Keynote speaker is Professor Heiner Bielefeldt, former UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. See full programme and all speakers
You will receive the zoom link before the webinar.
This event will be organized as a Zoom webinar. You can download Zoom here.
Religious rhetoric and violence
Recent research from the political sciences suggests a high correlation between religious rhetoric and violence, implying that religious conflicts are more violent than non-religious conflicts. Conversely, the conflicts following the Arab Spring led to a significant increase in the percentage of the population describing itself as ‘non-religious’, possibly suggesting a turn to secularisation following religiously motivated uprisings.
The topic of religion and conflict is of interest not only to political sciences, but also to areas of law dealing with religion or conflict, or both. Religion or conflicts are studied from the perspective of public international law, international humanitarian law, international criminal law, human rights law, and criminology, among others. Yet, the examination of religion and law in its combination is generally under-researched.
Is law the right tool?
Is positively framed law the right tool to deal with religious matters that are of an inherently spiritual nature? And, how do domestic or international courts interpret the law when confronted with religiously motivated violent acts?
Related link: Call for papers: Disentangling the Relationship between Religion and Law
Organizing committee for the conference
Gentian Zyberi, Professor of International Law and Human Rights, Head of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, Faculty of Law, University of Oslo.
Carola Lingaas, Associate Professor of Law, VID Specialized University, Oslo Faculty of Social Studies.