The local organizing committee of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies is pleased to announce the third conference on Law and Religion in Africa, which will be held in Windhoek, Namibia at the University of Namibia from Monday, May 18 to Tuesday, May 19, 2015. This conference will focus on the theme “Religious Freedom and Religious Pluralism in Africa: Prospects and Limitations.”
Sixty participants are expected to participate in the conference, from 17 countries: UK, US, Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria, Benin, Ghana, South Africa, Senegal, Namibia, Rwanda, Zimbabwe, Kenya, Zambia, Botswana, Uganda, Belgium.
Participants will discuss such topics as:
- African traditional law / religion
- Human rights and dignity (including rights of children, the disabled, the elderly and women)
- Implications of globalization, neo-liberalism, democratization, and fragile states for religious practice in African societies
- Competing conceptions of religion and freedom in the African context
- Tensions between individual and collective rights
- Relationship of custom, culture, ethnicity and religion
- State responses to religious pluralism and pluralization in Africa
- Theological and/or philosophical approaches to the theme
- Religious freedoms, rights and responsibilities
- Religion-state relations
- Legal perspectives and religion (including national, regional, international and comparative perspectives)
- Other emerging current concerns for the law and religion field
For more information kindly contact Nico Horn at <nhornATunam.na> with a copy to Magriet de Villiers at <mdevATsun.ac.za> and Deborah Wright at <wrightdeATlaw.byu.edu>.
Conference Organising Committee:
- Nico Horn, Associate Professor of Public Law, University of Namibia
- Shawn Boshoff, Director, ACLARS Secretary
- Pieter Coertzen, Professor, Faculty of Theology, Stellenbosch University
- W. Cole Durham, Jr., Professor of Law, BYU Law School
- Rosalind J. Hackett, Professor of Religious Studies, Harvard Divinity School
- Mark Hill, Honorary Professor, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff University and University of Pretoria
- Is-haq Oloyede, Professor of Islamic Studies, University of Llorin
- Kofi Quashigah, Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Ghana
- Robert T. Smith, Managing Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, BYU Law School
- Jean-Baptiste Sourou, Professor of Communications, St. Augustine University of Tanzania
- Johan van der Vyver, Emory University Law School