Religious Freedom, Realism, and Constitution-Making

Andrea Pin is full professor of comparative public law, University of Padua, and senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion, Emory University.

Syria, Constitution-Making, and Frustration in the Middle East and North Africa

The debate over Syria’s new constitution is the latest iteration of several efforts to pacify the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region while securing the rule of law and human rights. The twenty-first century is marked by an impressively long series of constitutional documents that have attempted to pursue these goals, with precarious or even disappointing results.

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Religious Freedom: Toward a Pluralist Understanding

Jaclyn Neo is an associate professor and the director of the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at University at the National University of Singapore. The following post is based on her remarks during the panel “Understanding Religious Freedom: Why Does It Matter?” at the ICLRS 31st Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 7 October 2024.

Despite the long-established provenance and reach of religious freedom discourse, religious freedom remains an under-fulfilled promise in many contexts and has been under siege in others. Reports by international organizations, government agencies, and nongovernmental organizations point to continuing violations of religious freedom worldwide. As a result, former United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief Heiner Bielefeldt has called religious freedom a “human right under pressure.”[1]

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Head, Heart, and Hands: Religion as an Instrument for Peace

Bishop Victor Brown is senior pastor of Mt. Sinai United Christian Church and a suffragan bishop and founding board member of the Worldwide Fellowship of Independent Christian Churches. The following post is based on his remarks during the panel “Religion: A Catalyst for Peace?” at the ICLRS 31st Annual International Law and Religion Symposium, 7 October 2024.

We gather at this Symposium under a heavy cloud of national and international unrest and warfare. Today marks the one-year anniversary of the attack on Israel by Hamas, which resulted in the highest number of Israeli lives lost since the Holocaust. In addition to conflicts in Haiti and Sudan—and the ongoing wars in Syria, Myanmar, Somalia, Yemen, Russia, and Ukraine—on the American national front, the United States presently stands as a nation divided.

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