A New Zealand Police Perspective on Religions’ Roles in Peacebuilding

Rakesh Naidoo is currently National Partnerships Manager–Ethnic at New Zealand Police, holding the rank of superintendent. He has worked with diverse communities for more than 30 years. The following is an edited summary of his remarks as a panelist at the ICLRS 29th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 4 October 2022.

Acknowledgment and Introduction

I begin by greeting you in the traditional language of the indigenous Maori people of New Zealand.

He honore / He kororia / Maungarongo ki te whenua / Whakaaro pai e / Ki nga tangata katoa

[Honour and glory to our Creator, peace throughout the land, and goodwill to all people.]

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The Role of Religious Groups in the 2016 Colombian Plebiscite for Peace and the Implementation of the Peace Agreement

Carlos Bernal Pulido is a professor of law at the University of Dayton School of Law and University of La Sabana (Colombia), serves as a commissioner at the Interamerican Human Rights Commission, and was a justice at the Constitutional Court of Colombia (2017–20). The following is an edited summary of his remarks at the ICLRS 29th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 3 October 2022.

The topic of this Symposium, “Religion’s Roles in Peacebuilding,” is important and relevant in many regions of the world. But I would like to talk today about the peace process in Colombia, my country of origin, and the role of religious groups in that process, or lack thereof. There are lessons to be learned from Colombia’s experience, and I would like to highlight several relevant points.

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Fidei Defensor

Reverend Dr. Andrew Teal is fellow, chaplain, and full member of the Faculty of Theology and Religion at Oxford University. The following is an edited summary of his keynote address delivered at the ICLRS 29th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 4 October 2022.

Our Responsibility to Each Other

Years ago, before flying to Utah for an extended visit, I received a message asking me to call on my now-departed, dear friend Metropolitan Kallistos Ware, a very significant scholar of the Eastern Orthodox Church. He gave me a command—quite literally a Metropolitan command—and his blessing to enable me to strive to fulfil it: “Go,” he said. “Go and really listen; go and understand; go to love and to bring Love.”

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