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the PROTECTION of RELIGIOUS MINORITIES: religious freedom & human rights in post-communist europe MARCH 16 - 18, 1998
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| about the participants |
Jolanta Ambrosewicz-Jacobs (Krakow, Poland is Head of the Sociology-Ethnography Department at the Research Center for the Study of Jewish History and Culture at the Jagiellonian University in Poland. In 1996/1997, she was a Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. Committed to fostering tolerance for all minorities, she has been involved in numerous educational projects which focus on combating social prejudices. Ingrid Baumannova (Bratislava, Slovakia) is a Program Officer at the Foundation for a Civil Society in Bratislava. Alicja Bialecka (Oswiecim, Poland) is a Senior Education Officer at the Auschwitz Museum and Memorial. As a Member of the Museum-Memorial Education Department, she has attended many international conferences and seminars including a three month study project at Oxford University entitled Civil Society and Social Change in Europe After Auschwitz. Ms. Bialecka has also participated in a seminar on Judaism, the history and culture of Polish Jews and the Holocaust organized by the International Center for Holocaust Studies in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. Irena Borowik (Krakow, Poland) is a sociologist of religion at the Institute for the Study of Religion, Jagiellonian University. Since 1991, she is Director of NOMOS Publishing House and has published and edited many works on the study of religion including The Future of Religion: East-West and New Religious Phenomena in Central and Eastern Europe. Halina Bortnowska (Warsaw, Poland) is on the Board of Pax Christi and is affiliated with the Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Warsaw, and the Society of Young Journalists. Timothy A. Byrnes (Hamilton, New York) is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York. He has authored or edited many books regarding the Catholic Church and politics, including Catholic Bishops in American Politics (Princeton, 1991). A Fulbright Scholar in Poland in 1993, Dr. Byrnes has written on the role of the Catholic Church in the post-communist politics of East Central Europe. His articles have appeared in a number of journals including East European Quarterly and Religion, State and Society. Jerzy Chmiel (Krakow, Poland) is Professor of Biblical Hermeneutics and Judaism at the Pontifical Academy of Theology in Krakow where he has been Vice-Rector since 1997. A Catholic Priest, Dr. Chmiel is a Member of the Studiorum Novi Testamenti Societas and the International Organization for the Study of the Old Testament. He is also editor-in-chief of the quarterly Ruch Biblijny I Liturgiczny. Emil Cohen (Sofia, Bulgaria) is President and Founder of Tolerance Foundation, a human rights organization which monitors human rights practices and violations in regard to freedom of conscience and religion in Bulgaria. As co-founder of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, Mr. Cohen organized an international conference on Religious Tolerance and Human Rights in 1995. Elizabeth A. Cole (New York, New York) is Coordinator of the Religion, Human Rights, and Religious Freedom Program at the Center for the Study of Human Rights, Columbia University. She received a Ph.D. in Slavic Languages and Literature at Yale University and has spent time in China as an English teacher. She has worked on democratization and civil society development projects for Asia and Eastern Europe. Peter Danchin (New York, New York) is a Research Scholar at the Columbia Law School and is an instructor in the Religion, Human Rights and Religious Freedom Program at the Center for the Study of Human Rights. He has a BA/LL.B. degree from the University of Melbourne and an LL.M. from Columbia University where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar. He was the Editor-in-Chief of the Melbourne University Law Review and the recent recipient of a Queens Trust scholarship to clerk with President Arthur Chaskalson at the Constitutional Court in South Africa. He is also a Foreign Associate at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher and Flom, a New York law firm. His areas of interest are international, human rights and comparative constitutional law (with a focus on freedom of religion and expression) and jurisprudence. Krystyna Daniel (Krakow, Poland) is Assistant Professor in the Sociology of Law Department at Jagiellonian University. Her major teaching responsibilities and research have been in the areas of theory of law, sociology of law and property, empirical research on Polish-Jewish relations and church-state relations in Poland. Dr. Daniel has published several books and articles concerning the effectiveness of dispute settlement in civil proceedings, values and law in the transformation process in Poland, and religious freedom in post-communist Poland. Dariusz Dankowski (Krakow, Poland) is a member of the Society of Jesuits. He is a Professor of Law and is interested in social justice issues. W. Cole Durham, Jr. (Provo, Utah) is Professor of Law at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University, Secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law, and serves on the Board of Directors of the International Academy for Freedom of Religion and Belief. An expert in comparative law and religious freedom, he has given lectures and advised constitutional conventions throughout Eastern Europe and Latin America. He has prepared 40 professional articles and is editor of a new volume, Religious Liberty in Western Thought. Neven Duvnjak (Split, Croatia) is a sociologist at the Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar - Center Split in Croatia. In addition to his research, Mr. Duvnjak is active with two non-governmental organizations, the Croatian Academic Society, a voluntary, non-profit organization dedicated to working with refugees and displaced people, and the Centre for Religious Research. He is also an associate of the World Conference on Religion and Peace and is completing his Ph.D. in sociology at the University of Zagreb. In 1995, he was a Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. Yuri Dzhiblazde (Moscow, Russia / New York, New York) is an expert, organizer and activist in democratization and human rights in Russia. In the 1980's he was actively involved in anti-nuclear, environmental, and democracy grassroots movements. As an NGO organizer and activist, he coordinated advocacy, educational and publishing projects in NGO development, nonviolent social change, conflict resolution, human rights, ethnic dialogue, democracy building and anti-militarism. He is currently pursuing a Master of International Affairs at Columbia University on a Muskie Fellowship. His research focuses on legal and institutional mechanisms of democratic transition in post-communist societies and human rights. Willy Fautré (Brussels, Belgium) is a religious journalist as well as founder and President of Human Rights Without Frontiers. He also manages a PHARE democracy program to promote religious liberty in Albania, Bulgaria and Romania. He is author of the book Nos Prisonniers du Goulag and has written numerous articles on human rights and religious liberty issues. Mr. Fautré has also participated in fact-finding missions in Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Latvia, Nicaragua, Panama and Russia. Alain Garay (Paris, France) is a lawyer at the Court of Appeals of Paris and legal advisor to the European Commission and Court of Human Rights. Mr. Garay is author of several articles and commentaries focusing on the legal systems which govern religious freedom in Europe. Mr. Garay has also authored a forthcoming monograph on the role of “anti-cult” associations. Robert F. Goekel (Geneseo, New York) is a Professor of Political Science at the State University of New York, Geneseo. Having received a Ph.D. in Government Studies from Harvard University, his research interests concern Church-State relations in the former German Democratic Republic and contemporary Germany as well as Soviet policies toward religion, particularly in the Baltics. His recent publications include “Church-State Relations in the Post-Communist Era: The Case of East Germany” in Problems of Post Communism (January-February 1997) and “The Baltic Churches and the Liberalization Process” in The Politics of Religion in Russia and the New States of Eurasia, edited by Michael Bourdeaux. Janina Górz (Krakow, Poland) is a high school biology teacher in Krakow. A graduate of the Pedagogical University in Krakow, she founded the first authorized Hebrew and Jewish studies program for students in the same city. In 1997, Ms. Górz established another successful cultural studies program for students in Krakow. Jeremy Gunn (Washington, DC) is Executive Director and General Counsel at the John F. Kennedy Review Board. A Member of the Advisory Panel on Religion (OSCE), Mr. Gunn is also involved with the US Institute of Peace Working Group on Religion, Ideology and Peace. He has published extensively on the subject of religious freedom and international law. Göran Gunner (Stockholm, Sweden) is a senior lecturer on the History of Religion at the Stockholm School of Theology. He is currently directing a one-year academic course on human rights and democracy. Hikmet Hadjy-Zadeh (Baku, Azerbaijan) is a 1996-1997 Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and a human rights activist in Azerbaijan. Founder and Vice-president of the FAR-Center (Center for Economic and Political Research), Mr. Hadjy-Zadeh is chief analyst for the Musavat Party and consultant to the newspaper Muxalifet. He has written a book on the problems of democracy in Azerbaijan. A Muslim, he is actively interested in the problems of Islamic modernization in Azerbaijan, especially Islamic fundamentalism. Christopher Hann (Canterbury, UK / Berlin, Germany) is a Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Kent (Canterbury) and is also a Fellow at the Institute for Advanced Study (Berlin). He received a BA in Politics, Philosophy and Economics from Oxford University and a Ph.D. in Social Anthropology from Cambridge University. Dr. Hann has done fieldwork in Hungary, Poland, Turkey and Xinjiang and has published extensively in his field. David Herbert (Cambridge, UK) is a Staff Tutor at the Open University, a British based distance learning institution. A lecturer in the field of Religious Studies, he also manages associate lecturers in the East Anglia region. His research centers on the relationships between social and political theory, religious studies and ethics, and focuses particularly on the situation of Muslim minorities in Western Europe and Christian denominations in Central and Eastern Europe. Dr. Herbert is a member of the Society for the Study of Christian Ethics and treasurer of the British Sociological Association’s Sociology of Religion group. Paul R. Hinlicky (Bratislava, Slovakia) is a Visiting Professor at the Protestant Theological Faculty of Comenius University in Bratislava. Having received a Ph.D. from Union Theological Seminary in New York, he is an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. Dr. Hinlicky’s research interests have included ecumenical and interfaith dialogues, political theology and the faith-science dialogue. He has recently contributed a study on the state of religious rights and tolerance in Slovakia to the Law and Religious Rights Research program at Emory University’s Law School. Lauren Homer, Esq. (Vienna, Virginia) is President of Law and Liberty Trust, a US nonprofit organization which assists Russia and other formerly communist nations in restoring the rule of law and religious liberties. Ms. Homer is also Chairman of the International Law Group, P.C., a law firm specializing in representing US nonprofit and religious organizations in foreign countries, particularly Russia and other former Soviet republics. She has worked with numerous international religious and nonprofit organizations on registration and legal compliance issues and with major corporations on litigation and regulatory matters. Tadeusz Jasudowicz (Torun, Poland) is a Professor at Nicholas Copernicus University in Torun. Since 1990, he has served as Chair of Human Rights within the Law and Administration Faculty at Nicholas Copernicus University. Dr. Jasudowicz is also holder of the UNESCO/NCU Chair for Human Rights and Peace and has published widely within the field of international human rights law. Tim Jensen (Odense, Denmark) is an Associate Professor at the Centre for the Study of Religion at the University of Odense. As a historian of religions, Dr. Jensen focuses primarily upon the ethical and political aspects of contemporary religions. He has published extensively on world religions and ecology, minority religions in Denmark, and the study and teaching of religion in Europe. He is currently chairman of the Danish Association for the History of Religions which is associated with the International Association for the History of Religions. Peter Juviler (New York, New York) is Professor of Political Science at Barnard College in New York and is co-Director of the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. His interests involve comparative politics, human rights and modern political movements, especially in the former Soviet Union, Central and Eastern Europe. Dr. Juviler has published extensively in his field and acts as a consultant for numerous human rights organizations, including the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights. Krassimir Kanev (Sofia, Bulgaria) is founder and chair of the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee and an Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Sofia. Author of large parts of a controversial annual report on the State of Religious Freedom in Bulgaria,Dr. Kanev is also co-editor of Face to Face, a monthly magazine devoted to the state of religious freedom in Bulgaria, Albania and Romania. In 1996, he was a Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. Angéla Kóczé (Budapest, Hungary) is a participant in the Human Rights Program at the Central European University in Budapest. Having worked as Program Director for the Foundation for Roma Civil Rights, she is currently directing a film about a Hungarian Roma’s religious life. Her interest in Roma issues has led her to the OSCE Office for Democratic Human Rights as well as a Council of Europe program on Roma Youth Leadership Training in Helsinki. Ms. Kóczé’s research focuses on Roma rights. Her most recent study will be published by the United Nations Interregional Crime and Justice Institute in Rome. Stanislaw Krajewski (Warsaw, Poland) is a Lecturer at the Institute of Philosophy at Warsaw University. A Member of “Solidarity” from 1980-1990, Dr. Krajewski is among the founders of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Society. He is also co-chairman of the Polish Council of Christians and Jews and President of the Jewish Forum Foundation. As well as having written numerous articles on the subject of Jews, Judaism and the Jewish-Christian dialogue, he is author of the book Jews, Judaism, Poland. Volodymyr Kyselov (Kiev, Ukraine) is a 1997 Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. He is also the Ukrainian representative to Nonviolence International - NIS, a Moscow-based human rights NGO, where he has been collecting information on human rights abuses in refugee camps in the former USSR. Mr. Kyselov is an interpreter and translator and has written extensively on non-violence, pacifism and human rights in the Caucasus and Ukraine. A Quaker, Mr. Kyselov has been active in the promotion of the role of religion in peacemaking and inter-ethnic conflict resolution, especially in Chechnya. David Little (Washington, DC) is a Senior Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace and Director of its Working Group on Religion, Ideology, and Peace. He has taught at Yale, Brown, Amherst, Haverford, and has served for nearly twenty years as Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia. An expert in law and religion, comparative religious ethics, and religious liberty, he has written nearly 100 professional articles and book chapters, and 10 books, including Religion, Order and Law: A Study in Pre-Revolutionary England, Ukraine: A Legacy of Intolerance, Sri Lanka: The Intervention of Enmity, and Human Rights and the Conflict of Culture: Freedom of Religion in the West and Islam. Ewa Losinska (Krakow, Poland) is a 1997 Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. She is a journalist with Gazeta Krakowska who has reported extensively on human rights issues, including the harassment and assault of army conscripts, the conscription of handicapped men into the Polish army, the situation in Chechnya and government interference in the media. Ms. Losinska has spent time in Ireland writing about the Catholic and Protestant communities. She also serves as an advocate for homeless children in Poland. Marian Malecki (Andrychow, Poland) is a graduate of the Jagiellonian University and a certified psychologist. A member of the Polish Psychological Society and the Polish Psychiatric Society, she works at the Psychiatric Hospital in Andrychow. Specializing in short-term therapy and crisis intervention, she conducts training sessions aimed at teaching tolerance and conflict resolution. Nadeje Mandysova (Prague, Czech Republic) is a minister in the Church of Czech Brethren and the General Secretary of the Ecumenical Council of Churches in the Czech Republic. Zulfia Marat (Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan) is Network Coordinator at the Kyrgyz-American Bureau on Human Rights and the Rule of Law, a non-profit, non-governmental organization which promotes civil society development and rule of law in Kyrgyzstan. She has published articles on human rights and religious freedoms in Kyrgyzstan and abroad. Slobodanka Markovska (Skopje, Republic of Macedonia) is a 1997 Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. She is also a professor in the Faculty of Philosophy at St. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje. An anthropologist by training, Ms. Markovska teaches and writes on the cultural significance of religion as it applies to the role of women in the church. A chair of the Helsinki Citizens’ Assembly in Macedonia and a founding member of the Balkan Peace Study Center in Skopje, Ms. Markovska has worked to promote a Macedonian-Greek dialogue. J. Paul Martin (New York, New York) is Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and has held this position since the founding of the Center in 1978. He teaches human rights at Columbia’s School for International and Public Affairs, and human right education at Teachers College. He is the author of a number of articles on human rights education; two of the most recent will appear in a forthcoming University of Pennsylvania Press volume on Human Rights Education. Dr. Martin participates in the core team of the Emory University Law School Project on Religious Proselytism in Africa and Eastern Europe and will contribute essays to the project. Rosa María Martínez de Codes (Madrid, Spain) is vice-Director of Religious Affairs at the Ministry of Justice in Madrid. A scholar of Latin American history, she has acted as a Visiting Professor in universities in Argentina, Chile, Italy and the United States. Ms. Martínez de Codes is a member of Instituto Internacional de Historia del Derecho Indiano and Sociedad Argentina de Historadores. Her research interests include the role of the Catholic Church in Latin America, especially in regard to human rights and political issues. Myroslav Marynovytch (Drohobych, Ukraine) was a 1996-1997 Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. He is a journalist who chairs the National Committee of the Ukrainian Association of Amnesty International and serves as a member of the Civil Council of the Ukrainian-American Bureau for the Protection of Human Rights. An engineer by training, Mr. Marynovytch spent ten years as a prisoner of conscience. He lectures on the history of Christianity in Ukraine and has written extensively about overcoming interdenominational conflicts and the protection of human rights in Ukraine today. John Micgiel (New York, New York) is Director of the East Central European Center at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs. A specialist in the modern history and contemporary politics of East Central Europe, he has taught at New York University and Columbia University since 1989. Dr. Micgiel is the author of the forthcoming Coercion and the Establishment of Communist Rule in Poland, 1944-1947 (New York: St. Martin’s Press). He has edited, co-authored or translated five books on modern Central European history and politics. Paul Mojzes (Rosemont, Pennsylvania) is Professor of Religious Studies at Rosemont College, and former Professor and Dean at the Graz Center in Graz, Austria. A native of Yugoslavia, he is editor of Religion in Eastern Europe, and co-editor of the Journal of Ecumenical Studies. He has published numerous articles, and his books include Religious Liberty in Eastern Europe and the USSR: Before and After the Great Transformation, and Yugoslavian Inferno: Ethno-Religious Warfare in the Balkans. David Murgio (New York, New York) is a Harlan Fiske Stone scholar at the Columbia University School of Law and is also working towards a Master’s degree in International Affairs in conjunction with the Institute on East Central Europe at Columbia University. He is author of “Law vs. Morality: An Introduction to the Problem of Post-Communist Justice” in Perspectives on Political and Economic Transitions After Communism, John S. Micgiel, ed. (1997). Slobodanka Nedovic (Belgrade, Yugoslavia is an Assistant Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade. She also works with the Center for Human Rights in Belgrade, an organization which mobilizes the resources of the Serbian academic community to educate the public about human rights. An Orthodox Christian and self-defined agnostic, Dr. Nedovic studies the relationship between religion and nationalism, and is developing curricula on tolerance, human rights, religious freedom and Orthodox Christianity. In 1995, she was a Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. Stanislaw Obirek (Krakow, Poland) is Rector of the Jesuit College of Philosophy in Krakow. Having entered the Society of Jesus in 1976, he was ordained a priest in 1983 and made his final vows in 1991. Father Obirek received a Ph.D. in Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome and has written works such as Vision of the Church and State in the Preaching of Father Piotr Skarga, SJ and The Jesuits of the Commonwealth of Poland-Lithuania 1564-1668. Since 1994, Father Obirek has been the chief editor of Spiritual Life, a quarterly magazine. Anna Maria Orla-Bukowska (Krakow, Poland) is a social anthropologist and a Polish-American who has been studying, researching, and teaching in Poland since 1985. She completed her Ph.D. at Jagiellonian University’s Institute of Sociology where she is currently an assistant professor. Her primary focus has been Jewish history and culture in Central and Eastern Europe; her dissertation was entitled “Coexistence: Polish Jews and Polish Catholics, Jewish Shtetls and Catholic Villages.” Her other areas of interests are ethnic, religious and linguistic identity, post-communist transition in Poland and cultural pluralism. Madina Parchiyeva (Ingushetia, Russia) is a 1997 Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University and a human rights activist in the Republic of Ingushetia, Russia. An interpreter and community services assistant for UNHCR, Ms. Parchiyeva assists local Chechens and Ingush in their efforts to return to Chechnya and North Ossetia. A displaced person herself, Ms. Parchiyeva has actively worked to identify and promote income generation projects for the refugee community. She acts as a liaison between UNHCR and local organizations, particularly women’s associations and religious organizations. John T. Pawlikowski (Chicago, Illinois) is a professor of Social Ethics at the Catholic Theological Union in Chicago and a Priest of the Servite Order. Dr. Pawlikowski has authored and edited more than ten books and has contributed to numerous volumes on issues related to the Holocaust and social ethics. He is actively involved in the Catholic Theological Society, the American Academy of Religion, the Polish Institute of Arts and Sciences, the Polish American Historical Association. Concerned with issues pertaining to Christian-Jewish dialogue, Dr. Pawlikowski is a Member of the Advisory Committee on Catholic-Jewish Relations. Tatjana Peric (Tuzla, Bosnia & Herzegovina) is a 1997-1998 Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. A refugee from Tuzla, she is a graduate of the Bossey Ecumenical Institute of the World Council of Churches in Geneva and holds a certificate in conflict resolution from the Caux Scholars Program in Switzerland. She has worked as a project assistant and translator for the Ecumenical Humanitarian Service in Novi Sad, Yugoslavia. Ms. Peric has coordinated and participated in numerous seminars related to interchurch relations and human rights both in her own country and abroad. Borislav Petranov (London, England) is Legal Officer for Central and Eastern Europe at Interrights. He holds an LL.M in international human rights law from Essex University and is a Ph.D. candidate at Oxford University. His research focuses on the international protection of the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion. Dimitrina Petrova (Budapest, Hungary) is the Executive Director of the European Roma Rights Center, an international non-governmental human rights organization devoted to empowering Roma rights through law. Having been active in the Human Rights Project, the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, and the Bulgarian Parliament, Ms. Petrova has also published on topics related to human rights, philosophy and political science. Serhii Plokhy (Edmonton, Canada) is Director of the Ukrainian Church Studies Program at the Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies at the University of Alberta. He is also the Associate Director at the Peter Jacyk Centre for Ukrainian Historical Research at the same institute. With research interests in the fields of Ukrainian and Russian history as well as church-state relations, Dr. Plokhy has written and published extensively in English, Russian and Ukrainian. Lukas Pribyl (Prague, Czech Republic) is a 1997-1998 Pew Fellow at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights. Mr. Pribyl is a special projects assistant at the Education and Culture Center at the Jewish Museum in Prague and has organized the Center’s educational programs on Judaism and Czech Jewish history. A graduate of Brandeis University in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies, he has special interests in Islam, ethnic conflict and educating for tolerance. James T. Richardson (Reno, Nevada) is Professor of Sociology and Judicial Studies at the University of Nevada, Reno, where he directs the Masters of Judicial Studies Program for trial judges, in conjunction with the National Judicial College. He had published six books and well over 100 articles and chapters focusing primarily upon new and minority religions, issues of religious freedom and legal control of religious groups in the United States and other countries. Magdalena Samborska-Murgio (Krakow, Poland / New York, New York) is currently working toward a Master’s degree at Columbia University’s School for International and Public Affairs. A Polish citizen, she has attended the Agricultural Academy of Krakow and Jagiellonian University. Balazs Schanda (Budapest, Hungary) is currently a Pew Fellow at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Religion, Human Rights and Religious Freedom Project. He is also an assistant to the vice-president of the Constitutional Court of Hungary. A lawyer by training, Mr. Schanda teaches courses on religion and constitutional law at the Eötvös Lörand University in Budapest and on public ecclesiastical law at the Law Faculty of the Catholic University Peter Pazmany. Mr. Schanda also acts as a liaison for the Catholic Archdiocese Esztergo-Budapest and conducts fundraising and public relations training programs for parishioners. Mr. Schanda has written and published extensively on the relationship between church and state and freedom of religion in Europe. Gábor Schweitzer (Budapest, Hungary) is a Researcher at the Political and Legal Sciences Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Science. Having been a post-graduate fellow at the Center of Jewish Studies at the Hungarian Academy of Science, he has also taught courses at Eötvös Loránd University of Budapest.. Mr. Schweitzer has written and published extensively on topics related to the Hungarian public service system, the right of education and freedom of religion in Hungary, and Hungarian Jewry in modern times. Donald Shriver (New York, NY) is President Emeritus of Union Theological Seminary in New York. He is an ordained minister of the Presbyterian Church (USA), with academic work at Davidson College, Union, Yale Divinity School, and Harvard University in the field of Christian Social Ethics and religion and society. He has taught at numerous institutions on social ethics. His two most recent books are Beyond Success: Corporations and Their Critics in the ‘Nineties’ and Ethics for Enemies: Forgiveness in Politics. Marat Shterin (London, UK) is a sociologist currently completing a doctoral thesis at the London School of Economics and Political Science. His research interests include a sociological study of new and mainstream religions, religious legislation and church-state relationships in an international perspective. In Russia, Dr. Shterin is a Senior Research Fellow at the State Library for Foreign Literature. Ekaterina Smyslova (Moscow, Russia) is a 1997-1998 Pew Fellow at Columbia University’s Center for the Study of Human Rights and is head of the legal department at the Institute of Religion and Law in Moscow. Ms. Smyslova serves as a legal advisor and consultant to religious organizations regarding legislation and human rights. An attorney by training, Ms. Smyslova has written extensively on issues of religious freedom and the relationship between the church and state and freedom of religion in Europe. Jolanta Steciuk (Warsaw, Poland) is a 1997-1998 Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. She has completed her final year of international legal studies at Warsaw University, where she specializes in human rights law with a minor in Polish-Jewish and Israeli history. Ms. Steciuk also works for Polska Akcja Humanitarna where she counsels refugees. She is a member of Pax Christi and has taken part in seminars related to Christian-Jewish dialogue and has led journalism workshops for students in Albania. Since 1996, she has coordinated an educational project in Piaseczno, a town on the outskirts of Warsaw, on the history of the town’s Jews. Natalia Taubina (Moscow, Russia) is senior program officer at the Moscow Research Center for Human Rights and program director at the Human Rights Foundation for Civil Society. She has also worked at the Civic Forum collecting and analyzing data on forced migrants and refugees. Ms. Taubina is particularly interested in helping non-governmental organizations which promote religious tolerance and the revival of the Jewish community in Russia. Ms. Taubina received her degree from the faculty of Cybernetics at the Moscow Institute of Physics and Engineering. In 1996, she was a Pew Fellow at the Center for the Study of Human Rights at Columbia University. David Godfrey Thomas (Essex, UK) is a Fellow of Essex University’s Centre for the Study of Theology and Society and a Member of the inter-departmental Forum on Central and Eastern Europe. A parish priest, Rev. Thomas has focused much of his attention on inter-faith dialogue and currently acts as Moderator and Chair of the national and interdenominational Churches East-West European Relations Network. His special interest in earlier years was the Christian-Marxist dialogue and now centers around the dialogue between various faiths and religious traditions, as well as the relationship between organized belief systems and folk/implicit/popular religion in Europe. Piotr Trojanski (Krakow, Poland) is a Professor and Researcher at the Institute of History at the Krakow Pedagogical University. His research interests concern the history of national minorities in Poland. Specializing in the history of Polish-Jews, Mr. Trojanski is co-author of The Jews in Poland. Johan D. van der Vyver (Atlanta, Georgia) is the I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights at Emory Law School, Fellow in the Human Rights Program at the Carter Center, and formerly Professor of Law at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, as well as Professor of Law and Dean of Pochefstroom University. He is a widely-known authority on international human rights and comparative constitutionalism, and was one of the leading scholarly proponents for constitutional and human rights reform in his native South Africa. He is author of more than 200 articles and 8 books, including Seven Lectures on Human Rights, Reformed Christians and Social Justice, The Juridical Function of Church and State, and The Republic of South Africa Constitution Act. Carolyn Wah (Patterson, New York is Assistant General Counsel for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, Inc. Ms. Wah is an attorney and was admitted to law practice in the State of New York in 1985. She has published numerous papers and given presentations on issues of religious practice, minority religions, mental health and family law. Stefan Wilkanowicz (Krakow, Poland) is an editor for the distinguished monthly journal Znak which focuses on issues relating to religion and society. Viktor Yelensky (Kiev, Ukraine) is Editor-in-Chief of Liudina i Svit, a journal which addresses issues of religion and society in Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet region. His recent research interests focus on the difficulties which have arisen between Orthodox Christians and Catholics in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe following the downfall of totalitarian regimes.
about the sponsors
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The CENTER FOR THE STUDY OF HUMAN RIGHTS at Columbia University was established in 1978 to promote the teaching and research of human rights in their national and international contexts. The Center's activities cover all disciplines and address both theoretical and policy questions. The PROGRAM ON RELIGION, HUMAN RIGHTS AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOM was initiated at the Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Fall of 1995 to respond to new challenges and opportunities to promote collaboration between the world’s religions and the contemporary human rights movement. A major goal of this training and research program for religious leaders, human rights activists, and scholars is to promote interaction between religious communities and the international human rights movement, as well as to enhance concern for religious freedom and religious tolerance. The aim is to help develop self-perpetuating institutions promoting such interaction in countries around the world. The Program is funded by Pew Charitable Trusts. The HARRIMAN INSTITUTE at Columbia University is the oldest academic center in the United States devoted to the interdisciplinary study of the Russian empire, the Soviet Union and the post-communist states. Part of the Harriman Institute, THE EAST CENTRAL EUROPEAN CENTER at Columbia University was established in 1954 to promote the study of the countries lying between Germany and the Soviet Union and between the Baltic and the Aegean Seas. The JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER (JUHRC), founded in 1993, is a volunteer-run organization working under the auspices of the Jagiellonian Faculty of Law and Administration. The work of JUHRC is primarily focused on the areas of human rights education and cost-free legal assistance provided by a group of approximately 20 Jagiellonian law students. The JAGIELLONIAN UNIVERSITY RESEARCH CENTER ON JEWISH HISTORY AND CULTURE IN POLAND was established in 1986 as an initiative of Professor Józef A. Gierowski. The goal of the Center is to conduct interdisciplinary research, train academic specialists and provided educational programs related to Jewish history and culture in Poland. The language of the conference is English. Opinions expressed at the conference do not necessarily represent those of the sponsors or The Pew Charitable Trusts.
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For Further Information on this Conference or the Program on Religion, Human Rights and Religious Freedom, Please Contact:
Dr. Elizabeth (Lili) Cole
Center for the Study of Human Rights
Telephone 212-854-7189 / 2479
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www.columbia.edu/cu/humanrights/ |