Friday 14 February 2025 1:00pm to 2:00pm
Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, Berkowitz/Finley Lecture Hall
About
There is a sandwich lunch at 12.30 pm in the Old Library at the Centre. All lecture attendees welcome.
Lecture summary: The role of freedom of religion or belief in international human rights law is often overshadowed by reservations on the basis of religion or religious law, and violence or violations in the name of religion in relation to a whole host of rights. And that is before one accounts for the politicisation and instrumentalization of religion for suspect objectives. Freedom of religion or belief therefore appears as the villain and not the ally of human rights. This lecture will explore some of the ways in which freedom of religion or belief has reasserted not only its claim as a human right but as a necessary precursor to advancing other rights.
Nazila Ghanea is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford, Director of the MSc in international human rights law, Governing Body Fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford and Senior Teaching Fellow at New College, Oxford. She was appointed UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief in August 2022. She has also held senior management positions at the University of Oxford and was previously a visiting fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre. She served as a member of the OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2012-2019). Her OUP law monograph on freedom of religion or belief (with Heiner Bielefeldt and Michael Wiener) was awarded the Senior Alberigo Prize by the European Academy of Religion and she was awarded the Religious Liberty Prize by Notre Dame University in 2024. She has published widely in international human rights law and serves on the Editorial Board for the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion and the Cambridge Ecclesiastical Law Journal.
Chair: Dr Lena Holzer
The Friday Lunchtime Lecture series is kindly supported by Cambridge University Press & Assessment.