Religious Freedom and Indigenous Rights: Global Perspectives

The Klamath River, which is of great historical and spiritual significance for the Yurok Tribe, flows through Oregon and Northern California (Photo: Istock).

This series provides comparative interdisciplinary analysis of indigenous spirituality and the legal challenges involved in its protection on national and international levels. Drawing on a variety of cases from the Americas, South Africa, and Australia, contributors discuss specificities of indigenous spirituality and theology, power dynamics behind the discussion of indigenous rights, the sacredness of natural objects for indigenous groups, the insufficiency of protections for indigenous believers within existing religious-freedom frameworks, and legal steps needed to strengthen these protections. This series is based on presentations given at the ICLRS 32nd Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 6–7 October 2025.

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Religious Law and Human Rights

Bahá’í Temple in Wilmette, Illinois / Istock

This series examines religious law as a human rights issue. Drawing on a variety of cases, contributors explain how Muslim and Jewish law and adjudication operate in the secular legal system of the United Kingdom and the mixed legal order of the State of Israel; how religion is being utilized to alienate religious minorities in Iran and Pakistan; and why traditional courts sometimes successfully replace secular legal institutions in serving justice in Kyrgyzstan. What unites these contributions is the authors’ intent to challenge and deepen readers’ basic knowledge about the interplay between religious law and human rights norms in different legal settings. This series is based on presentations given at the ICLRS 32nd Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 7 October 2025.

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Measuring Religious Freedom Globally: Interview with Jonathan Fox

Religion and State Project founder and Bar-Ilan University professor Jonathan Fox explains how state policies concerning religion and religious freedom can be measured empirically. Fox discusses what prompts governments to discriminate against certain (or all) religions and why government support of religion is a popular tactic to control it. He also provides nuanced perspectives on the interplay of democratic and secular governments and religious freedom, drawing on legal decisions involving religious freedom and women’s rights, bodily integrity, and the humane treatment of animals.

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