Why Did the Israeli Supreme Court Strike Down Judicial Reform? Commentary by Ori Aronson

On 1 January 2024, the Israeli Supreme Court in its longest-ever judgment struck down a highly controversial law passed by Benjamin Netanyahu’s government in its attempts to limit the judicial branch. Bar-Ilan University Professor Ori Aronson comments on the main issues of the case, explains the role in this decision of the October 2023 deadly Hamas attack on Israel, and elaborates on whether the government and the right-wing coalition in the Knesset will respect it.

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The Strong and Deep Nexus Between Human Dignity and Religious Freedom

Ján Figeľ is the former European Union commissioner and  special envoy for the promotion of freedom of religion or belief outside the European Union.

Peace is a fruit of justice. The core of justice is based on respect of fundamental human rights. And the foundational principle of human rights is dignity.

Today, the agenda of human rights is hijacked by various groups representing ideologies, violent extremism, or ethical relativism. We also tend to forget or neglect our human duties towards the other and towards society. These actions and inactions inevitably lead to contention and conflict. In order to make our era more peaceful and humane, we must return to the original meaning of key documents and definitions on the subject of human dignity. 

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Decolonizing the Indonesian Penal Code

Dicky Sofjan is a core doctoral faculty in the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies (ICRS), located in the Graduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM), in Yogyakarta.

Indonesia was colonized by the Netherlands through its first ever powerful multinational corporation trading company called the Dutch East India Company for more than 350 years. Although the colonization was far from complete and comprehensive—as Indonesia is notably the world’s largest archipelagic nation, comprising 17,000 islands and occupying three time zones—the laws of the land at the time were established primarily to serve the interest of the colonial masters and to guarantee their political longevity and worldwide economic empire.

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