Boston University
Riva Kastoryano, Institut d'Etudes Politiques, Paris
Charles Keyes, University of Washington
Pratap Mehta, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi
David Ownby, University of Montreal
Alfred Stepan, Columbia University
Conference Schedule
Thursday March 15, Copley Formal Lounge, Georgetown University
7:30-9:00pm Keynote Address
Are Religion and Human Rights Contradictory or Complementary?
Kenneth Roth, Executive Director, Human Rights Watch
Friday March 16, Copley Formal Lounge, Georgetown University
10:30am-12:00pm First Conference Session: Latin America and Africa
Paul Freston, Religious Pluralism, Democracy and Human Rights in Latin America
Rogaia Mustafa Abusharaf, Gender Justice and Religion in Sub-Sahara Africa
Alfred Stepan, Islam and Human Rights in Senegal: Rituals of Respect
Tom Banchoff, Discussant
1:45-3:15pm Second Conference Session: Islam in Transnational Perspective
Riva Kastoryano, The Politicization of Islam in Europe: Human Rights and the Politics of Recognition
Yvonne Haddad, Gender Jihad: The Quest to Ground Human Rights within Islam
Robert Hefner, Constitutionalism and Democratization in Islam: Latent Prejudices, Recurrent Tensions
Discussant, Paul Heck
3:45-5:30pm Third Conference Session: Russia and Asia
Marjorie Balzer, Religious Communities and Rights in the Russian Federation
Pratap Mehta, Human Rights and the Ethnicisation of Religion in India
Charles Keyes, Can Non-Buddhists Have Equal Rights in Buddhist Countries?
David Ownby, China, Religion, and Human Rights: Social Change and State Response
Robert Wuthnow, Discussant