RELIGION, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, AND THE REFUGEE … · 6/10/2017 · - Latin American Perspectives on Promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Audimax, House 8) - Faith-Based

15–17 JUNE 2017 • POTSDAM, GERMANY

RELIGION, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, AND THE

REFUGEE CRISIS

TABLE OF CONTENTS AND CONDENSED SCHEDULE

DETAILED SCHEDULE FOR THURSDAY, 15 JUNE19:00 – 21:00

21:30 – 23:30

OPENING SESSION AND WELCOME (Audimax, House 8)

DINNER RECEPTION (Ground Floor, First Floor, Terrace, House 9)

DETAILED SCHEDULE FOR FRIDAY, 16 JUNE

8:30 – 10:00

10:00 – 10:30

10:30 – 11:45

12:00 – 13:15

13:15 – 14:30

14:30 – 16:00

16:15 – 17:30

17:30 – 18:00

18:00 – 19:15

20:00 – 22:00

PLENARY SESSION 1: Religion, Sustainable Development Goals and the Refugee and Famine Crises (Audimax, House 8)

BREAK (Audimax Adjoining Room, Ground Floor (House 8 + Courtyard)

PLENARY SESSION 2: Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Religious Sector, and Sustainable Development (Audimax, House 8)

CONCURRENT SESSIONS 1: - Civilization Perspectives on the Crises (Lecture Hall 1.02, House 9)- Faith, Sustainable Development, and the Environment (Audimax, House 8)- Impacts of Interfaith Collaboration (Lecture Hall 1.14, House 9)

LUNCH (Mensa, House 12)

PLENARY SESSION 3: Religion and the Economic Sector: Religious Literacy and Germany’s G20 Objectives (Audimax, House 8)

CONCURRENT SESSIONS 2:- Alternative Visions of Development (Lecture Hall 1.14, House 9)- Partnership with Africa (Audimax, House 8)- Religion, Media and Development in the Post-Truth World (Lecture Hall 1.02, House 9)

BREAK (Cafeteria, House 8)

CONCURRENT SESSIONS 3:- Shrinking Space of Civil Society (Lecture Hall 1.14, House 9)- Refugees and Cultural Heritage in Transition (Audimax, House 8)- Conflict Resolution (Lecture Hall 1.02, House 9)

DINNER (Kongresshotel)

1

2-7

DETAILED SCHEDULE FOR SATURDAY, 17 JUNE

9:00 – 10:30

11:00 – 12:30

13:30 – 15:00

11:00 & Continuing

10:30 – 11:00

12:30 – 13:30

15:15 – 16:30

16:30 – 17:00

17:00 – 18:15

18:15 – 19:00

PLENARY SESSION 4: Perspectives on Refugee Crisis (Audimax, House 8)


SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAM: Self-Reliance Training as an Antidote to Radicalization (Audimax Foyer, House 8)

CONCURRENT SESSIONS 4:- Youth Interfaith Engagement (Lecture Hall 1.14, House 9)- Roundtable on Countering Violence Extremism Issues (Audimax, House 8)- Religion, Development, and Economic Impact of Religion (Lecture Hall 1.02, House 9)

LUNCH (Mensa, House 12)

PLENARY SESSION 5: The Challenge of Refugee and Food Crises (Audimax, House 8)

CONCURRENT SESSIONS 5: - Latin American Perspectives on Promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals (Audimax, House 8)- Faith-Based Responses to the Refugee Crisis (Lecture Hall 1.14, House 9)- Interfaith and Food Security (Lecture Hall 1.02, House 9)


CONCURRENT SESSIONS 6:- A Common Word among the Youth: Interfaith Development Goals (Lecture Hall 1.02, House 9)- Women, Faith, and Human Rights (Audimax, House 8)

CONCLUDING PLENARY: Recommendations and Next Steps (Audimax, House 8)

8-13

G20 INTERFAITH SUMMIT INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZING COMMITTEE 14-15

SPEAKERS AND DISTINGUISHED GUESTS BIOGRAPHIES 16-57

2017 G20 CONFERENCE • POTSDAM, GERMANY 1

PROGRAMME

19:00 – 21:00

21:30 – 23:30

OPENING SESSION AND WELCOMERoom: Audimax (House 8)

CHAIR: Kathy Ehrensperger, Co-Chair, German G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Research Professor, Universität Potsdam, Germany WELCOME: Brian J. Adams, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee Director, Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue, Griffith University, Australia W. Cole Durham, Jr., Susa Young Gates Professor of Law and Founding Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United States Oliver Günther, President, University of Potsdam, Germany Gabriel Saez, Director of Global Affairs, National Senate of Argentina, representing Gabriela Michetti, Vice President of Argentina Dietmar Woidke, Ministerpräsident, State of Brandenburg, Germany

INAUGURAL SESSIONReligion, Sustainable Development, and the Refugee Crisis

FORMAL OPENINGForum Religions in Context Johan Ev. Hafner, Chairman, University of Potsdam, Germany

MUSICAL INTERLUDE

KEYNOTE ADDRESSES: Emmanuel Adamakis, His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, Ecumenical Patriarchate; Vice President, Conference of European Churches, France Ottmar Edenhofer, Director MCC, Chief Economist PIK/Potsdam, Germany Emma Harriet Nicholson, Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Member of the House of Lords, United Kingdom Rabbi David Saperstein, Former US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom; Director Emeritus, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, United States Ahmed Shaheed, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Maldives

DINNER RECEPTION Ground Floor, First Floor, Terrace (House 9)

T H U R S D AY, 1 5 J U N E 2 0 1 7

2 RELIGION, SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT, AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS

F R I D AY, 1 6 J U N E 2 0 1 7

PLENARY SESSION 1: Room: Audimax (House 8) Religion, Sustainable Development Goals, and the Refugee and Famine Crises CHAIR: Arntraud Hartmann, Adjunct Professor of International Development, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Europe, Germany

SPEAKERS: Mohammed Abu-Nimer, Senior Advisor, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue Dialogue Centre (KAICIID), Austria Christo Greyling, Senior Director, Church and Faith Partnerships for Development, World Vision International, Netherlands Katherine Marshall, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Senior Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University; Executive Director, World Faiths Development Dialogue, United States Ulrich Nitschke, Head of Sector Program Values for Religion and Development, German Society for International Cooperation; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); Head of the Secretariat for the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD), Germany

BREAKRoom: Audimax Adjoining Room, Ground Floor (House 8) + Courtyard

PLENARY SESSION 2:Room: Audimax (House 8)

Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Religious Sector, and Sustainable Development

CHAIR: W. Cole Durham, Jr., G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Susa Young Gates Professor of Law and Founding Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United States

SPEAKERS: Sophie van Bijsterveld, Senator, Dutch Upper House of Parliament; Professor of Religion, Law, and Society, Radboud University, The Netherlands Ana María Celis Brunet, Professor and Director, Center for Law and Religion, Faculty of Law, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile; President, International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies, Chile

8:30 – 10:00

10:00 – 10:30

10:30 – 11:45


Gerhard Robbers, G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee Former Minister of Justice for Consumer Protection of Rhineland-Palatinate; Professor Emeritus, Universität Trier, Germany Rabbi David Saperstein, Former U.S. Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom; Director Emeritus, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, United States Ahmed Shaheed, United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Maldives Shimon Shetreet, Greenblatt Chair of Public and International Law, Hebrew University Law School, Israel Monica Duffy Toft, Professor of International Politics, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; Director, Center for Strategic Studies, United States

CONCURRENT SESSIONS 1:

Civilization Perspectives on the CrisesRoom: Lecture Hall 1.02 (House 9)

CHAIR: Michael Waltner, Program Manager, Professional Development and Learning, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), Austria

SPEAKERS: Ganoune Diop, General Secretary, International Religious Liberty Association, United States W. Cole Durham, Jr., G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Susa Young Gates Professor of Law and Founding Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United States

Faith, Sustainable Development, and the Environment Room: Audimax (House 8)

CHAIR: Asher Maoz, Dean, Peres Academic Center, Law School, Israel

SPEAKERS: Emmanuel Adamakis, His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, Ecumenical Patriarchate; Vice President, Conference of European Churches, France Ottmar Edenhofer, Director MCC, Chief Economist PIK/Potsdam, Germany Yoshinobu Miyake, Superior General, Konko Church of Izuo, Japan Ibrahim Özdemir, Founding President of Hassan Kalyoncu University, Istanbul; Former Director General, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Nationalucation, Turkey Rabbi Awraham Soetendorp, President, Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values, The Netherlands

F R I D AY C O N T I N U E D

12:00 – 13:15



Impacts of Interfaith CollaborationRoom: Lecture Hall 1.14 (House 9)

CHAIR: Ana María Celis Brunet, Professor and Director, Center for Law and Religion, Faculty of Law, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile; President, International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies, Chile

SPEAKERS: Pastor Peter Ciaccio, Woldensian Church, Italy Rev. Alexander Goldberg, 2015 International Fellow, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID); Jewish Chaplain of Surrey, International Advisor and Director of Programmes, University of Surrey, United Kingdom Abbas Panakkal, Director of International Relations, Ma’din Academy; 2016 International Fellow, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), India Rev. Canon Richard Tutin, Secretary General of Queensland Churches Together, Australia

LUNCHRoom: Mensa (House 12)


Religion and the Economic Sector: Religious Literacy and Germany’s G20 Objectives

CHAIR: Edmund Newell, Principal, Cumberland Lodge; Founding Director, St. Paul’s Institute, United Kingdom SPEAKERS: Draško Aćimovic, Ambassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina Brian J. Grim, President, Religious Freedom and Business Foundation, United States Michael Wakelin, Executive Associate in Public Education, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge; former Head of BBC Religion and Ethics, United Kingdom

14:30 – 16:00

13:15 – 14:30



CONCURRENT SESSIONS 2:Alternative Visions of DevelopmentRoom: Lecture Hall 1.14 (House 9)

CHAIR: Daniel Legutke, G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Desk Officer, Human Rights Department, German Commission of Justice and Peace, Germany

SPEAKERS: Katherine Marshall, G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Senior Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University; Executive Director, World Faiths Development Dialogue, United States Liviu Olteanu, Secretary General, International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty, Switzerland Patrick Schnabel, Co-Chair, G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg-Schlesische Oberlausitz, Kirchlicher Entwicklungsdienst, Germany; Co-Chair, Germany Peter Spiegel, CEO, Genisis Institute for Social Innovation and Impact Strategies, Germany

Partnership with AfricaRoom: Audimax (House 8)

CHAIR: Ulrich Nitschke, Head of the Sector Programme Values, Religion and Development, Germany Society to Interntaion Cooperation, Deutsche Gesellshaft fur Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); Head of the Secretariat for the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD), Germany

SPEAKERS: Mussie Hailu Gebrestadik, Global Envoy of United Religions Initiative (URI) and Representative to the United Nations and the African Union, Ethiopia Akalemwa Ngenda, Faculty of Law, Brunel University, United Kingdom Selina Palm, Researcher, Interdisciplinary Unit for Religion and Development Research, Stellenbosch University, South Africa Manisuli Ssenyonjo, Professor of International Law and Human Rights, Brunel University London, United Kingdom

16:15 – 17:30



Religion, Media, and Development in the Post-Truth WorldRoom: Lecture Hall 1.02 (House 9) CHAIR: Robert O. Smith, Director, Jerusalem Global Gateway, University of Notre Dame, Jerusalem SPEAKERS: Jacqueline Hughes, Convenor, MA Journalism, Brunel University; Special Adviser, House of Lords Communications Committee, United Kingdom Peter Petkoff, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Director, Religion, Law, and International Relations Programme, Regents Park College, Oxford and Brunel Law School, United Kingdom Andrew West, Presenter, The Religion & Ethics Report, ABC Radio National, Australia

BREAKRoom: Cafeteria (House 8)


Shrinking Space of Civil SocietyRoom: Lecture Hall 1.14 (House 9)

CHAIR: Tahir Mahmood, G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Distinguished Jurist Chair; Professor of Eminence and Chair, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Amity University; Founding President, South Asia Consortium for Religion and Law Studies; India

SPEAKERS: Liviu Olteanu, Secretary General, International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty, Switzerland Brett G. Scharffs, Francis R. Kirkham Professor of Law and Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United States Ani Zonneveld, President and Founder, Muslims for Progressive Values, United States

18:00 – 19:15

17:30 – 18:00



Refugees and Cultural Heritage in TransitionRoom: Audimax (House 8)

CHAIR: Peter Petkoff, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Director of Religion, Law, and International Relations Programme, Regents Park College, Oxford and Brunel Law School, United Kingdom

SPEAKERS: Michael Bochmann, Director, Water City Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, United Kingdom Nagihan Halioğlu, Assistant Professor, Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Ibn Haldun University, Turkey Yannis Ktistakis, Assistant Professor, Demokritus University of Thrace; Faculty of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University, Greece Nikos Maghioros, Assistant Professor of Canon and Ecclesiastical Law, Faculty of Theology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Conflict ResolutionRoom: Lecture Hall 1.02 (House 9)

CHAIR: Elizabeta Kitanović, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Executive Secretary for Human Rights and Communication, Conference of European Churches, Belgium

SPEAKERS: Brian J. Adams, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee Director, Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue, Griffith University, Australia Omar Al Kaddour, Director of Religious Freedom and Diversity, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Argentina Antti Pentikäinen, Executive Director of the Secretariat and Convener of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers; Special Envoy for the Prime Minister of Finland for the Migration Crisis, Finland Alberto Quattrucci, Secretary General of Peoples and Religions, Sant ’Egidio Community, Italy

DINNERKongresshotel

20:00 – 22:00


S AT U R D AY, 1 7 J U N E 2 0 1 7

9:00 – 10:30

11:00 – 12:30

10:30 – 11:00


Perspectives on Refugee Crisis

CHAIR: Pastor Peter Jörgensen, G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Representative of the Organization of Protestant Free Churches with the German Government, Germany

SPEAKERS: Carmen Asiaín Pereira, G20 Interfaith Summit International Organizing Committee; Senator, Parliament of Uruguay; President, Latin American Consortium for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Uruguay Peter Bender, German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP); Member of the Steering Committee of Religions for Peace, Germany Hany El-Banna, President, The Humanitarian Forum; Founder of Islamic Relief, United Kingdom Ján Figel, Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief Outside the European Union, European Commission, Slovakia Fr. Nabil Haddad, Founder and Director, Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center ( JICRC); Dean, Saints Peter and Paul Old Cathedral, Jordan Elke Loebel, Deputy General Director of Migration and Refugees, Federal Ministry of Cooperation and Development, Germany


SPECIAL TRAINING PROGRAMSelf-Reliance Training as an Antidote to RadicalizationRoom: Audimax Foyer (House 8)

Brian J. Grim, President, Religious Freedom and Business Foundation, United States


Youth Interfaith EngagementRoom: Lecture Hall 1.14 (House 9)

CHAIR: Anja Fahlenkamp, G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Founding Director, Faiths in Tune, Germany

SPEAKERS: Samir Akacha, Vice-President, Coexister Europe, France Charly Burridge-Jones, ParliaMentors Alumni Network, Three Faiths Forum

(3FF), United Kingdom

11:00 & Continuing


S AT U R D AY C O N T I N U E D

12:30 – 13:30

Ishrat Hossain, Doctoral Researcher in International Relations, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Department of Politics and International Relations, United Kingdom Jad Lehmann-Abi-Haidar, Representative of Dialogperspektiven, Religionen und Weltanschauungen im Gespräch, Religions and Worldviews in Conversation, Germany Rachel McCave, MA Student, Institute for Intercultural Diplomacy, Germany

Roundtable on Countering Violence Extremism IssuesRoom: Audimax (House 8)

CHAIR: David M. Kirkham, Director, BYU London Centre; Senior Fellow, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United Kingdom

SPEAKERS: Susan J. Breeze, Head of Bilateral Team, International Counter- Extremism Group, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, United Kingdom Elizabeta Kitanović, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Executive Secretary for Human Rights and Communication, Conference of European Churches, Belgium; Kishan Manocha, Senior Adviser on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Human Rights Department, OSCE/ODIHR, Poland Tina Ramirez, President and Founder of Hardwired, Inc., United States

Religion, Development, and Economic Impact of ReligionRoom: Lecture Hall 1.02 (House 9)

CHAIR: Frerich Görts, German G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Undersecretary Retd., National Director of Public Affairs, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Germany

SPEAKERS: Faizan Mustafa, G20 Interfaith Summit International Organizing Committee; Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR University of Law, India Keith Thompson, Associate Professor, School of Law, The University of Notre Dame Sydney, Australia Marco Ventura, Professor of Law and Religion, University of Siena, Italy

LUNCHRoom: Mensa (House 12)



15:15 – 16:30


The Challenge of Refugee and Food Crises

CHAIR: Brian J. Adams, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Director, Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue, Griffith University, Australia

SPEAKERS: Roland Bank, Senior Legal Officer, Office of UN High Commissioner of Refugees, Germany Mohammed Jamouchi, General Secretary, Religions for Peace Europe, Belgium Timothy Lavelle, Senior Food Security Advisor, USAID Center for Faith-based and Community Initiatives, United States Alberto Quattrucci, Secretary General of Peoples and Religions, Sant ’Egidio Community, Italy Gary B. Sabin, Europe Area Presidency, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Germany


Latin American Perspectives on Promoting the UN Sustainable Development Goals Room: Audimax (House 8)

CHAIR: Gary B. Doxey, Associate Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United States

SPEAKERS: Cristina Calvo, Director, International Program on Democracy, Society, and New Economies, University of Buenos Aires, Argentina Juan Navarro Floria, Professor of Law, Pontifical Catholic University, Argentina Gabriel Saez, Director of Global Affairs, Argentine National Senate, Argentina Raúl Scialabba, President, Argentine Council for Religious Liberty (CALIR), Argentina Elías Szczytnicki, Secretary General and Regional Director, Religions for Peace Latin American and the Caribbean, Peru

13:30 – 15:00



Faith-Based Responses to the Refugee CrisisRoom: Lecture Hall 1.14 (House 9)

CHAIR: Fred Axelgard, Senior Fellow, International Relations, The Wheatley Institution, Brigham Young University, United States

SPEAKERS: Sir Iftikhar Ayaz, Chairman, International Human Rights Committee, United Kingdom Naomi Hunt, Fellow and Program Manager, Refugees in Europe, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID), Austria Ali Nasser Muthanna, Regional Manager, AMAR International Charitable Foundation, Iraq Erin K. Wilson, Associate Professor of Politics and Religion, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain, University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Interfaith and Food SecurityRoom: Lecture Hall 1.02 (House 9)

CHAIR: Patrick Schnabel, Co-Chair, Germany G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg-Schlesische Oberlausitz, Kirchlicher Entwicklungsdienst, Germany

SPEAKERS: Ramin Khabirpour, Former Vice President, Danone Europe; CEO, Khabirpour Consulting, Germany Rev. Nicta M. Lubaale, General Secretary, Organization of African Instituted Churches, Kenya

Katherine Marshall, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Senior Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University; Executive Director, World Faiths Development Dialogue, United States Luise Steinwachs, Head of the Unit for Basic Services and Food Security, Brot fur die Welt


16:30 – 17:00



A Common Word Among the Youth: Interfaith Development GoalsRoom: Lecture Hall 1.02 (House 9)

CHAIR: James T. Christie, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Professor of Whole World Ecumenism and Dialogue Theology University of Winnipeg, Canada

SPEAKERS: Khadja Dohry, Representative, A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY ), Turkey Jana Jakob, Representative, A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY ), Sweden Rawaad Mahyub, Chair, A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY ), United Kingdom Claudia Pizzuti, National Head of the Youth Section of Comunita Religios Isalmica Italiana, Islamic Religious Community in Italy; President of Youth Programs, A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY ), Italy

Women, Faith, and Human RightsRoom: Audimax (House 8)

CHAIR: Bani Dugal, Principal Representative to the UN, Bahí’í International Community, United States

SPEAKERS: Saba Detweiler, Representative of the Bahá’í in Germany, Germany� Nagihan Halioğlu, Assistant Professor, Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Ibn Haldun University, Turkey Jacqueline Hughes, Convenor, MA Journalism, Brunel University; Special

Adviser, House of Lords Communications Committee, United Kingdom


17:00 – 18:15

Anja Fahlenkamp, G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Founding Director, Faiths in Tune, Germany


18:15 – 19:00 CONCLUDING PLENARY: Recommendations and Next StepsRoom: Audimax (House 8)

CHAIR: Kathy Ehrensperger, Co-Chair, German G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Research Professor, Universität Potsdam, Germany

SPEAKERS: Brian J. Adams, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Director, Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue, Griffith University, Australia

W. Cole Durham, Jr., G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Susa YoungGates Professor of Law and Founding Director, International Center for Law andReligion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, UnitedStatesKatherine Marshall, G20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Senior Fellow,Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University;Executive Director, World Faiths Development Dialogue, United StatesJuan Navarro Floria, Professor of Law, Pontifical Catholic University of Agentina,ArgentinaUlrich Nitschke, Head of Sector Program Values for Religion and Development,Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit Germany Society forInternational Cooperation (GIZ); Head of the Secretariat for the InternationalPartnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD), Germany


DINNERKongresshotel

20:00 – 22:00

G20 Interfaith Summit International Organizing Committee

Executive Committee: Brian Adams, Director, Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue, Griffith University, Australia James T. Christie, Professor of Whole World Ecumenism and Dialogue Theology, University of Winnipeg, Canada W. Cole Durham, Jr., Susa Young Gates Professor of Law and Founding Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United States Elizabeta Kitanović, Executive Secretary for Human Rights and Communication, Conference of European Churches, Belgium Katherine Marshall, Senior Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University; Executive Director, World Faiths Development Dialogue, United States Peter Petkoff, Director, Religion, Law, and International Relations Programme, Regents Park College, Oxford and Brunel Law School, United Kingdom

Members: Carmen Asiaín Pereira, Senator, Parliament of Uruguay; President, Latin American Consortium for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Uruguay Pieter Coertzen, Professor, Faculty of Theology, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa Alessandro Ferrari, Associate Professor, Department of Law, Economy, and Cultures, University of Insubria Marie-Claire Foblets, Director, Department of Law & Anthropology, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Germany Karen Hamilton, General Secretary, The Canadian Council of Churches, Canada James Kirton, Co-Director, G20 Research Group, Munk School of Global Affairs, University of Toronto, Canada Tahir Mahmood, Distinguished Jurist Chair; Professor of Eminence and Chair, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Amity University, India Faizan Mustafa, Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR University of Law, India Recep Şentürk, President, Ibn Haldun University, Turkey Xiaoyun Zheng, Deputy Director, Institute of World Religions, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China

G20 Interfaith Summit German Organizing Committee

Co-Chairs: Kathy Ehrensperger, Research Professor, Universität Potsdam, Germany Patrick Schnabel, Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg-Schlesische Oberlausitz, Kirchlicher Entwicklungsdienst, Germany

Conference Coordinator Anja Fahlenkamp, Founding Director, Faiths in Tune, Germany

Committee Members: Ralf Bartsch Andreas Goetze, Berliner Missionswerk, Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Grandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz, Germany Frerich Görts, Undersecretary retd., National Director of Public Affairs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Germany Peter Jörgensen, Representative of the Organization of Protestant Free Churches with the German Government, Germany Daniel Legutke, Desk Officer, Human Rights Department, German Commission of Justice and Peace, Germany Gerhard Robbers, Professor Emeritus, Universität Trier; Former Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection of Rhineland-Palatinate Jonathan Schorsch, Professor in Jewish Religious and Intellectual History, School of Jewish Theology, Universität Potsdam, Germany


S P E C I A L T H A N K S

The G20 Interfaith Summit Association acknowledges the generous contributions to this event by the following:

The University of PotsdamGriffith University

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies of the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University

H. Brent and Bonnie Jean BeesleyDavid S. and Mary L. Christensen

S. David and Julie H. ColtonJames F. and Allyson E. Larkins

Blake H. and Leslie Walker

G20 Interfaith Summit Special Rapporteur

Sherrie Steiner, Assistant Professor, Indiana University, Purdue University Fort Wayne

G20 Interfaith Summit Secretariat

Ricky Lashand, Administrative Support Officer, Centre for Interfaith and Cultural Dialogue, Griffith Universi ty, Australia Blythe Shupe, Communications Specialist, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United States

Deborah Wright, Coordinator and Executive Assistant, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United States

Donlu Thayer, Senior Editor, Print and Electronic Publications, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, United States


Omar Al Kaddour – ArgentinaDirector of Religious Freedom and Diversity, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship, Government of Argentina

Omar Al Kaddour holds a degree in International Relations and Political Science from the Universidad del Salvador. He is Co-founder of the Argentine Consensus for peace between Palestine and Israel, and participates in the Institute of interreligious Dialogue in Argentina. Omar was Coordinator of the Human Promotion Area of Fundación Contemporánea where he dedicated himself to the formation of political leaders and promoted the design and implementation of microcredit programs for microenterprises. He served as an advisor to the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies of Argentina, and as the Chair of the Committee on Foreign Relations and Worship, where he advised on matters of international security. Currently, he is Director of Freedom and Religious Diversity, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship.

Cristina Calvo – ArgentinaDirector of the International Program on Democracy, Society, and New Economies, University of Buenos Aires

Dr. Cristina Calvo is the Director of the International Program on Democracy, Society, and New Economies at the University of Buenos Aires, and a Professor at the University of Buenos Aires in the ¨Amartya Sen Award¨ of the School of Economy. She holds a PhD in Economic Sociology and is a Magister in Governability and Human Development. She also completed studies in Ethics and Moral Sciences at the Institute for Education in Montet-Fribourg (Switzerland). A Member of the Committee of Religious Leaders in Latin America of the WCRP, Dr. Calvo is an Advisor for Caritas Latin America in justice and peace building, an Advisor in economy for the Justice and Solidarity Department of the Latin American Episcopal Council, and also for ecumenical and multicultural networks. She was coordinator of the Mesa del Diálogo Argentino (Table for Dialogue in Argentina), a three-way process between Government, United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), and the Catholic Church that, after the 2001 crisis, cooperated to the restoration of democratic governability. She is an honorary member of the Argentinean chapter of the Ana Frank Foundation. In 2008 she received the award granted by the Argentinean Foreign Minister for her work towards the promotion of a plural society and towards the promotion of human rights.

Juan Navarro Floria – ArgentinaProfessor of Law, Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina

Juan Navarro Floria graduated in law with honors from Pontificia Universidad Catolica of Argentina, where he is now Professor of Law, teaching civil law, ecclesiastical law, and law and religion in Latin America. He is also a lawyer and litigator in these fields. He was Chief Advisor to the Secretariat of Religious Affairs of the Argentine Government, founder, board member, and past president of the Argentine Council of Religious Freedom (CALIR), and also founder and past-president of the Latin American Consortium for Religious Freedom. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS–BYU), of the National Committee ‘Justicia y Paz’ at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops in Argentina, and founder and member of the

SPEAKERS AND DISTINGUISHED GUESTS


Steering Committee of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS–Milan). Publications include El derecho a la objección de conciencia (2004), La libertad religiosa en España y Argentina (co-editor, 2006), Estado, Derecho y Religión en América Latina (editor, 2009; Italian 2010), and Acuerdos y concordatos entre la Santa Sede y los países americanos (editor, 2011).

Gabriel Saez – ArgentinaDirector of Global Affairs, National Senate of Argentina

Mr. Gabriel Saez serves as Director of Global Affairs of the Argentine National Senate. In that capacity, he advises Vice President Gabriela Michetti on matters such as human development, human rights, transparency, international security, climate change and disability. He has extensive international experience at the intersection of politics, business, and academia, having worked as external advisor for the Minister of Strategic Affairs of Brazil, the Government of Salta Province, and at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Worship of Argentina. Mr. Saez holds degrees in international relations from universities in Argentina and Spain, a Master in Public Administration from Harvard University, where he also worked as a researcher for the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation. He speaks Spanish, English, and Russian.

Raúl Jorge Scialabba – ArgentinaPresident, Argentine Council for Religious Liberty

Raúl Scialabba is Vice-president of the Argentine Baptist Association, and the former Vice-president of the Baptist World Alliance representing Latin America (2000-2005). A lawyer and a business man, he has been actively involved with different commissions within the Baptist organization such as BWA Executive Committee, General Council, Promotion and Development, Resolutions, Freedom and Justice Commission. He led the 10th Youth Baptist World Congress (1984) and the 17th Baptist World Congress. Currently, he is president of the Argentine Council for Religion Liberty (CALIR).

Brian J. Adams – AustraliaG20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Director, Centre for Interfaith & Cultural Dialogue, Griffith University

Brian J. Adams is the Director of the Centre for Interfaith & Cultural Dialogue at Griffith University. As a former Rotary Peace Fellow, Brian is primarily focused on promoting respect and understanding across cultural, religious and organizational boundaries. This work is supported by a PhD (political science) in deliberative dialogue and two Master degrees in community development and conflict resolution. Brian’s 20+ years of work in Africa, Europe, North America and the Asia-Pacific certainly brings a compelling international perspective to the ICD. His background in mediation, conflict management, and dialogue facilitation strengthens the Centre’s ability to address some of the great challenges facing the world today, while his proficiency in English, French, and Swahili allow him to expand the work of the ICD to marginalized groups in Australia and to troubled regions across the globe.


Keith Thompson – AustraliaAssociate Professor, School of Law, The University of Notre Dame Sydney

Keith Thompson is Associate Professor and Associate Dean at The University of Notre Dame Australia’s Sydney Law School, where he currently teaches Constitutional Law, Law and Religion, Civil Procedure, and Contemporary Legal Issues and supervises post-graduate dissertations. Previously he worked as a partner in a large commercial law firm and as Area Legal Counsel for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in the Pacific and then on the African continent for 20 years. He has published in legal history, evidence law, anti-corruption law, and vicarious liability in tort and insolvency law. He also published the text, Religious Confession Privilege and the Common Law (Brill) in 2011.

Canon Richard Tutin – AustraliaGeneral Secretary, Queensland Churches Together

The Revd Canon Richard Tutin is an Anglican priest. Ordained in 1977, he served in the parishes of St Luke’s Toowoomba, Bundaberg and Gin Gin before being appointed as Assistant Secretary of the Australian Board of Missions (ABM) for the Province of Queensland in 1982. He was appointed as Regional Representative for ABM in Queensland in 1984. In 1986, he moved to Tasmania as Rector of the Parish of Devonport, where he also served on a number of Diocesan and ecumenical bodies. Richard moved out of parish ministry when he was appointed as Lecturer in Biblical Studies at St John’s Theological College Morpeth near Maitland in New South Wales. He was Acting Principal in 1992 and then Vice Principal and Dean of Studies from 1992-98. In 1998 he returned to Queensland to become the Rector of St Luke’s Toowoomba. The stay in Toowoomba lasted until 2003 when he returned to Bundaberg where Richard was appointed as Rector. In 2008, Richard accepted the invitation of the Anglican Archbishop of Brisbane, the Most Reverend Dr Phillip Aspinall, to be his Chaplain with responsibility for Diocesan and Provincial matters. Richard became General Secretary in October 2011. He had previously been a member of the QCT Executive and was President from 2010-2011. He is a Residentiary Canon of St John’s Cathedral Brisbane and serves on Cathedral Chapter, and a member of the Ministry Education Commission and the Anglican Committee for Ecumenical Affairs. Richard has had extensive experience in ecumenical ministry and activities including as a broadcaster on Christian radio stations Rhema FM Newcastle and The Light Toowoomba. He holds a Bachelor of Divinity from the University of Queensland, a Masters in Professional Communications from the University of Southern Queensland, and a Masters in Theology from Charles Sturt University.

Andrew West - AustraliaPresenter, The Religion & Ethics Report, ABC Radio National

Andrew West is a journalist and broadcaster who currently presents The Religion & Ethics Report on Radio National (RN). He was a senior reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Sun-Herald, and The Australian and is the author of two books on Australian politics and culture, including a biography of the former Foreign Minister and NSW Premier Bob Carr. Andrew’s work has appeared in The Best


Australian Political Writing (MUP, 2008), The New York Times, The South China Morning Post, The Monthly and The Christian Science Monitor. He has been a regular fill-in host of two flagship RN programs, Late Night Live and Saturday Extra, and a correspondent for BBC Religion. Andrew is a graduate of the University of Sydney and Columbia University in New York City. In 2013, the alumni of the University of Sydney elected him a Fellow of the Senate, the university’s governing body.

Mohammed Abu-Nimer – AustriaSenior Advisor, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue Dialogue (KAICIID)

Prof. Mohammed Abu-Nimer is a Senior Advisor to KAICIID and a Professor at the School of International Service at American University. At the International Peace and Conflict Resolution program he served as Director of the Peacebuilding and Development Institute (1999-2013). He has conducted interreligious conflict resolution training and interfaith dialogue workshops in conflict areas around the world, including Palestine, Israel, Egypt, Chad, Niger, Iraq (Kurdistan), Philippines (Mindanao), and Sri Lanka. He also founded Salam Institute for Peace and Justice, an organization that focuses on capacity building, civic education, and intrafaith and interfaith dialogue. In addition to his numerous articles and books, Dr. Abu-Nimer is the co-founder and co-editor of the Journal of Peacebuilding and Development.

Naomi Hunt – AustriaFellow and Program Manager, Refugees in Europe; King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID)

Naomi Hunt is the Programme Manager leading the development of KAICIID’s program to support refugees in Europe. She previously managed projects in KAICIID’s media program, which aimed to strengthen reporting on religion and religious communities. Prior to joining KAICIID, Naomi worked in the fields of press freedom, freedom of expression, and media ethics in her role as a Senior Press Freedom Advisor at the International Press Institute (IPI) where she covered Africa and the Middle East. At IPI, she was the Chief Editor of Use with Care: A Reporter’s Glossary of Loaded Language in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, a guide written by six Israeli and Palestinian journalists to help navigate appropriate language to use when reporting on the conflict. She also worked at Radio Afrika, a media NGO that worked on migration and integration issues in Austria. Naomi has a master’s degree in advanced international studies from the Diplomatic Academy of Vienna/University of Vienna, and a bachelor’s degree in international relations and German language and literature from Boston University.


Michael Waltner – AustriaProgram Manager, Professional Development and Learning, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID)

Moise “Mike” Waltner serves as the Programme Manager of the Fellows Programme at KAIICID. Mr. Waltner holds a BA in Religious Studies from Pennsylvania State University and a Master of Divinity from the Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York. He is former Director of Operations at The Interfaith Centre of New York and has over ten years of experience working in both US and Europe in NGOs including: The Cathedral of St. Paul, Erie PA, Earth Force, The International Press Institute (IPI), and the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS). Mr. Waltner is a specialist in interfaith relations, religious outreach, and communications. He also brings with him a powerful pedigree of implementing and evaluating pioneering and collaborative multi-faith programs. He is ordained a priest in the Church of England.

Mohammed Jamouchi – BelgiumGeneral Secretary, Religions for Peace, Europe

Mohammed Jamouchi has been a professor in the public schools (Belgium), the Editor of two cultural magazines (Nouvelle Tribune in Brussels and La Médina in Paris), and a researcher at the State University in Ghent (Laboratory of Applied Epistemology at the Faculty of Philosophy and Moral Sciences). He is an Expert for ISESCO where he speaks on issues related to school and immigration. The author of many articles, he is particularly interested in the teaching of Islam in Europe. He was also Secretary of the European Commission Initiative A Soul for Europe, and a member of the GRIC (Islamic-Christian Research Group). He has long been invested in intercultural and interreligious dialogue. He is Secretary General of the World Conference of Religions for Peace (Belgium), a member of the Board of Religions for Peace (Europe), and an Administrator of Axcent which seeks to promote dialogue and a pluralistic and respectful culture.

Elizabeta Kitanović – BelgiumG20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Executive Secretary for Human Rights and Communication, Conference of European Churches

Mag. Elizabeta Kitanović is Executive Secretary for Human Rights of the Conference of European Churches in Brussels, editor of the Human Rights Training Manual for European Churches, and editor and founder of the first European Churches Human Rights Library and the CSC Annual Report (2007-2014). In 2009-2010, shWe was a member of the Advisory Panel of the EU Fundamental Rights Agency and was again nominated for 2012-2014. Ms Kitanović completed her studies in Theology and post-graduate studies in International Affairs at the Political Science Faculty in Belgrade. She graduated from the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Serbian Government. She is completing her PhD.


Draško T. Aćimović – Bosnia and HerzegovinaAmbassador of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Belgium

Draško T. Aćimović was appointed Ambassador of Bosnia Herzegovina to Belgium in early 2016. He studied in Austria and Bulgaria and is an expert in insurance affairs. He earned an MA at the Economic Faculty of the Svishtov State University in Bulgaria and a PhD at the State Mariopul University in Ukraine. He is a member of the UTA Academy in Ukraine. Drasko participated in the reform of the insurance markets in Eastern Europe and was a member of the Board of Governors of the Austrian Insurance Society. He headed the project involving the development of the biggest company in financial mediation in eastern Europe, Eurolife, for the Swiss OC Occident company in cooperation with giants like AiG (USA), Allianz (De), and others. He is the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Eurolife Group in Ukraine, partnered with Aegon of the Netherlands and PZU of Poland. He holds the St. Michael award for development of spiritual values awarded by the Patriarch of Ukraine, as well as several other awards. From 2011 to 2015 he was the Honorary Consul of Ukraine in Austria. Draško speaks five languages. In 2014 his novel The East is not that Close was published in Serbia.

James T. Christie – CanadaG20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Professor of Whole World Ecumenism and Dialogue Theology, University of Winnipeg

Dr. James Christie is Professor of Whole World Ecumenism and Dialogue Theology, former Dean of the Faculty of Theology, and Director of The Ridd Institute for Religion and Global Policy in the Global College of The University of Winnipeg. He has practiced congregational ministry in Montreal, New York State, Toronto, and Ottawa. He served on the Emmanuel College Council in Toronto; developed and taught short courses for Queen’s Theological College and the United Church of Canada in Faith, Culture and Politics. He was Theologian to the Justice Department of Canada Forum on Genetic Futures, and participated in the first Canadian Church Leaders’ Study Mission on HIV/AIDS to East Africa. He was a long-time director of both the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of Toronto and the Christian-Jewish Dialogue of the National Capital Region, and represented the Protestant world at the 49th World Eucharistic Congress of the Roman Catholic Church. He is Past President of the Canadian Council of Churches, and served as Secretary General of the 2010 Religious Leaders’ Summit, coinciding with the G8 political leaders’ summits. He is a member of the steering committee of the Interreligious Roundtable of Tony Blair’s Faith Foundation. A leader in the NGO movement for global democracy, UN reform and human rights, he chaired the Council of the World Federalist Movement/Institute for Global Policy (a 2002 Nobel Peace Prize nominee for leadership in the International Criminal Court Treaty).

Ana María Celis Brunet – ChileProfessor and Director, Center for Law and Religion, Faculty of Law, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile; President, International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies

Ana María Celis Brunet is Professor in the Faculty of Law of the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile (UC), where she teaches Canon Law and Law and Religion, as well as post graduate courses in different programs. She received her License


and Doctoral degree in Canon Law at the Pontificia Università Gregoriana (Rome, Italy) with the dissertation La relevancia canónica del matrimonio civil a la luz de la Teoría general del Acto jurídico, contribución teórica a la experiencia jurídica chilena. Professor Celis is an ecclesiastical lawyer before the Ecclesiastical Court of Santiago. She is Director of the Center for Law and Religion at UC, which began in 2005 as Centro de Libertad Religiosa, a center for studying Church-State matters and promoting religious freedom. She was the secretary and then President (2013-2016) of the Consorcio Latinoamericano de Libertad Religiosa (Latin American Consortium for Religious Freedom). She was elected President of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS) in September 2016.

Mussie Hailu Gebrestadik – EthiopiaGlobal Envoy of United Religions Initiative (URI) and Regional Director of URI for Africa & Representative to the UN and African Union

H.E. Ambassador Mussie Hailu is a peace activist who travels extensively throughout the world promoting peace, reconciliation, interfaith harmony, disarmament, world citizenship, constructive dialogue, environmental protection, and the Golden Rule as a guiding principle to enhance respect and human dignity. He also actively works against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in Africa. He has pioneered positive initiatives in Africa including an interfaith movement in his own country in Ethiopia and in many other African Countries. He took the initiative with the former President of Ethiopia to establish the Council of Former African Heads of States and Governments for Environmental Protection and Climate Change in Africa. Amb. Mussie Hailu introduced Golden Rule Day which is celebrated in over 100 counties to foster inter-religious and inter-cultural harmony and to build a culture of peace and constructive dialogue and respect. In addition, he drafted the Golden Rule Proclamation endorsed by organizations in over 120 countries.

Antti Pentikäinen – FinlandExecutive Director of the Secretariat and Convener of the Network for Religious and Traditional Peacemakers; Special Envoy for the Prime Minister of Finland for the Migration Crisis

Mr. Antti Pentikainen has extensive mediation experience in conflict zones and a long history of humanitarian work, including cooperation with UN agencies. He has been leading efforts to reach out to insurgencies in several conflict zones. In 1999, as Head of the European Student Unions, he supported Kosovo students and Serbian peace activists during the war in Kosovo. He became an Advisor to Finnish President Martti Ahtisaari, and co-founded the Crisis Management Initiative (CMI) where he led its finance and administration division. He became the Assistant Secretary General of the Helsinki Process, an initiative of the governments of Finland and Tania, which aimed to improve global governance. In 2004, he became Executive Director of Finn Church Aid (FCA), Finland’s largest development agency. During his leadership, FCA implemented conflict programs in a number of fragile states, and assisted traditional and religious communities to advance peace and development. He also served during 2010-2011 as Conflict Transformation Director of Religions for Peace. Prime Minister of Finland Juha Sippilä appointed Mr. Pentikäinen as his Special Envoy for the Migration Crisis in addressing the root causes.


H.E. Emmanuel Adamakis – FranceHis Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France, Ecumenical Patriarchate; Vice President of the Conference of European Churches

His Eminence, Metropolitan Emmanuel (Adamakis) of France studied Philosophy at the Institut Catholique de Paris, and Theology at the Orthodox Institute of Theology of Saint Serge, as well as courses at the École Pratique des Hautes-Études, and at the Institut Supérieur d’Études Œcuméniques de l’I.C.P. He obtained his Diplôme d’Études Approfondies (DEA) from the University of Sorbonne in Paris, and a Master of Theology (THM) from the Holy Cross Greek Orthodox School of Theology in the United States. He was ordained a deacon and priest in 1985. He served concurrently as Chancellor of the Orthodox Metropolis of Belgium, and as Dean of the Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel in Brussels. He was appointed Representative of the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Church and Society Commission of the Conference of the European Churches (CEC), and in 1995, Director of the Liaison Office of the Orthodox Church to the European Union, a role he still fulfills today. In 1996, he was elected Auxiliary Bishop to the Metropolis of Benelux, under the title of Bishop of Reghion. In 2001, the Ecumenical Patriarchate entrusted him with responsibilities for the International Interreligious Dialogue with the Monotheistic Religions, and in 2003, elected him Metropolitan of the Holy Metropolis of France. Over the past 14 years, as president of the Orthodox Episcopal Assembly in France, Metropolitan Emmanuel has tirelessly encouraged inter-orthodox cooperation. He is Co-President of the Council of Christian Churches of France, as well as Co-President of the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP). He has been a Member of the Central Committee of CEC since 2003. Metropolitan Emmanuel has been named “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” in France, among other Church and State distinctions.

Samir Akacha – FranceVice-President, Coexister Europe

Born in Algeria and raised in France from the age of seven, Samir Akacha grew up between two cultures and two languages and always felt the need to connect groups and people. He pursued non-formal education through European programs and journalism before getting involved with the French interfaith youth movement Coexister. He was in charge of his local group for two years before joining the InterFaith Tour, a special program which sends four young people of different faith and convictions around the world every two years to meet, document, and connect different interfaith initiatives working on peace building, art, solidarity, and education. He toured 32 countries in ten months with his mixed faith companions. Currently, he is Vice-President of Coexister Europe, helping develop groups in the UK, Germany, and Beligium. He is also launching a startup around the concept of happiness for different businesses.


Roland Bank – GermanySenior Legal Officer, Office of UN High Commissioner of Refugees

Roland Bank has been working with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) since 2005 where he currently is heading the protection unit of the Representation for Germany in Berlin. In the academic year 2012/13 and while on leave from UNHCR, he held the position of a Lecturer in International Human Rights Law and Refugee Law at the Refugee Studies Centre at the University of Oxford. Since 2011, he has been teaching international human rights and refugee law at the Hertie School of Governance in Berlin as a guest lecturer. Before joining UNHCR, he worked as the legal advisor of a German foundation carrying out a world-wide program of compensatory payments for victims of National Socialist injustice. He held academic positions in various institutions including the Max-Plank-Institute for Comparative Public and Public International Law in Heidelberg, the European University Institute in Florence and the Max-Planck-Institute for International Criminal Law in Freiburg. He studied law in Tübingen and Freiburg and holds a PhD from the University of Freiburg. He has published broadly on international human rights law and refugee law.

Peter Bender – GermanyGerman Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP); Member of the Steering Committee of Religions for Peace (RfP)

Dr. Peter Bender, political scientist and Roman Catholic theologian, has been working on religion and international relations for more than 20 years – in academia, research, journalism, interfaith dialogue, and politics. After his studies of Political Science, Theology, and Economics in Freiburg (Germany), Bordeaux (France), UCLA (Los Angeles), Georgetown (Washington DC), and Guadalajara (Mexico), and following internships at the United Nations in New York, in US politics in Washington DC, at the German General Consulate in Sao Paulo (Brazil), and at the German Federal Parliament in the then-time capital Bonn, he completed his PhD on Political Communication in the European Union (EU). Later he worked at the European Parliament in Brussels (dealing with Trade Policy and Constitutional Affairs), as a journalist for a Brussels news agency, as a university lecturer on EU-Muslim World relations and as a political advisor on religious affairs at the national headquarters of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) in Berlin. This year, as an expert for the ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen), he wrote a new study on Religion as a topic for German Foreign Policy to advise the German Foreign Office. Peter Bender is a member of the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and a member of the steering committee (GA) of Religions for Peace (RfP) Germany.

Saba Detweiler – GermanyRepresentative of the Bahá’í in Germany

Saba Detweiler is a Representative of the Bahá’i Community of Germany in its Office of External Affairs in Berlin. Her focus lies on topics related to migration and the role of religion in the public sphere in Germany. She has organized diverse gather-ings in collaboration with other NGOs and Human Rights Organizations for diverse stakeholders exploring questions related to how religion can contribute to social cohesion, how identity and belonging can be conceived beyond borders and notions


of exclusivity, or how a spirit of collaboration be a stepping stone for universal participation. Apart from her role in the Office of External Affairs Ms. Detweiler has been a board member of Beyond e.V. supporting projects in Papua New Guinea and China regarding primary education and women’s empowerment. Ms. Detweiler holds a Master’s degree in Political Science and Economics from Mannheim Uni-versity, Germany. Prior to her engagement in the Office of External Affairs of the Bahá’i Community of Germany she worked in the private sector with a Multinational company focusing on emerging markets.

Ottmar Edenhofer – GermanyDirector MCC, Chief Economist PIK/Potsdam

Prof. Dr. Ottmar Edenhofer is Director of the Mercator Research Institute on Global Commons and Climate Change (MCC), founded jointly by Stiftung Mercator and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK). He is professor of the Economics of Climate Change at the Technische Universität Berlin and Deputy Director as well as Chief Economist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. There he leads Research Domain III - Sustainable Solutions, which is focusing on research in the field of the Economics of Atmospheric Stabilisation. From 2008 to 2015 he served as Co-Chair of Working Group III of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Ottmar Edenhofer supports the Science-Industry Cooperation, the Workgroup Climate, Energy and Environment within the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina as an active member, and furthermore advises the World Bank within the advisory committee of the Green Growth Knowledge Platform. Since 2013 he is also co-chairing the new Energy Platform by the European Council of Academies of Applied Sciences, Technologies and Engineering (Euro-CASE). In January 2015, Ottmar Edenhofer was elected a member of the German National Academy of Science and Engineering acatech due to his outstanding scientific achievements. Until 2009 he was key climate change advisor to federal foreign minister and deputy-chancellor Frank-Walter Steinmeier. Professor Edenhofer studied Economics and Philosophy at the University of Munich and holds a diploma in Economics from Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität Munich (Prädikatsexamen) and a BA in Philosophy (“summa cum laude”) from the Munich School of Philosophy (Hochschule für Philosophie). He wrote his PhD thesis in Economics (“summa cum laude”) in 1999.

Kathy Ehrensperger – GermanyG20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee ; Research Professor, University of Potsdam

Kathy Ehrensperger holds a Research Professorship for New Testament in Jewish Perspective at the Abraham Geiger College, University of Potsdam. She is also the Coordinator of the Forum Religions in Context of the University of Potsdam, and Executive Director of the Encyclopedia of Jewish-Christian Relations. She has formerly taught New Testament Studies at the University of Wales, Trinity Saint David, UK after having served as a pastor of the Swiss Reformed Church in her hometown Basel, Switzerland for many years and been active in projects of Christian-Jewish relations there. She is the author of three monographs, most recently Paul at the Crossroads of Cultures: Theologizing in the Space-Between (2013), edited volumes and numerous articles.


Anja Fahlenkamp – GermanyG20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Founding Director, Faiths In Tune

Anja Fahlenkamp (BA Politics, MA International Relations), political scientist and social entrepreneur, founded the Faiths In Tune Initiative in 2011 at her University at the time, SOAS London. She has been organising annual London Interfaith Music Festivals since 2012 to promote interfaith respect and dialogue through music. Faiths In Tune has since grown to become an international interfaith movement with the London Festival moving to the famous British Museum in 2016, and with new festivals in Berlin (2016) and New York (forthcoming in 2018), and more festivals in future locations in progress. Anja has been acknowledged for her work with numerous awards and recognitions, and was invited to several international forums including the White House to speak about her work. In 2014 she was made an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow, and an ACWAY Fellow in 2015. Besides her festival work she has worked for several political and government institutions and NGOs in Germany and the UK. She is politically and socially engaged to improve the conditions of migrants and refugees in Germany. The mother of three lives in a multicultural interfaith marriage in Berlin, raises her children trilingually, and loves singing, learning languages, and travelling with her family.

Frerich Görts – GermanyG20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Undersecretary Retd., National Director of Public Affairs, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day SaintsFrerich Görts is the National Director of Public Affairs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter is the National Director of Public Affairs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter is the National Director of Public Affairs of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in Germany. He was educated in West Germany, studied law at the universities of Marburg (GE), Geneva (CH) and Bonn (GE). After his Bar Exam he held several posts at the Federal Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, including State Secretary in the Federal Government. Later he became a Member of the Management Board of Deutsche Telekom, followed by the position of CEO of DeTeImmobilien. Frerich Görtshas served as Bishop, Stake President, Area Seventy, and in many other assignments of the Church. He also has been appointed as the Church`s Liaison to the European Union.

Oliver Günther – GermanyPresident, University of Potsdam

Oliver Günther is President of the University of Potsdam. He holds a Diploma in Industrial Engineering from the University of Karlsruhe, and MS and PhD degrees in Computer Science from the University of California at Berkeley. Before becoming assistant professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara in 1988, he worked as a post-doc at the International Computer Science Institute (ICSI). From 1989 till 1993 he held a leading position at FAW Ulm (de) (Forschungsinstitut für anwendungsorientierte Wissensverarbeitung). Since 1984 Günther is a member of the German Informatics Society (GI) and the Association of Computer Science (ACM). From 2012 until 2014 he served as GI President. From 1993 until 2011 Oliver Günther was Professor of Information Systems at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin. From 2006 until 2011 he also served as Dean of Humboldt’s School of Business and Economics. He was elected President of the University of Potsdam


effective 2012. In May 2014 he received an honorary doctorate from American Jewish University. Professor Günther has conducted research projects in the areas of enterprise information systems, IT strategy, security and privacy, digital asset management, collaborative software, database management, as well as geographic and environmental information systems. He has published broadly on these subjects and has been associate editor of numerous academic journals. He has held visiting faculty positions at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin, the École Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications and the Pôle Universitaire Léonard de Vinci in Paris, the University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Cape Town. Oliver Günther has served as a consultant and board member to various government agencies and high-tech companies. Commissioned by the German Ministry of the Interior, he currently coordinates the foundation of a business process library for the German public administration.

Johann Ev. Hafner – GermanyChairman, University of Potsdam

Prof. Dr. Johann Ev. Hafner is a Professor of Religious Studies with a focus on Christianity at the University of Potsdam, a position he has held since 2004. His research interests include Revolutionary Christianity in the Philippines, Low transcendence: angels and mediators, Religious groups in Potsdam, and system theory, among others. He has published many articles in his field. He studied philosophy and theology in Augsburg, Munich, and Vigan (Philippines), and earned a Doctorate in Philosophy in 1995. From 1990-2002, he was Assistant to the Chair of Pastoral Theology at the University of Augsburg. Prof. Dr. Hafner was a 1996/1997 Visiting lecturer at the University of Dayton (USA), and a Visiting researcher at the University of Southern California Los Angeles from 2015-2016. In 2001 he earned Habilitation for Systematic Theology, and became a Deacon in 2005. He served as Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy from 2010-2014.

Arntraud Hartmann – GermanyAdjunct Professor of International Development, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies EuropeArntraud Hartmann is Adjunct Professor of International Development, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies Europe. She is a Visiting Professor at Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. She has been a Consultant to a variety of organizations including the Brookings Institution, IFAD, the IMF, and the World Bank. She is the former Senior Manager at the World Bank. Other positions at the World Bank include Senior Advisor to the Managing Director; Country Director for southeast European countries; and Chief of Mission to Romania. She was a research fellow at the UNICEF International Child Development Center. She earned a PhD in Law from the University of Hamburg, and an MA in Economics from the American University. Hartmann is co-author of the following Brookings Institution Working Papers: “Scaling Up Programs for the Rural Poor: IFAD’s Experience, Lessons and Prospects (Phase 2), (2013); “Scaling up the Fight Against Rural Poverty: An Institutional Review of IFAD’s Approach,” (2010); and “Scaling up: A Framework and Lessons for Development Effectiveness from Literature and Practice,” (2008). She also wrote “Strategies for Peace and Prosperity in the Balkans” in Journal for Constitutional Studies (2001), and numerous World Bank studies, including the influential “The Road to Stability and Prosperity in South Eastern Europe” (2000).


Peter Jörgensen– GermanyG20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Representative of the Organization of Protestant Free Churches with the German Government

Peter Jörgensen is the Representative of the Organization of Protestant Free Churches with the German Government since September 2007. He has been working as a pastor of a Baptist Church in Berlin Wedding since 2003. He also spent nine years as a pastor in the Baptist youth movement in northern Germany, and was on the board of the social-diaconic Jesus Center, Hamburg / St. Pauli. He studied theology at the Theological Seminary of the Federation of Protestant Churches in Hamburg from 1985-1990, and completed a Vikariat in Bochum from 1990-1993.

Daniel Legutke – GermanyG20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Desk Officer Human Rights Department, German Commission of Justice and Peace

Daniel Legutke is Desk Officer Human Rights for the German Commission of Justice and Peace. He has served in this position from 2007 to the present. He previously was a Referee for Ecumenical Church Day. He earned a Master of Arts in Early Modern History and a Doctor in Philosophy from Humboldt Universität Berlin.

Jad Lehmann-Abi-Haidar – GermanyRepresentative of Dialogperspektiven, Religionen und Weltanschauungen im Gespräch

Jad Lehmann-Abi-Haidar participates in the conference as a representative of Dialogperspektiven: Religionen und Weltanschauungen im Gespräch (Dialogue: Religion and Worldviews in Conversation), a program of the Jewish Ernst Ludwig Ehrlich Studienwerk (ELES) for the establishment of new forms of interreligious and ideological dialogue, aimed at scholarship holders in programs promoted and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Jad, who has Lebanese roots, is a graduate of Gymnasium Ernestinum in Coburg. While waiting for an opportunity to follow his passion to study medicine, he spent a voluntary social year at the Bavarian Red Cross, and became a paramedic and worked at the palliative station of the Coburg Clinic. He also worked in Rwanda for the non-profit organization Wikiwi-heba, which was founded in 2003 by members of the Presbyterian Church in Byumba.

Ramin Khabirpour – GermanyFormer Vice President, Danone Europe; CEO, Khabirpour Consulting

Born in Tehran and raised in Luxembourg, Ramin Khabirpour is, in many ways, a child of both the orient and the occident. Having lived in over a dozen cities across seven countries gave him a heightened appreciation of diverse cultures, values, and


mentalities. He has 30 years of fast moving consumer goods experience including General Manager for the Kraft business in Hungary and for Danone in Poland. From 2009 until 2013 Khabirpour managed the Danone Central Europe business as Vice President for the region and was a member of the world wide Danone Dairy Board. Since 2013, he has served as a non-executive member of diverse company boards and runs a private consultancy supporting companies in different management fields. With Danone, he helped create the company’s first social business model in Poland, initiating the creation of a ‘partnership of health’: bringing together businesses with governmental organizations and NGO’s and developing specific products aimed at those families struggling for food. Since 2013 he has run an Agricultural business in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Elke Loebel – GermanyDeputy General Director of Migration and Refugees, Federal Ministry of Cooperation and Development

Rachel McCave – GermanyMA Student, Institute for Intercultural Diplomacy

Rachel McCave is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in International Relations and Cultural Diplomacy through a joint partnership between Hochschule Furtwangen University and the Institute for Cultural Diplomacy in Berlin, Germany. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Anthropology, French, and International Politics from New York University. She has four years of professional and academic experiences in the field of international relations and development, particularly with a focus on women’s issues, youth, and education. This experience includes working for the Virtual Student Foreign Service in Berlin under the US Department of State, serving as a Community Solutions Program Intern for IREX, as an intern for United Nations Population Fund, as a Women’s Rights intern for The Temple of Understanding, and as an Education Marketing intern for the British Council.

Ulrich Nitschke – GermanyHead of Sector Program Values for Religion and Development, German Society for International Cooperation; Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ); Head of the Secretariat for the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development (PaRD)

Ulrich Nitschke currently serves as the head of Sector Programme Values for Religion and Development at the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, as well as the head of PaRD Secretariat for the International Partnership on Religion and Sustainable Development. Previously, he was the head of the Local Governance and Civil Society Development Program and Future for Palestine at GIZ Palestine and the chairperson of the GIZ’s Sector Network


Governance for the Middle East and North Africa region. Between 2001 and 2008 he held several managerial positions in the fields of municipal development, capacity-building, and political development education. Nitschke holds degrees in theology and philosophy from Fribourg University and a MA in political science, economics, sociology, and development from Aachen and Cologne.

Gerhard Robbers – GermanyG20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Professor Emeritus, Universität Trier; Former Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection of Rhineland-Palatinate

Prof. Dr. Gerhard Robbers received his doctoral degree in law in 1978 and obtained his final law degree in 1980 in Freiburg. From 1981-1984 he served as law clerk to the President of the German Federal Constitutional Court. In 1986 he obtained his habilitation in law. From 1988 to 1989 he was professor of law at the University of Heidelberg. Between 1989 and late 2014 he was Professor for Public Law at the University of Trier, where he was the Director of the Institute for European Constitutional Law and the Director of the Institute for Legal Policy at the University of Trier. In 2003-2004 he was president of the European Consortium of Church and State Research, of which he is a member. He is also member of the Advisory Council for Freedom of Religion at ODIHR/OSCE. He served as judge at the Constitutional Court of the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, and between November of 2014 and May 2016 he was the state’s Minister of Justice and Consumer Protection. Professor Robbers’ primary areas of research have been law and religion, constitutional law, and international public law. He has been an advisor to several national governments and international organizations. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS) and a Founding Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. He has been an Executive Board Member of the German Protestant Church Congress (2007-2013) and was President of the 34th Congress (2013).

Gary B. Sabin – GermanyEurope Area Presidency, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Elder Gary B. Sabin is a member of the Europe Area President for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He previously served a as a member of the Fifth Quorum of the Seventy in the North America West Area. He received a bachelor’s degree in University Studies/Finance, and later received a Master’s degree in Management from Stanford University. He has worked as a chairman/CEO for several companies, including Excel Realty Trust and Price Legacy. He most recently worked for Excel Realty Holdings and Excel Trust.

Patrick Schnabel – GermanyG20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee; Representative Evangelische Kirche Berlin-Brandenburg-schlesische Oberlausitz, Kirchlicher Entwicklungsdienst

Patrick Roger Schnabel studied Protestant theology in Bethel near Bielefeld. After the intermediate examination he moved to St Mary’s College, University of St Andrews, where he graduated in 2000 as Master of Theology (Hons, 1rst Class). He


completed his Theological Examination in 2003 after the main studies in Göttingen with the Ev.-luth. Landeskirche of Hannover. He completed the municipal vicariate in Garbsen near Hanover and the Second Theological Examination in the Loccum monastery. The entire course was completed by Ev. Studienwerk eV, Villigst. In 2005-2006 Schnabel worked as a doctor at Ev. Institut für Kirchenrecht, where he continued his studies of church and state church law in Göttingen focusing on the dialogue between churches and the European Union in accordance with Article 17 III TFEU. The work was defended on the 29th of August 2012, the doctorate completed with the overall grade “magna cum laude”. Mr. Schnabel was then promoted by the faculty and the two church law institutes as doctor of both rights (Dr. iur. Utr.). In 2007-2011 Rev. Schnabel worked for the Brussels office of the Council of the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD Office in Brussels). He became Deputy Head and Legal Advisor in 2008. In September 2011, Rev. Schnabel moved to the Protestant Church of Berlin-Brandenburg-Schlesische Oberlausitz. Until 2013 he worked as pastor in the posting service in the ev. Wittstock-Ruppin and the Ev. Institute for Church Law at the University of Potsdam. In 2014 he took the position of the Land Commissioner for the Church Development Service in the Berlin Missionswerk.

Peter Spiegel – GermanyCEO, Genisis Institute for Social Innovation and Impact Strategies

Peter Spiegel is the founder and CEO of GENISIS Institute for Social Innovation, and Initiator and Head of the Vision Summit (since 2007), an annual international conference format for visionary socio-political future concepts. He is the Program Director of the EduAction Education Summit 2016, discoverer of Megatrends WeQ, and co - founder and general secretary of the WeQ Foundation For All. He is the author, co-author, editor, and ghostwriter of 30 books and has made numerous other book contributions. He is the Social Innovation Officer of the Senate of Business Germany, and was formerly General Secretary of the Club of Budapest International. He has given numerous lectures and participated in many international conferences in addition to taking part in the conception and organization of many international conferences and events.

Luise Steinwachs – GermanyHead of the Unit for Basic Services and Food Security, Brot für die Welt

Since 2015, Luise Steinwachs has been head of the Unit for Basic Services and Food Security. In 2013 she became a social security adviser for bread for the world. She studied sociology and promoted social security in Tanzania in 2004. Afterwards, she worked for several years as a development policy consultant for the Society for International Cooperation, the International Labor Organization (ILO) and the Evangelical Development Service, especially in African countries. She also worked in the areas of global learning and international school partnerships as well as a trainer in intercultural cooperation.


Dietmar Woidke – GermanyMinisterpräsident, State of Brandenburg

Dietmar Woidke is a German politician of the Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD). Since 28 August 2013, he has been Minister President of the State of Brandenburg and, as of 26 August 2013, President of the SPD Brandenburg. Prior to that, he served as chairman of the SPD in the state parliament of Brandenburg from November 2009 to October 2010, and from October 2010 to August 2013 as Minister of the Interior of Brandenburg. He first joined the SPD in 1993 and was first elected to the state parliament in 1994.

Yannis Ktistakis – GreeceAssistant Professor, Demokritus University of Thrace; Faculty of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University

Yannis Ktistakis is a lawyer-senior partner in Ktistakis & Associates Law Firm, and Assistant Professor of Public International Law both at the Faculty of Law, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini (Greece) and at the Faculty of Political Science and International Relations, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul (Turkey). He is the legal advisor of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Former memberships include the Executive Board of EUMC, the Greek Equal Treatment Committee, the National Commission for Human Rights and the Secretary General of the Greek League for Human Rights (NGO). He has over 35 publications on issues related to immigration law, religious freedom, Islamic Law, protection of human rights and the jurisprudence of the ECHR. Professor Ktistakis has successfully defended 53 cases before the European Court of Human Rights and one collective complaint before the European Committee of Social Rights. He is fluent in Greek (mother tongue), English and French.

Nikos Maghioros – GreeceAssistant Professor of Canon and Ecclesiastical Law, Faculty of Theology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Nikos Maghioros is Assistant Professor of Canon and Ecclesiastical Law in the Faculty of Theology of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He studied Theology at Aristotle University and Canon Law at Pontifical Lateran University. He teaches Orthodox Canon and Ecclesiastical Law, Sources of Canon Law, Inter-Christian Canon Law, and Church and State relations in Greece and in the European Union, and Religion and Human Rights. He is working for the ecumenical movement and communication between religions. He organized and participated in various meetings and congresses relative to inter-Christian dialogue and on the relations between Religion and State. He coordinates Erasmus projects, and he is member of the Commission on European Projects of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. Professor Maghioros is also a member of the Consociatio Internationalis Studio Iuris Canonici Promovendo, and of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies. He speaks Greek, English, Italian and French. His main publications are: Constantine the Great and the Donatist Crisis. A Study on the relation between Church and state during the reign of Constantine, Thessaloniki, 2001, “L’Église catholique romaine et l’État en Grèce. Une approche canonique –juridique”, in L’Année Canonique, 45 (2003); “State and Church in Greece: ‘to reform or not to reform?’”, in Droit et Religions, Annuaire, Vol. 2 t. 1 (2006-2007); Spiritualità e


tradizione canonica orientale», in Studia et Documenta Historiae et Iuris, Rome, 73 (2007); The Patrimonial Law of the Roman Catholic Church (De bonis Ecclesiae temporalibus.), Thessaloniki 2007.

Tahir Mahmood – IndiaG20 Interfaith Summit International Organizing Committee; Distinguished Jurist Chair; Professor of Eminence and Chair, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, Amity University, New Delhi; Founding President, South Asia Consortium for Religion and Law Studies

Dr. Tahir Mahmood had his higher legal education in England and is a senior Law Professor of India with a teaching and research career of over half a century. He spent about three decades in Delhi University and served as Dean of its Law Faculty. In 2003 he moved to Amity University where he holds the positions of Distinguished Jurist Chair, Professor of Eminence, and Chairman of the Institute of Advanced Legal Studies. He has been on deputation to the Government of India as Chairman of the National Minorities Commission and Member of the National Human Rights Commission, National Commission for Backward Classes among Minorities, and Law Commission of India. His major interests are in religion-state relations, Islamic law and other family laws. His many publications include Laws of India on Religion and Religious Affairs (2008), Religion, Law and Society across the Globe (2013), and Muslim Law in India and Abroad (2nd edn 2016). His books on family laws have been cited in a large number of judgments of the Supreme Court and various High Courts of India. He is a member of the Steering Committee of Italy-based International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies, and Editorial Board of the Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (KA University, Saudi Arabia). He is the recipient of the Shah Waliullah Award for Contemporary Understanding of Islamic Law (India 2009), and the Distinguished Academic Services Award (US, 2010). He is the founding President of the South Asia Consortium for Religion and Law Studies (SACRALS), established in India in January 2017.

Faizan Mustafa – IndiaG20 Interfaith Summit International Organizing Committee; Vice-Chancellor, NALSAR University of Law

Prof. Dr. Faizan Mustafa is the Vice-Chancellor of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India. He was the founder Vice-Chancellor of National Law University, Orissa. He has served as Dean, Faculty of Law, Aligarh Muslim University and Registrar of AMU. He is a gold medalist LLM from Aligarh Muslim University. He completed his PhD in Copyright Law. He also has a diploma in International and Comparative Human Rights from International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg, France. He has authored several books and some 100 national and international papers. He has worked in unexplored areas such as Religious Conversion Laws, Strict Liability Law, and Freedom of Information Law.


Abbas Panakkal – IndiaDirector of International relations, Ma’din Academy; 2016 International Fellow, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID)

Dr. Abbas Panakkal is the director of International relations at Ma’din Academy Malappuram, Kerala, India. Dr. Panakkal holds a PhD on “Moderate Society of Malabar” awarded by the International Islamic University Malaysia, and a masters in communication and journalism and English language and literature from Indian universities. He was a 2016 International Fellow, KAICIID.

Ali Nasser Muthanna – IraqRegional Manager, AMAR International Charitable Foundation

Dr. Ali Nasser Muthanna has held the position of the AMAR International Charitable Foundation Regional Manager since June 2014. He was the Iraq Country Manager of AMAR ICF from 20 April 2003 to 12 June 2014. Before 2013, he worked as a Medical Doctor, and as a Manager of a Health Centre in a Refugee Camp relevant to the AMAR ICF. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Medicine and General Surgery from the University of Basra. He is a Member of the Iraqi Medical Association. He completed training courses in Health Management, Health Management in Reproductive Healthcare Services from the Faculty of Health Sciences, The American University in Beirut, Lebanon, and in Qualitative Research Methodology in Romania. He is a member of the administrative committee of the Marsh Bulletin, a scientific journal issued by the Basra College of Science, Marine Science Centre, and the AMAR International Charitable Foundation. He is also a member of the organizing committees of many scientific conferences of the Basra College of Science and Marine Science Centre at the University of Basra.

Asher Maoz – IsraelDean, Peres Academic Center Law School

Professor Asher Maoz is the Founding Dean of the Peres Academic Center Law School. He was for many years on the Faculty of Law at Tel-Aviv University, where he taught Constitutional Law, State and Religion, Freedom of Speech, Family Law, and Succession Law. Professor Maoz holds the degrees LLB and LLM, both summa cum laude (Hebrew University), M Comp L (University of Chicago), JSD (Tel-Aviv University), and Doctor Honoris Causa (Ovidius University, Romania). He is the founding Editor-in-Chief of Law, Society and Culture; a former editor of the Tel-Aviv University Law Review; a member of the Scientific Board, Review Dionysina; a member of the Academic Council of The International Academy for Jewish Leadership; and a member of the Academic Council, Shalem College, Jerusalem. Maoz was Chair of the Law Commission for Journalists’ Privileges; served as academic advisor to the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee on adopting a constitution for the State of Israel; and serves with many other organizations. He has taught at several universities in the United States, Europe, and Australia, and is the author of numerous publications on the intersections of law and religion. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS).


Shimon Shetreet – IsraelGreenblatt Chair of Public and International Law, Hebrew University Law School

Professor Shimon Shetreet is a Professor of Law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. He holds the Greenblatt Chair of Public and International Law and is the head of the Sacher Institute of Legislative Research and Comparative Law. He earned an LLB and an LLM from the Hebrew University as well as a Masters and a Doctorate degree from the University of Chicago School of Law. He served as Visiting Professor at a number of Universities including Case Western Reserve University School of Law, University of Manitoba, Wuerzburg University, the University of San Diego, and the New York School of Law. Professor Shetreet appeared before the Supreme Court of Israel in a number of landmark cases. He was Member of the Chief Justice Landau Commission on the Israeli Court System, 1980; was a Founder Secretary General of the Public Law Association (1987 - 1992); and a Judge on the Standard Contract Court (1981-88). He is President of the Israeli Chapter of the International Association of Constitutional Law. He is the author and editor of a number of books and articles in legal journals and law reviews. His works have been used in numerous high court cases including by the House of Lords in the Pinochet Case in January 1999. Professor Shetreet has served as Speaker, General Rapporteur, and Chairman in numerous legal international conferences including serving as General Coordinator, International Bar Association Project for Minimum Standards of Judicial Independence,1980-1982. Between 1988 and 1996 he served as a Member of the Knesset. He also served as a Cabinet Minister in the Rabin Government including as Minister of Religious Affairs. He was a member of the board of Bank Leumi and Chairman of the Board of Mishaan.

Peter Ciaccio – ItalyPastor, Waldensian Church

Peter Ciaccio, an Italian Methodist pastor, serves a Waldensian congregation in Palermo (Sicily). He is also a film critic and has written several books, most recently The Gospel According to Star Wars.

Claudia Pizzuti – ItalyNational Head of the Youth Section of Comunita Religios Isalmica Italiana, Islam-ic Religious Community in Italy; President of Youth Programs, A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY)

Sanaa Claudia Pizzuti graduated in Foreign Languages and Literature at the University of Milan and has worked for Halal Italia, a company that certifies Italian excellence in the food, financial and cosmetic sectors for Islamic majority markets in the world, since 2015. Since January she has been National Head of the “Youth Section” of COREIS, Islamic Religious Community in Italy, which has been active for several years in the organization of interreligious meetings at various Italian universities in collaboration with the UGEI (Union of Young Jews in Italy) and the FUCI (Italian Catholic University Federation). Since December 2015 she plays the role of ACWAY Ambassador in Italy. She recently spoke at the 2017 conference “Muslim Women between religion and cultural traditions”, and as an ACWAYambassador, has participated in meeting in Morocco and Australia as well as planning events in 2015 for the “Teofania” project.


Alberto Quattrucci – ItalySecretary General of Peoples and Religions, Sant’Egidio Community, Italy

Alberto Quattrucci studied Pedagogy at the Faculty of Magistero in Rome and Theology at the Gregoriana Pontifical University (specializing in Holy Scripture). In 1976, he was awarded “Educator of Special Communities”. He has been actively engaged in several social and cultural fields, as History of Religions and Interfaith Dialogue. For many years, he has been involved as a member of the Community of Sant’Egidio in Rome. The Community of Sant’Egidio is recognized as an International Public Lay Association of the Catholic Church by the Pontifical Council for Laity since 1986. He was ordered as Permanent Deacon in 1988, and, since the same year, has been Secretary General of International Meetings Peoples and Religions, an association founded by the Community of Sant’Egidio to promote mutual knowledge and dialogue among Religions.

Marco Ventura – ItalyProfessor of Law and Religion, University of Siena

Marco Ventura is a full professor in law and religion at the Law Department of the University of Siena (Italy) and the director of the Centre for Religious Studies at the Fondazione Bruno Kessler in Trento (Italy). After a PhD at the University of Stras-bourg, he visited the universities of London (UCL), Oxford, Strasbourg, Brussels (ULB), the Indian Law Institute in Delhi, the University of Cape Town, and Al Akha-wayn University in Morocco. From 2012 to 2015 he was a professor at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. His last book is From Your Gods to Our Gods. A History of Religion in British, Indian and South African Courts (Cascade Books, 2014). From 2013 to 2015 he visited Vietnam as an expert in the dialogue between the European Union and the Vietnamese Committee on Religious Affairs.

Yoshinobu Miyake – JapanSuperior General, Konko Church of Izuo

Rt. Rev. Yoshinobu Miyake, born into a well-known family of Shinto priests in the broad church of Konko-kyo, a reformed Shinto movement, is today Director-General of the Konko Church of Izuo, in Osaka. He studied at Doshisha University in Kyoto and at Harvard, and publishes frequently on Shinto history. For the past 30 years he has been active worldwide in the interfaith field. In 1997 he established RELNET Corporation, whose website publishes widely on religion-related matters in Japanese. Most recently he served as General Secretary of the G8 Religious Leaders Summit (2008).


Robert Smith – JerusalemDirector, Jerusalem Global Gateway, University of Notre Dame, Jerusalem

Robert O. Smith was appointed Director of the Jerusalem Global Gateway in October of 2014. He holds concurrent faculty appointments in the Keough School of Global Affairs and in the Department of Theology. Before coming to Notre Dame, Smith served for eight years in the Global Mission Unit of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), overseeing church engagement in Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa. Prior to being called to this national role, Smith had served as Lutheran Campus Pastor for the University of Chicago. Smith is author of More Desired than Our Owne Salvation: The Roots of Christian Zionism (Oxford, 2013) and editor, with Swedish scholar Göran Gunner, of Comprehending Christian Zionism: Perspectives in Comparison (Fortress, 2014). For six years, Smith and Gunner co-led the Seminar on Christian Zionism within the American Academy of Religion. A graduate of Oklahoma State University, Smith holds an MA in Islamic studies and a Master’s of divinity from Luther Seminary (St. Paul, Minnesota). He completed a PhD in religion, politics and society through Baylor University’s Institute of Church-State Studies.

Nabil Haddad – JordanFounder and Director, Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center ( JICRC); Dean, Saints Peter and Paul Old Cathedral

Fr. Nabil Haddad, Dean of Saints Peter and Paul Old Cathedral in Jabal El-Weibdeh, Amman, a Greek Melkite Catholic Church, is the Founder and CEO of the Jordanian Interfaith Coexistence Research Center ( JICRC). He has brought JICRC to the forefront for discussing the issues of tolerance, coexistence, religious freedom, interfaith dialogue, human dignity, human rights, women’s empowerment, and the rights of children and minorities in the Middle East and in the Arab world. He uses his vast experience as an Arab Christian in tandem with The Amman Message, The Common Word, and World Interfaith Harmony Week Initiative calling for tolerance and cooperation between Muslims and Christians to promote peace. He served as the Director of Rights and Humanity International at the Jordan Project and as Chairperson of the Justice, Peace and Human Rights Committee for the Middle East Council of Churches (MECC), as Director General for Caritas Jordan, and as a Member of the Caritas MENA Executive Committee. He is a past member of The Royal Commission for Human Rights appointed by His Majesty Abdullah II, who awarded him the Independence Order of the First Class. He received the Joint Service Achievement Medal from the U.S. Secretary of Defense. He was elevated to the Title of Ekonomos and is a Member, Royal Commission of the Baptism Site at the River Jordan; Chairman, Greek Catholic Welfare Society; Secretary General, Arab Group Against Emigration of Arab Christians; Member & Jordan representative, Assembly of Eastern Christians (Beirut headquarters).

Nicta M. Lubaale – KenyaGeneral Secretary, Organization of African Independent Churches

Originally from Uganda, the Rev. Nicta Lubaale has been since 2007 the General Secretary of the Organization of African Instituted Churches (OAIC) based in Nairobi, Kenya. He served as the Director for Development and HIV/AIDS Programme of the OAIC and as a Pastor with the Centre for Evangelism in Uganda for 13 years. He has been involved in mobilizing and training church leaders from OAIC member churches to particapte in an holistic mission – where the church responds to development issues in the context of mission. He holds an MA in development studies from the University of Reading (UK).


Ahmed Shaheed – MaldivesUnited Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief

On 1 November 2016, Ahmed Shaheed assumed his mandate as Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief. He is Deputy Director of the Essex Human Rights Centre. He was the first Special Rapporteur of the Human Rights Council on the situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran since the termination of the previous Commission on Human Rights mandate in 2002. A career diplomat, he has twice held the office of Minister of Foreign Affairs of Maldives. He led Maldives’ efforts to embrace international human rights standards between 2003 and 2011. He holds a PhD in International Relations from the University of Queensland, Australia, and a BScEcon (with Honors) in International Politics and Strategic Studies form the University College of Wales, Aberystwyth, UK.

Sophie van Bijsterveld – NetherlandsSenator, Dutch Upper House of Parliament; Professor of Religion, Law and Society, Radboud University

Prof. Dr. S.Ch. Sophie Christine van Bijsterveld graduated in law at the University of Utrecht and received a doctorate in Law at Tilburg University. She was Assistant Professor of Constitutional and Administrative Law, Associate Professor of European and International Public Law, and Professor of Religion, State and Society at Tilberg’s School of Humanities. Since September 2014, she has been Professor of Religion, Law and Society at the Radboud University in Nijmegen. She has lectured and published extensively in the fields of (international) human rights protection, religious liberty, constitutional law, and hybrid governance, with more than 200 publications to her credit. Since June 2007 she has been a member of the Dutch Upper House of Parliament [Eerste Kamer der Staten-Generaal] for the Christian Democratic Party (CDA). She was a Member of the Board of the Scientific Institute of the CDA from 2008-2015 and was a founding editor of the Dutch Journal of Religion, Law and Policy.

Christo Greyling - NetherlandsSenior Director, Church and Faith Partnerships for Development, World Vision International

Christo Greyling is the Senior Director of Faith Partnerships for Development at Channels of Hope, and the co-originator of the Channels of Hope methodology. Today, Greyling manages the scale-up and integration of all Channels of Hope models across the World Vision partnership. He serves as Co-chair on the Joint Learning Initiative’s learning hub on HIV and Maternal New Born and Child Health (MNCH), and is a member of the Capacity Building Hub at the Joint Learning Initiative on Faith and Local Communities ( JLI F&LC). Greyling holds a post graduate degree in Theology from the University of Stellenbosch and a Master’s Degree in Public Heath from the Medical University of Southern Africa.


Awraham Soetendorp – NetherlandsPresident, Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values

Rabbi Soetendorp is founder and president of the Jacob Soetendorp Institute for Human Values. Born in 1943 in Amsterdam, he was saved by a righteous couple and survived as a “hidden child”. Soetendorp was instrumental in the reestablishment of Jewish communities in the Netherlands, he was active in the movement to free Soviet Jewry, and he was a member of the World Council for Soviet Jewry. He is the rabbi emeritus of congregation Beth Jehuda in The Hague and former president of the European region of the World Union for Progressive Judaism. Soetendorp is a founding member of Green Cross International and founder and chair of the Day of Respect Foundation, as well as the Hope for Children Fund which promotes universal education for children. He serves as an Earth Charter Commissioner and a Millennium Development Ambassador. Soetendorp is a founding member of the Islam and the West dialogue group, formerly C100, of the World Economic Forum and co-president of GIWA, the Global Interfaith Wash Alliance. In 1994, Soetendorp was honored by Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands with the Royal Distinction as an Officer of the House of Orange. He has received the Peacebuilders Award from The Alliance for International Conflict Prevention and Resolution in 2005, the Peace through Dialogue Interfaith Gold Medallion from the International Council of Christian and Jews in 2007, and the James Parks Morton Interfaith Award from the Interfaith Center of New York in 2008.

Erin Wilson – NetherlandsAssociate Professor Politics and Religion, Centre for Religion, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies; Conflict and the Public Domain, University of Groningen

Erin K. Wilson is Director of the Centre for Religion, Conflict and the Public Domain and Associate Professor of Politics and Religion, Faculty of Theology and Religious Studies, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. Her research is positioned at the intersection of religious studies and International Relations, with particular interest in the impact of secular worldviews in areas of global justice, human rights, forced migration, development and gender, and the development of alternative theoretical frames beyond ‘religious’ and ‘secular’. Her books include The Refugee Crisis and Religion: Secularism, Security and Hospitality in Question (co-edited with Luca Mavelli, Rowman and Littlefield International 2016), After Secularism: Rethinking Religion in Global Politics (Palgrave 2012), and Justice Globalism: Ideology, Crisis, Policy (with Manfred B. Steger and James Goodman, Sage 2013). She has co-edited The religious as political and the political as religious: the blurring of sacred and secular in contemporary International Relations (Special Issue of Politics Religion Ideology), and her articles have appeared in International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Refugee Studies, Globalizations, Politics Religion Ideology and Global Society.


Elias Szcytnicki – PeruSecretary General and Regional Director Religions for Peace Latin America and the Caribbean

Elias Szczytnicki has extensive and distinguished experience in inter-religious relations. Since 2004, he is the Secretary General of the Latin American and Caribbean Council of Religious Leaders (LACCRL) and the Director of the Latin American and Caribbean Regional Office of Religions for Peace. As LACCRL Secretary General, Mr. Szczytnicki organizes high level meetings of religious leaders with important international personalities, such as Pope Francis, and represents the LACCRL in various meetings of the United Nations and their agencies, the Organization of American States (OAS), the Ibero-American General Secretariat (SEGIB) and the World Economic Forum (WEF). Mr. Szczytnicki comes to Religions for Peace after serving as Secretary of the Interfaith Committee of Peru. He also has been a Member of the National Executive Committee of the Consensus-Building Table on the Fight against Poverty of Peru and a Lecturer in Judaism at the Center of Oriental Studies of the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru (PUCP). Mr. Szczytnicki holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the PUCP. Elias is also a graduate of the Certificate on Jewish Nonprofit Management at the Latin American Training and Investigation Center for Jewish Institutional Leadership “Leatid” and an alumnus of the Nahum Goldmann Fellowship.

Kishan Manocha – PolandSenior Adviser on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Human Rights Department, OSCE/ODIHR

Dr. Kishan Manocha is Senior Adviser on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the Organization for Security and Co-operation Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw. Before this, he was Director of the Office of Public Affairs of the Bahá’í community of the United Kingdom. He holds degrees in medicine and law from the Universities of London and Cambridge respectively. He has extensive experience in religious freedom and minority rights issues in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia as a consultant to international and non-governmental organizations. He first trained in psychiatry, completing a Research Fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry, before studying law. He specialized in international criminal and human rights law for his LLM and practiced as a barrister in a number of international criminal law cases before the English courts. He has worked at the Special Court for Sierra Leone and has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard as well as a Fellow of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University. He has lectured at universities in the United Kingdom and Pakistan, and is a Research Fellow at the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation, a Professional Associate at the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Centre for Religion and Global Affairs.


Ján Figeľ – SlovakiaSpecial Envoy for the Promotion of Freedom of Religion Outside the European Union, European Commission

In May 2016 Ján Figel was nominated by the European Commission as the first Special Envoy for promotion of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) outside the European Union. Formerly European Commissioner for Education, Training & Culture, Mr. Figel has also held other positions such as State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and was the Chief Negotiator for Slovakia’s accession into the EU. He joined the Christian Democratic Movement party in 1990 and was elected in 1992 as an MP to the National Council of the Slovak Republic, serving on its Foreign Affairs Committee and becoming a member of Slovakia’s delegation to the Council of Europe. In 1998 he was appointed State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and was also the representative of the Slovak government in the European Convention which drafted the European Constitution. From 2004 to 2009 he served as European Commissioner for Education, Training, Culture and Multilingualism, with a brief stint as Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society. In 2009 he was elected leader of the Christian Democratic Movement in Slovakia. He stepped down from his Commission post in 2009 following his election as leader of the Christian Democratic Movement in Slovakia.

Selina Palm – South AfricaResearcher, Interdisciplinary Unit for Religion and Development Research, Stellenbosch University

Dr. Selina Palm holds a PhD in Theology and Development from the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, South Africa focusing on the role of churches in building a human rights culture in current day South Africa. She is an interdisciplinary scholar with post-graduate qualifications in the theory and practice of human rights (MA), development (Cert) and theology (MTh) and a degree in business (BSc). She has lived and worked for 12 years as a senior NGO project manager in community development within sub-Saharan Africa with a focus on HIV/AIDS, stigma and marginalized populations. She is currently a researcher with the interdisciplinary Unit for Religion and Development Research at Stellenbosch University. She is also a university theological lecturer and a church youth leader within Cape Town where for over ten years she has designed innovative theological pedagogies for human rights and social change. She is an internationally qualified Gender Reconciliation Facilitator. Her current research projects focus on sexual violence in African contexts. Her research interests include the role of hope in social transformation, rights based approaches to gender and marginalized sexualities, constructive grassroots engagement between religion, human rights, and sustainable development, and pedagogies for cultivating youth change agents for social justice. She is passionate about nurturing positive engagement between Europe and Africa.


Jana Jakob – SwedenRepresentative, A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY)

Jana Jakob’s academic background lies in political science and theology. Currently, she is working on her graduate thesis at the Faculty of Theology at Uppsala University, Sweden, focusing on segregation and inter-religious encounters. Besides studies in Sweden and her home country of Germany, Jana complemented her education in Australia, Norway, and Vietnam, where she later worked at the Friedrich Ebert Foundation Hanoi. At present, she is freelancing for the inter-religious project Together for Sweden (Tillsammans för Sverige) and is starting up an inter-religious girl’s project, working for empowerment and against segregation. Moreover, Jana is involved in “A Common Word Among the Youth” and has just received a scholarship from the Church of Sweden to study at the Swedish Theological Institute in Jerusalem.

Liviu Olteanu – SwitzerlandSecretary General, International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty (AIDLR)

Dr. Liviu Olteanu, PhD is currently serving as the Secretary General of the International Association for the Defense of Religious Liberty (AIDLR). Since 2011, he is an observer and representative at the United Nations, at the European Parliament, at the Council of Europe and at the OSCE. He is also a researcher at the Human Right Institute, Law Faculty, University Complutense. Liviu Olteanu has achieved the title of Doctor in Law “Summa Cum Laude” following his doctoral studies at the universities of Madrid and Oxford on: Origins and Horizon for the Fight of Religious Liberty. The United Nations and Diplomacy in Action for the Protection of Human Rights and Religious Liberty. He has also earned a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in law, a Bachelor’s and a Master’s degree in theology, a Master’s degree in education, the title of Expert in human rights, a degree in diplomatic and international studies, a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Law (DEA), and he received a scholarship from Oxford University. His expertise is focused on education for human rights, intercultural and interreligious dialogue, religious minorities, peace, and security. For him promoting the defense of the PRINCIPLE of freedom of religion or belief for all people, everywhere, must be seen as the key factor for peace and understanding between people, religions, and cultures.

Khadija Dohry – TurkeyRepresentative, A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY)

Khadija Dohry is a representative of A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY ). She is also the Co-founder of Hand to Heart, an ecommerce platform that aids to empower Syrian refugee women by giving them the opportunity to sell their handicrafts overseas. She obtained a Bachelor’s degree in Political Science and International Relations from Marmara University where she served as Vice chair of the African Students Association in Turkey. She has been actively involved with the Aga Khan Foundation in various volunteer and service positions.


Nagihan Haliloğlu – TurkeyAssistant Professor, Alliance of Civilizations Institute, Ibn Haldun University

Nagihan Haliloğlu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civilization Studies at Ibn Haldun University. She holds a MSt in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford and a PhD in English from the University of Heidelberg. Her book on Jean Rhys, Narrating from the Margins, came out from Rodopi in 2011. She has published articles on multiculturalism, modernism, travel writing, and contemporary Turkish literature. She is currently working on a project on narratives of melancholy. She writes regularly for the Turkish monthly Lacivert and Daily Sabah. Her reviews have also appeared in The Millions and Full Stop.

İbrahim Özdemir – TurkeyFounding President of Hassan Kalyoncu University, Istanbul; Former Director General, Department of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of National Education

Dr. İbrahim Özdemir is a Professor of Philosophy and the Founding President of Hasan Kalyoncu University. Presently, he is the chair of the Department of Philosophy, Uskudar University, Istanbul, Turkey. He holds a Doctorate degree in philosophy from Middle East Technical University, Ankara and a Bachelor’s degree in Islamic Theology and Islamic Philosophy from Ankara University, Turkey. His most recent publications include The Ethical Dimension of Human Attitude Towards Nature, 2008; Jalaluddin Rumî and Confucius: Messages and Visions for a New Century, 2013, and Globalization, Ethics and Islam, 2005. Dr. Özdemir has lectured widely in the Muslim world and the West, addressing topics related to the philosophy of religion, world religions, environmental philosophy, sustainable development, religion and the environment, interreligious and intercultural dialogue, and education. He was a visiting professor at Hartford University (1998) and Hartford Seminary (2001-2003). After returning from the US in 2003, he was appointed as Director-General for International Relations, Ministry of National Education. He represented Turkey at EU, UNESCO, and OECD educational programs (2003-2010). Recently, Dr. Özdemir was a member of the drafting team of The Islamic Declaration on Global Climate Change, published on August 18, 2015. He is a jury member of The Higher Committee of the Award of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia for Envıronmental Management in the Islamic World.

Recep Şentürk – TurkeyG20 Interfaith Summit International Organizing Committee; President, Ibn Haldun University, Istanbul

Professor Dr. Recep Şentürk is President of Ibn Haldun University in Istanbul. Previously, he was Director of the Alliance of Civilizations Institute at the Fatih Sultan Mehmet University in Istanbul, Director of ISAR in Istanbul, and Professor of Sociology at Fatih University. He holds a PhD from Columbia University, Department of Sociology (1998), and specializes in sociology of knowledge, human rights and Islamic studies with a focus on the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Turkey. He authored in English Narrative Social Structure: Hadith Transmission Network 610-1505 (Stanford University Press, 2005), and in Turkish Sociology of Turkish Thought: From Fiqh to Social Science (2008); Islam and Human Rights: Sociological and Legal Perspectives (2007); Malcolm X: Struggle for Human Rights (2006); Social


Memory: Hadith Transmission Network 610-1505 (2004); Sociologies of Religion (2004); Modernization and Social Science in the Muslim World: A Comparison between Turkey and Egypt (2006). He edited Ibn Khaldun: Contemporary Readings (2009) and Economic Development and Values (2009). His recent book is Open Civilization: Cultural Foundations of Pluralism (2010). Dr. Senturk was a visiting research fellow at Emory University Law School during the 2002–2003 academic year as part of Islam and Human Rights Project.

Gladys Muhama – Uganda Consultant, Uganda Management Institute (UMI), Kampala

Muhama Gladys Mbabazi is a Consultant with the Uganda Management Institute (UMI) Kampala. She is actively engaged in promoting inter-religious dialogue in East Africa and has worked extensively with various inter-religious groups, religious leaders, lawyers, and academics. Her research interests include freedom of thoughts, conscience, and protection of religious minorities, as well as the impact of religion on women’s empowerment and gender relations in Africa. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Tourism Management from Nkumba University Uganda and a Master’s degree in Human Resource Management from Uganda Management Institute Uganda.

Iftikhar Ayaz – United KingdomChairman, International Human Rights Committee, London

Dr. Ayaz received his early education in Qadian, India but moved to Tanzania at an early age where he received his Secondary education. He holds doctorates in Human Development and Education, and a master’s degree in Linguistics. He has worked with several United Nations organizations such as FAO, UNESCO, and UNDP. He also served as the National President of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community UK from 1997 to 2001. He currently serves as the Consul General of Tuvalu in the U.K. Dr. Ayaz was awarded an Honorary Knighthood in the Queen’s Birthday Honours List of 2015 for his services to Tuvalu.

Michael Bochmann – United KingdomDirector of Water City Music, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

Michael Bochmann MBE is an international performing violinist, Director of Water City Music, and a professor of violin and chamber music at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance. Michael is an expert in looking at the field of musical education from an inspirational viewpoint and is constantly challenging the old models. He has initiated many ground-breaking and pioneering educational trials that have generated excellent results; many of his innovative approaches are supported by the recent Henley Review for the Government which champions the dynamic attitude towards musical education that Michael has promoted. Michael excels at successfully teaching music through an inter-disciplinary approach, which embraces and connects in particular with the Visual Arts. Michael founded the Bochmann Quartet in 1977 which made over 50 broadcasts over 10 years. In


February 1990 he partnered with Sir Yehudi Menuhin in the Bach Double Violin Concerto on a 16-concert tour of the USA and Canada. He directs the Orchestra Pro Anima and his recording of The Lark Ascending by Vaughan Williams has been broadcast many times on Radio 3 and Classic FM. For 14 years he has been associated with Klanglust in Fürth Nuremberg, a string orchestra of professional and amateur musicians and sometimes children.

Susan J. Breeze – United KingdomHead of Bilateral Team, International Counter-Extremism Group, Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO)

Sue is a career diplomat, who began her career by learning Mandarin and with a posting to China. Her most recent posting was as the UK’s Deputy Ambassador to Venezuela. Her career has included time as Assistant Private Secretary to four Ministers for Europe and work on a wide range of bilateral and multilateral policy desks in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. She spent five years leading the UK’s work to promote and protect the rights to freedom of religion or belief. During that time, she also worked closely with the UK Envoy on Post-Holocaust Issues, Sir Eric Pickles, to ensure that the UK plays a leading role in Holocaust education, research, and remembrance internationally, and takes active steps to tackle anti-Semitism. Sue has recently moved to take up a position in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office’s (FCO) International Counter-Extremism Group, where she is responsible for developing programmes of work to counter extremism in a number of priority countries, and for action to reduce the harm done to the UK by extremist flows of individuals, ideology and funding from overseas.

Charly Burridge-Jones – United KingdomParliaMentors Alumni Network, Three Faiths Forum (3FF)

Charly Burridge-Jones is a member of the ParliaMentors Alumni Network, Three Faiths Forum (3ff ). She is a professional actress and works freelance in the event industry. She is also a voluntary community youth worker and involved in various other service projects in the UK and overseas. She is the website administrator for Giovannilo Porto’s ‘End the Silence’ page. She has a degree in International Relations with Peace and Conflict Studies.

Hany El-Banna – United KingdomPresident, Humanitarian Forum; Founder of Islamic Relief

Dr Hany El-Banna is the founder of Islamic Relief, an international relief and development organization which aims to alleviate the poverty and suffering of the world’s poorest people. He is also the founder and the President of Humanitarian Forum which seeks to foster partnerships and closer co-operation among humanitarian and charitable organizations from Muslim countries and their Western counterparts. Dr El-Banna has visited over 60 countries on behalf of these organizations. In 2004, Dr El-Banna was awarded the Order of the British Empire by Queen Elizabeth II; in the same year Dr El-Banna also received the Ibn Khaldun Award for Excellence in Promoting Understanding between Global


Cultures and Faiths (UK). It was also in 2004 that the Egyptian Medical Syndicate awarded him for his services to humanity and medicine. In 2005 he received the Kashmiri and Pakistani Professional Association Award and in 2006 he was awarded the Asian Jewel Lifetime Achievement Award. Acknowledging his worldwide work and influence in 2007, the UK Muslim Power 100 awarded him with their lifetime achievement award and the University of Birmingham has awarded him an honorary doctorate. Dr El-Banna is the founder and Chairman of the Muslim Charities Forum. He is also a Founding Partner and Board member of Center for Interfaith Action on Global Poverty (CIFA).

Alexander Goldberg – United Kingdom 2015 International Fellow, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz International Centre for Interreligious and Intercultural Dialogue (KAICIID); Jewish Chaplain of Surrey, International Advisor and Director of Programmes, University of Surrey

Alexander Goldberg is a barrister, chaplain, and human rights activist. He is the Jewish chaplain to the University of Surrey. He is currently the Chief Executive of the Carob Tree Project, working on a number of international and UK-based community relations and community development projects. Alex regularly co-hosts a BBC radio show and was a member of the BBC’s Religion and Ethics Conference. He chairs the English Football Association’s Faith Task force and was the inaugural co-chair of the Faiths Forum for London. He served as an advisor and then Chaplain to the Paralympic and Olympic Games and was recognized by the US State Department and International Olympic Peace Truce body for his work on bringing together communities during the Games. Recently the UK Prime Minister involved him in his football and racism summit. Alex also worked with the Mayor of London to develop the Mayor’s Faith Conference. Alex addressed the inaugural session of the UN Human Rights Commission in 2006 as chair of the CCJO - René Cassin. He served on two Ministerial steering groups at the Department for Education and as an advisor to the Department of Communities and Local Government’s Together in Service program. In 2015-2016 he was made an International Ambassador for Peace by KAICIID, and an Ariane de Rothschild Fellow.

Ishrat Hossain – United KingdomDoctoral Researcher in International Relations, Linacre College, University of Oxford, Department of Politics and International Relations

Ishrat Hossain is a Commonwealth Scholar (2016) and is currently pursuing her doctoral research in International Relations at Linacre College, Oxford University. Her research focuses on the transnational dynamics of violence in the borderlands areas. She is particularly interested in religion based communal violence, especially among the Buddhist and Muslim population in the South Asian region. Before starting her DPhil at Oxford, Ishrat worked as a public information expert and political analyst. Most recently she was the Head of New Media at UNDP Bangladesh’s Country Office. Prior to joining UNDP, Ishrat worked at the German Embassy in Dhaka as the Political Advisor to the Ambassador. She has also worked for a number of development organizations and diplomatic missions in Bangladesh starting her career as the Communications officer of the joint communications unit of British High Commission and DFID in 2009. She received her BA and MA degree in Literature from University of Dhaka and a second MA in International Relations from the Australian National University (ANU), Canberra where she was


the Endeavour scholar. She graduated with first-class honors from ANU in 2013 and wrote an award-winning thesis titled Shifting Ties: Effects of Burmese Foreign Policy Restructuring on Bangladesh-Myanmar Relations.

Jacqueline Hughes – United KingdomConvenor, MA Journalism, Brunel University; Specialist Adviser, House of Lords Communications Committee

Jacquie Hughes is Convenor, MA Journalism, Brunel University and Specialist Adviser, House of Lords Communications Committee. Her career in journalism and program production spans print, radio, and television, and includes more than a decade at the BBC (latterly as a Commissioning Editor) and spells in the Independent Sector as Head of Factual Programmes at two of the country’s biggest indie producers. She has over 700 screen credits to her name, as reporter, producer/director, Executive Producer, and Editor across all broadcast formats and genre including live, documentaries, investigative current affairs, and drama-documentaries. More recently, she has worked on strategy and standards at the BBC Trust, and authored various reports on the state of British media practice. She is a keynote speaker at many industry events, a visiting lecturer in Strasbourg and Bournemouth, and sits on the social media action group of a number of civic institutions. She practices as a freelance Executive Producer. Jacquie began her career in print, specifically the BBC as a reporter/producer. A move into investigative current affairs led to a long stint as a Producer /Director on ITV’s flagship weekly program, World In Action. After many years in the independent sector making factual programs for all UK and US channels, she moved back to the BBC to head up Documentaries and History, and then to Commissioner.

David M. Kirkham – United KingdomDirector, BYU London Centre; Senior Fellow, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University

David Kirkham is Academic Director and a professor at the Brigham Young University London Centre. He serves concurrently as Senior Fellow for Comparative Law and International Policy at the BYU Law School International Center for Law and Religion Studies. He came to BYU in July 2007 from the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, where he served as Associate Dean and Professor of International Politics and Democratic Studies. David has also been an Associate Professor of History, Director of International History, and Director of International Plans and Programs at the United States Air Force Academy. He conducted international negotiations and diplomatic activities for several years for the US Government and United Nations, including as Senior Humanitarian Affairs Officer at the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Geneva (with duties primarily in Africa). He has lived seventeen years of his adult life in five European countries (Germany, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, France, and Belgium) and officially represented the United States and the UN in some fifty nations on six continents. David’s writing and teaching address international human rights, constitutionalism, diplomacy, the United Nations, and the global challenges posed by ideological extremism. He is the editor of the book State Responses to Minority Religions (Ashgate, 2013) as well as co-editor of two recent books on Islam, law, and politics in Europe. He speaks French and German and holds a PhD from George Washington University and a Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark Law School.


Rawaad Mahyub – United KingdomChair, A Common Word Among the Youth (ACWAY)

Mr. Rawaad Mahyub is the Chair of ACWAY (A Common Word Among the Youth), which is a volunteer-run global youth movement delivering local activities to promote inter-religious peace and understanding. ACWAY brings together over 100 active young people from over 75 different countries, from different religions/faiths who have delivered more than 100 activities. Rawaad has been working in the field of social development for 12 years, designing and delivering programs in education, health, and capacity building. He has also worked on preventing violent extremism programs through education, mentoring, and leadership projects for youth promoting change through civic activism. As part of the UN Interfaith Harmony Week 2015, he toured community projects and interfaith events in South East Asia and received the UPF Ambassador for Peace Award.

Edmund Newell – United KingdomPrincipal, Cumberland Lodge; Founding Director, St. Paul’s Institute

Canon Edmund Newell is Principal of Cumberland Lodge, an educational centre in Windsor Great Park. He was Sub-Dean of Christ Church, Oxford from 2008 until 2013, having previously been Canon Chancellor of St Paul’s Cathedral and founding Director of St Paul’s Institute. Before ordination he was a Research Fellow in Economic History at Nuffield College, Oxford. He is the author of several books and articles in the fields of theology, ethics and economic history, and has keen interest in religion and the performing arts. Artistic projects include Grimm Tales, a spiritual reflection on fairy tales, which he has performed at literary festivals with actress and LMH alumna Jeany Spark. He is also a contributor to ‘Pause for Thought’ on BBC Radio 2.

Akalemnwa Ngenda – United KingdomFaculty of Law, Brunel University

Akalemwa Ngenda read law in the University of Zambia, attended the George Washington University Law School, and studied at Kent Law School where he completed a doctorate in international intellectual property law. He is qualified as a Solicitor of the Supreme Court, England and Wales, and has previously served as legal advisor to the World Bank-IMF Financial Sector Assessment Program (FSAP-Zambia). As well as being a licensed patent and trademark attorney, he has extensive experience as an Advocate of the High Court and Supreme Court in Zambia, specializing in corporate insolvency, banking, perfection and enforcement of security, employment and complex commercial litigation. Akalemwa was a Fellow of the World Intellectual Property Organization at the National Law Centre in Washington, DC, after which he taught at the University of Zambia Law School. He has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge. He has taught criminal law and intellectual property law in the University of Kent. He has previously served as an elected member of the Council of the Law Association of Zambia, where he also convened the Committee on Information Technology and was a member of the Civil Society Litigation Group. He was founder chairman of the Zambia Intellectual Property Trust, and previously legal chair of the Foundation for Democratic Process. Akalemwa is formerly a Physics Olympiad and High School Valedictorian. He is a qualified basketball coach and match official affiliated with the English Basketball Association and the London Basketball Coaches Network.


Emma Nicholson – United KingdomBaroness Nicholson of Winterbourne, Member of House of Lords

Baroness Nicholson of Winterbourne is a Life Peer. She served as a Member of Parliament from 1987 to 1997 and was elected to the European Parliament from 1999 to 2009. Her parliamentary responsibilities have focused on Foreign Affairs and Human Rights. She co-chairs the All Party Parliamentary Group on Foreign Affairs and the All Party Parliamentary Group on Sexual Violence in Conflict and is the Prime Minister’s Trade Envoy for Azerbaijan, Iraq, and Turkmenistan. In her private time, she chairs the AMAR International Charitable Foundation, the Asociatia Children’s High Level Group in Romania, and The Booker Prize for Russian Fiction. She is President of AMAR US, AMAR Lebanon, and IBBC (the Iraq Britain Business Council). She is Vice Chairman of the Man Booker Prize for English Fiction and Patron of the Caine Prize for African Writing. She is Vice President of the Mary Hare School for Deaf Children. From 1974 – 1985 she was a Director of Save the Children and prior to that spent a decade on computer software development. She has been awarded eight Honorary Doctorates, and has published 2 books and edited various others. She has served as official Election Leader and Observer in thirty-two nations.

Peter Petkoff – United KingdomG20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Director of Religion, Law and International Relations Programme, Regent’s Park College, Oxford and Brunel Law School

Dr. Peter Petkoff has studied law and theology in Sofia, Leeds, Oxford and Rome and his research interests are in the area of law and religion, EC Law, Intellectual Property, and Comparative and International Law. His academic appointments include working on research projects at Oxford University (European Company Law and Arms Exports), Exeter University (Comparative European Family Law) and Bristol University (Changing Nature of Religious Rights Under International Law), a visiting fellowship at the Stephan Kuttner Institute of Medieval Canon Law and the Leopold-Wenger-Institute for Legal History at Ludwig-Maximilians-University Munich and teaching positions at Bristol, Oxford and Buckingham. He has taught EU Law, International law and Intellectual Property, Canon law and Islamic Law. Dr. Petkoff is an honorary fellow of the Centre for the Study of Law and Religion at the University of Bristol, a Fellow of the Centre for Christianity and Culture at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, a Secretary of the Oxford Society for Law and Religion, and a convener of the Oxford Colloquium for Law and Religion, and a board member of the academic think-tank “Focus on Freedom of Religion or Belief ” which studies the dynamics of freedom of religion or belief discourse within the context of the international institutions. Dr. Petkoff is also a board member of the research network “Church, Law and Society of the Middle Ages” and a convener of Eastern Canon Law panels at the International Medieval Congress at Leeds. He is currently engaged in research projects which study the coexistence of civic and religious legal systems on national, regional, and international levels and the formation of Christian, Jewish, and Islamic legal harmonisations in the twelfth and the thirteenth centuries. He is the Managing Editor of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion.


Manisuli Ssenyonjo – United KingdomProfessor of International Law and Human Rights, Brunel University London

Professor Manisuli Ssenyonjo is Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Brunel University London. His research is primarily in public international law. This includes various aspects of international human rights law, economic, social and cultural rights, the role and accountability of non-state actors, and international organizations (World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund and the World Bank group). He has published widely on these areas, and has assisted governments, corporations, international/regional organizations, non-governmental organizations, and peoples concerning international law and human rights. He has lived and undertaken human rights work and training in Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. He is managing editor and co-editor-in-chief of International Human Rights Law Review. Before embarking on an academic career, he worked as a bar-rister in commercial and human rights litigation and taught postgraduate students undertaking Legal Practice Course and Bar Course.

Michael Wakelin – United KingdomExecutive Associate in Public Education, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge; Former Head of BBC Religion and Ethics

Michael Wakelin was formerly Head of Religious Broadcasting at the BBC having worked at the corporation for 23 years. He is now working with EY on the development of a Religious Literacy Training Programme for Organizations. He is Executive Associate in Public Education for the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge. Since 2010 he has served as the Director of Coexist Programmes for Coexist House as well as Executive Producer at TBI Media producing various programs and strands for BBC Radio. Michael gained a Theology degree from Birmingham University before winning a scholarship to the National Broadcasting School where he also won the Director’s Prize. He is a published author, a regular public speaker and has contributed to several academic publications on media and religious matters.

Frederick W. Axelgard – United StatesSenior Fellow, International Relations, The Wheatley Institution, Brigham Young University

Dr. Frederick W Axelgard is a Senior Fellow in International Relations at the Wheatley Institution. Prior to joining Wheatley he had an extensive career in public policy and international business. He worked for General Dynamics as Director of International Business Development, and later as Vice President of Middle East Business Development, Axsys Technologies, a division of General Dynamics Advanced Information Systems. From 1989-2002 he served in the U.S. Department of State in a variety of capacities. He worked for several years on the Arab-Israeli peace process as coordinator of the multilateral working group on arms control and regional security, after which he served as Counselor for Political-Military Affairs at the US Embassy in Saudi Arabia. Following the terror attacks of September 2001, he was seconded to the U.S. Central Command as State Department liaison during Operation Enduring Freedom, receiving the Department’s Superior Merit Award. At the Center for Strategic and International Studies, he was a Senior Fellow in Middle East Studies and wrote on Iraqi politics and US-Iraq relations. His writings


have appeared in many publications. Dr. Axelgard graduated summa cum laude from Brigham Young University and holds an MA in law and diplomacy and a PhD in international studies from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.

Ganoune Diop – United StatesGeneral Secretary, International Religious Liberty Association

Dr. Ganoune Diop is Director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty for the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. Before his election in July 2015, he served as the church’s liaison to the United Nations, and as its representative within the international community of civic and political leaders. Dr. Diop has a Masters in Exégèses and Theology from Collonges, France, a Master’s degree in Philology from the University of Paris, and a PhD in Old Testament Studies from Andrews University. He is currently a PhD candidate in New Testament Studies. Recently, he was honored with a Doctorate Honoris Causa for his contributions to developing a global culture of human rights and respect for human dignity. Dr. Diop is an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister, and has served as a local church pastor. His other positions include conference departmental director, and professor of Biblical Languages, Exégèses, and Theology at Saleve Adventist University in France, and later at Southern Adventist University and Oakwood University in the United States. Before joining the General Conference PARL department in 2011 as an associate director, Dr. Diop was Director of the five Global Mission Study Centers of Adventist Mission. He is a concert flute soloist.professor of Biblical Languages, Exégèses, and Theology at Saleve Adventist University in France, and later at Southern Adventist University and Oakwood University in the United States. Before joining the General Conference PARL department in 2011 as an associate director, Dr. Diop was Director of the five Global Mission Study Centers of Adventist Mission. He is a concert flute soloist.

Gary B. Doxey – United StatesAssociate Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University

Gary B. Doxey, Associate Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University, joined the Center in 2005 and serves as regional advisor for Latin America. He also heads the Center’s development effort. He has co-authored several commentaries on draft legislation, and a number of amicus briefs in Latin America. He also teaches in the History Department at Brigham Young University. Professor Doxey’s career has been divided between academia and public service. Prior to joining the law school, he was chief of staff and general counsel to Utah governors Mike Leavitt and Olene Walker and served as deputy commissioner of financial institutions and as associate general counsel to the Utah Legislature. He has a PhD in History from Cambridge University and a JD from Brigham Young University. He speaks or reads several languages and has authored several scholarly publications.


Bani Dugal – United StatesPrincipal Representative to the UN to the Baha’i International Community

Bani Dugal is the Principal Representative of the Baha’i International Community to the UN. As part of the community of international NGOs at the UN since 1994, she is currently serving on the Steering Committee of the NGO Working Group on the Security Council. She has served as President of the NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief, as co-facilitator of the NGO Working Group on UN Access, co-facilitator of the GEAR campaign (Gender Equality Architecture Reform), Chair of the NGO Committee on the Status of Women, and Chair of the Global Forum of the NGO Committee on UNICEF and member of the Steering Committee of the NGO Committee on UNICEF’s Working Group on Girls, Convener of the NGO Committee on UNIFEM and Convener of the Advocates for African Food Security. Ms. Dugal holds a Master’s degree (LLM) in Environmental Law from Pace University School of Law, New York and a law degree (LLB) from the University of Delhi, India. She has authored published articles, statements, and papers. Prior to relocating to the U.S. in 1988, she practiced law before the Supreme Court of India. Among the many high-level events in which she was speaker or participated in another capacity, are: World Bank Faith Initiative (2015), UN Women Intergenerational Dialogue Day at the 59th CSW/Beijing+20 (2015), the World Economic Forum (2015, 2005), Ministerial Level panel on The Civil Society and the Education on Human Rights as a tool for promoting religious tolerance (2012), the International Inter-religious Conference on Faith in Human Rights in The Hague (2008), and the Conference commemorating the UN Declaration on Religious Tolerance and Non-Discrimination (2006), the Conference on Interfaith Cooperation for Peace – hosted by the Tripartite Forum comprised of 17 Member States, the World Bank, UNESCO, the UN DESA and the Committee of Religious NGOs at the United Nations (2005).

W. Cole Durham, Jr. – United StatesG20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Founding Director, International Center for Law and Religion Studies; Susa Young Gates Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University

Cole Durham is Susa Young Gates University Professor of Law and Founding Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was a Note Editor of the Harvard Law Review and Managing Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. He has been heavily involved in comparative law scholarship, with a special emphasis on comparative constitutional law. He is a founding Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. He served as the Secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law from 1989 to 1994. He is an Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in Paris—the premier academic organization at the global level in comparative law. He served as a General Rapporteur for the topic ‘Religion and the Secular State’ at the 18th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, held in July 2010. He served in earlier years as Chair both of the Comparative Law Section and the Law and Religion Section of the American Association of Law Schools. Professor Durham was President of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS) from 2011-2016.


Brian J. Grim – United StatesPresident, Religious Freedom & Business Foundation

Brian Grim is president of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation and a leading expert on international religious freedom and the socio-economic impact of restrictions on religious freedom, and an expert on international religious demography and religion-related violence. He is also an affiliated scholar at Boston University’s Institute on Culture, Religion & World Affairs. Prior to becoming the Foundation’s president in 2014, Brian directed the largest social science effort to collect and analyze global data on religion at the Pew Research Center, Washington DC’s premier “fact tank.” He also worked for two decades as an educator, researcher and development coordinator in the former Soviet Union, China, Central Asia, the Middle East and Europe. Brian holds a doctorate in sociology from Pennsylvania State University. He is an author of The Price of Freedom Denied, considered the seminal work showing the dire consequences of denying religious freedom. He has written dozens of research articles and several academic books on global religion as well as the Weekly Number Blog. Brian has appeared as an expert on global religion on numerous media outlets. He regularly presents to high-level governmental, nongovernmental and academic groups in the U.S. and abroad, including the White House, the Vatican, European Parliament, and the UN Human Rights Council. Brian also is a TEDx speaker. has appeared as an expert on global religion on numerous media outlets. He regularly presents to high-level governmental, nongovernmental and academic groups in the U.S. and abroad, including the White House, the Vatican, European Parliament, and the UN Human Rights Council.

Timothy Lavelle – United StatesSenior Food Security Advisor, USAID Center for Faith-based and Community Initiatives

Timothy Lavelle has served as USAID’s Senior Food Security Advisor for Africa from August 2004 to the present. He has also been substantively engaged with a number of non-governmental organizations in efforts to establish the first social enterprise zone project in conflict-ridden eastern Congo (DRC). In 2012 he assisted USAID’s Africa Bureau on the Agency’s recommendations related to the NSS-driven Presidential Policy Directive for sub-Saharan Africa (“U.S. Strategy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa” PPD-16), which was issued on June 14, 2012. Subsequently, he worked on crafting the Agency’s PPD-16 Implementation Plan which was submitted to NSS in September 2012. Earlier in the year, he served as a member of the USAID 2012 G8 Support Task Team responsible for shaping the ‘New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition’ in sub-Saharan Africa, which was announced at the G8 Camp David Summit on May 19, 2012. He is a lecturer at the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University.


Katherine Marshall – United StatesG20 Interfaith Summit Executive Committee; Senior Fellow, Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, Georgetown University; Executive Director, World Faiths Development Dialogue

Katherine Marshall has worked for more than four decades on international development, focusing on the world’s poorest countries. A senior fellow at Georgetown’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs and Professor of the Practice of Religion, Development, and Practice in the School of Foreign Service, she is the executive director of the World Faiths Development Dialogue, a non-governmental organization whose mission is to bridge gulfs that separate the worlds of development and religion. During a long career at the World Bank she held leadership assignments on Africa, Latin America, and East Asia and on values, ethics, and religion, including a six-year assignment as Director of Development Dialogue on Ethics and Values and Counselor to the President.

Tina Ramirez – United StatesPresident and Founder of Hardwired, Inc.

Tina Ramírez is President and Founder of Hardwired, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing international religious freedom and combating religious oppression. She also serves as Vice President of the United Nations NGO Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief. She earned a BA in History and Political Science and an MA in Education from Vanguard University in California and an MA in Human Rights from the University of Essex in the UK. She also has a certificate from the International Institute for Human Rights in Strasbourg, France. She has served as a policy researcher at the US Commission on International Religious Freedom and as a foreign policy advisor for various members of the US Congress, where she helped found and direct the bi-partisan Congressional International Religious Freedom Caucus. Most recently, she directed international programs at The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty. She has helped secure the release of imprisoned victims, testified before the US Congress, the UN Human Rights Council, and the African Union. She has developed legal training materials and trained advocates and religious leaders in countries including Iraq, Sudan, and Turkey and has traveled to more than 26 countries meeting with government officials, civil society groups, and religious communities about issues including democratic transition, constitutional development, counter-terrorism policies, sex-trafficking, refugees, and religious freedom. She was a contributing author and editor of Human Rights in the United States: A Dictionary and Documents. In 2012 she received the Second Annual Ahmadiyya Muslim Humanitarian Award for her congressional work defending their community worldwide.


David Saperstein – United StatesFormer US Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom; Director Emeritus, Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism

For 40 years, David Saperstein represented the Reform Jewish Movement, the largest segment of American Jewry, to Congress and the Administration, as Director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. For over two years (through Jan. 2017), he served the US as Ambassador at Large for International Religious Freedom, carrying out his responsibilities as the country’s chief diplomat on religious freedom issues. A rabbi and an attorney, he taught seminars on Church–State law and on comparative Jewish and American Law for over 35 years at Georgetown University Law Center. Widely recognized for his leadership, he was described by Newsweek Magazine as the most influential rabbi in America and by the Washington Post as the “quintessential religious lobbyist on Capitol Hill.” During his career, Rabbi Saperstein has served as the chair or co-chair of several national interreligious coalitions and served on the boards or executive committees of numerous national organizations including the NAACP, the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, and the World Faith Development Dialogue. Saperstein’s articles have been published in publications ranging from the NY Times, and the Washington Post, to the Harvard Law Review. His latest book is Jewish Dimensions of Social Justice: Tough Moral Choices for our Times.

Brett G. Scharffs – United StatesDirector, International Center for Law and Religion Studies, and Francis R. Kirkham Professor of Law, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University

Brett G. Scharffs is Francis R. Kirkham Professor of Law and Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University Law School. He received a BSBA in international business and an MA in philosophy at Georgetown University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, earned a BPhil in philosophy at Oxford. He received his JD from Yale Law School, where he was senior editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is a recurring visiting professor at Central European University in Budapest and at the University of Adelaide Law School. He has for several years helped organize certificate training programs in religion and the rule of law in China and in Vietnam and has taught and helped organize programs at several Indonesian universities on sharia and human rights. Author of more than 100 articles and book chapters, he has made more than 300 scholarly presentations in 30 countries. His casebook, Law and Religion: National, International and Comparative Perspectives (with Cole Durham, 2nd English edition forthcoming 2017), has been translated into Chinese and Vietnamese, with Turkish, Burmese, and Arabic in process. He is author with Elizabeth Clark of Religion and Law in the USA, a 2016 contribution to Wolters Kluwer’s International Encyclopaedia of Laws.

Sherrie Steiner – United StatesAssistant Professor, Indiana University, Purdue University Fort Wayne; G20 Interfaith Summit Organizing Committee and Rapporteur

Dr. Sherrie Steiner is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne. She has authored numerous publications in relation to her area of expertise in sociology of religion, environmental sociology and scholarship


of engagement. She served as Special Rapporteur for the F8/F7/F20 Summits for 2010 (Canada), 2011 (France), 2012 (USA), and 2015 (Turkey). She conducts scholarship of engagement research in collaboration with Blackford County Concerned Citizens, a community-based citizens group committed to improving public health and the quality of life in Blackford County, Indiana. She is currently working on a manuscript for Brill publishers entitled Moral Pressure for Responsible Globalization that documents the F8/F7/F20 process from 2005 through 2016.

Monica Duffy Toft – United StatesProfessor of International Politics, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University; Director, Center for Strategic Studies

Before joining The Fletcher School, Professor Monica Duffy Toft taught at Oxford University’s Blavatnik School of Government and Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government. While at Harvard, she directed the Initiative on Religion in International Affairs and was the assistant director of the John M. Olin Institute for Strategic Studies. She was educated at the University of Chicago (MA and PhD in political science) and at the University of California, Santa Barbara (BA in political science and Slavic languages and literature, summa cum laude). Prior to this, she spent four years in the United States Army as a Russian linguist. Monica’s areas of research include international security, ethnic and religious violence, civil wars and demography. Her most recent books include: Securing the Peace (Princeton, 2011); Political Demography (Oxford, 2012); and God’s Century (Norton, 2012). In addition, she has published numerous scholarly articles and editorials on civil wars, territory and nationalism, demography, and religion in global politics. Monica is a research associate of the Blavatnik School of Government at the University of Oxford and at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. She is a supernumerary fellow at Brasenose College, University of Oxford, a Global Scholar of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, a member of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Minorities at Risk Advisory Board and the Political Instability Task Force. In 2008 the Carnegie Foundation of New York named her a Carnegie Scholar for her research on religion and violence, in 2012 she was named a Fulbright scholar, and most recently served as the World Politics Fellow at Princeton University.

Ani Zonneveld – United StatesPresident and Founder of Muslims for Progressive ValuesAni Zonneveld is a writer, a singer/songwriter, speaker and a human rights defender. She speaks and sings her message of social justice, human rights, and peace from a progressive Muslim women’s perspective. Born and raised Muslim from Malaysia and based out of Los Angeles, she spearheads the progressive Muslim movement both internationally and in the U.S. She is president and founder of Muslims for Progressive Values (MPV), a grassroots, faith-based human rights organization. Founded in 2007, MPV advocates for egalitarian expressions of Islam, for women’s rights, LGBTQI rights, freedom of expression, and freedom of and from religion or belief. MPV promotes these values at the United Nations by challenging human rights abuses in the name of Islam, and by offering an inclusive understanding based on universal human rights and justice. Zonneveld is also the co-editor of Progressive Muslim Identities: Personal Stories from the U.S. and Canada.


Carmen Asiaín Pereira – UruguayG20 Interfaith Summit International Organizing Committee; Senator, Parliament of Uruguay; President, Latin American Consortium for Freedom of Religion or Belief

Carmen Asiaín Pereira serves as a Senator in the Parliament of Uruguay, and as Vice President of the Latin American Consortium for Freedom of Religion and Belief. She is Professor of Law and Religion, Graduate Studies Program, at the University of Montevideo and Professor of Law and Religion and of Health Law, Graduate Program, Facultad de Teología del Uruguay Monseñor Mariano Soler. She has participated as a panelist on Religious Liberty and Law and Religion at international conferences, and at the UN, and has published papers internationally on many topics. Dr. Asiaín is a member of the Judeo-Christian Fellowship and a founding member and vice-president of the Instituto de Derecho Religioso del Estado (IDRE), Uruguay, and of the International Advisory Council, Canon Law and Ecclesiastical Law General Journal, IUSTEL. As an attorney accredited by the National Ecclesiastical Court (Uruguay and Argentina) and a partner at the law firm of Pollak & Brum, she is a litigator in Matrimonial Canon Law. She is an advisor and litigator in cases involving Freedom of Conscience and Religion or Belief against the State. Dr. Asiaín received a Doctor in Law and Social Sciences from the University of the Republic.


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