The Right to Religious Freedom

Routledge has published Dr Anat Scolnicov's book The Right to Religious Freedom in International Law Between Group Rights and Individual Rights.

This book analyses the right to religious freedom in international law, drawing on an array of national and international cases. Taking a rigorous approach to the right to religious freedom, Anat Scolnicov argues that the interpretation and application of religious freedom must be understood as a conflict between individual and group claims of rights, and that although some states, based on their respective histories, religions, and cultures, protect the group over the individual, only an individualistic approach of international law is a coherent way of protecting religious freedom. Analysing legal structures in a variety of both Western and Non-Western jurisdictions, the book sets out a topography of different constitutional structures of religions within states and evaluates their compliance with international human rights law. The book also considers the position of women's religious freedom vis-agrave-vis community claims of religious freedom, of children's right to religious freedom and of the rights of dissenters within religious groups.

Oh, what a tangled web we weave!

Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone has announced plans to remove the ban on civil partnership ceremonies in places of worship, and a consultation on giving gays the right to marry. The latter move may mean changing the legal definition of marriage as a heterosexual institution. The Church of England won’t allow it’s churches to be used for civil partnerships, and said the proposals could have ‘unintended consequences for churches and faiths’. But the Archbishop of York gave the ideas a cautious welcome, provided churches were not forced to marry homosexuals. The Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches and the Catholic Church rejected the plans, but Quakers, Unitarians and liberal Jews welcomed the news. The ban on night-time nuptials is also to be lifted, and civil partnerships may be offered to heterosexuals.

Campaign to save Afghan Christian Convert

An aid agency that supports persecuted Christians is calling on western governments to help a Christian sentenced to death in Afghanistan. Barnabas Fund has launched a petition to pressurise Afghan President Hamid Karzai to release Said Musa. Red Cross worker Said has been in prison for eight months after converting to Christianity, and faces execution if he does not return to Islam. Said has had no trial and death threats have made lawyers frightened to defend him. The one-legged man claims he has been tortured and sexually abused in prison. Barnabas Fund says Karzai should uphold the Afghan constitution which acknowledges human rights. Instead, his government’s policy towards converts ‘appears no different from that of the Taliban’.


* http://www.christiantoday.com/
* http://www.thesundaytimes.co.uk/

Lecture on free will and human responsibility

Tuesday 8 February 2011

An opportunity not to be missed!!

Free will and brain determinism, the idea that cognition is determined by prior events, are to be the topic of an upcoming lecture at the University of Cambridge’s Faraday Institute.

Professor Peter Clarke from the University of Lausanne will discuss the various approaches used in philosophical defences of free will and human responsibility. Libertarian positions imply freedom in decision making processes, for example, by invoking the existence of a disembodied soul and often using Heisenbergian uncertainty to support their argument.

In this seminar, Professor Clarke uses a variety of studies, including ones into the resistance of cells and thermal noise, to discount the potential perturbations of the uncertainty principle. He will reject the idea of behaviour as a product of soley genetic and environmental influences and argue for a compatibilist approach, the belief that free will and determinism are compatible and it is feasible to believe both.

The Faraday Institute Seminar is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, 8 February at 1 pm (lunch from 12.30pm) at The Garden Room, St. Edmund's College, Cambridge. It is not necessary to RSVP but it is recommended that attendees arrive early to guarantee a seat.