Berkley Center

Thomas Banchoff is director of the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and serves as vice president for global engagement at Georgetown University, where he is a professor in the Department of Government and the Walsh School of Foreign Service.

W. Cole Durham, Jr. is emeritus professor of law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, where he held the Susa Young Gates University Professorship. He is also founding director of the Clark Law School’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) and president of the G20 Interfaith Association. He has been heavily involved in comparative law scholarship, with a special emphasis on comparative constitutional law, and is known for his contributions to protecting religious freedoms.

Matius Ho is executive director of Leimena Institute, a non-profit organization focused on helping Christians effectively engage in social, political, and economic issues in Jakarta, Indonesia. He also served as a leader during the development of the Cross-Cultural Religious Literacy program, which has trained thousands of teachers in Indonesia on competencies to strengthen peaceful multi-faith and multicultural societies.

Rodrigo Vitorino Souza Alves is a professor of law at the Federal University of Uberlândia (Brazil), where he also serves as head of the Constitutional, International, and Human Rights Law Unit. He leads the Brazilian Center of Studies in Law and Religion, which focuses on religious freedom, protection of religious minorities, antidiscrimination norms, and religion-state relations.

Maria Lucia Uribe Torres is the executive director of Arigatou International Geneva. She heads the strategic direction of the Ethics Education for Children Initiative as an International Knowledge and Action Hub with partners in more than 40 countries. She is also in charge of developing and maintaining Arigatou International’s engagement in child rights initiatives with human rights mechanisms, UN agencies, and child rights-focused NGOs in Geneva. She currently convenes the International Consortium on Nurturing Values and Spirituality in Early Childhood for the Prevention of Violence, launched in 2018 by Arigatou International with faith-based and civil society organizations, multilateral agencies, and academia to mobilize religious communities to support families in nurturing values and the spiritual development of children in the in the early years. She is also the co-convener of the Working Group on Children and Violence of Child Rights Connect, leading their advocacy work with the United Nations and Human Rights mechanisms in Geneva. Torres is a member of the Working Group on Child Rights and Family Values, part of the Culture of Encounter Project.