Localizing Justice: Law and Legality on the State’s Periphery in Kyrgyzstan

Natalia Alenkina is an associate professor at the American University of Central Asia. This post is based on a presentation given at the ICLRS 32nd Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 7 October 2025.

The post is a part of the Religious Law and Human Rights series.

In societies where formal institutions are weak, justice often depends less on the codified enforcement of laws and more on the ability of communities to sustain trust, moral responsibility, and social inclusion. The courts of aksakals in Kyrgyzstan—community-based bodies composed of respected elders—embody this ongoing search for balance between legality and morality, state authority and community cohesion, and secular justice and religiously informed values.

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Charles Dukes: A Prisoner of Conscience Who Helped Draft the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Fearghas O’Beara is head of unit at the European Parliamentary Research Service and a doctoral student at the Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome, Italy. This post is excerpted from an article in the December 2023 special issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The Former-Felons’ Feast

On the evening of 9 January 1924, a group of 19 ex-convicts—both men and women—gathered within the confines of the British Houses of Parliament in London. This motley crew were not plotting a re-enactment of Guy Fawkes’s attempt to blow up Parliament three centuries earlier, but they were all purveyors of highly explosive ideas—ideas that the British Establishment of the early twentieth century decided merited being put behind bars.

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Colonel William Roy Hodgson: Australia’s Forgotten Contributor to the Development of International Human Rights

Renae Barker is a senior lecturer at the University of Western Australia Law School. This post is excerpted from an article in the December 2023 special issue of The Review of Faith & International Affairs commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Colonel William Roy Hodgson is a forgotten figure from the drafting of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—forgotten not just at the international level but also in his home country of Australia, where even in his own lifetime “his presence was virtually ignored” [1] when he finally returned to Australia at the end of a long and distinguished diplomatic career.  In the year of the 75th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR), it is time his contribution and legacy were rediscovered.

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