Preventing Atrocity: Reasons to Engage with the Religion and Ethics of the
Other
16 June, 2014, 10:30 - 17 June, 2014, 17:30
The workshop organising team welcomes
applications for potential participants in the Stakeholder Workshop, who should
explain their interest in the workshop, and outline their related work.
Applicants who wish to offer a paper presentation for the final session of the
workshop should give a title and abstract of between 250 and 500 words.
Participants will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation
expenses. A limited number of places are available. Participants associated
with the co-sponsoring organisations, the PSA UK and the BISA Working Group on
Religion, Security and International Affairs, are particularly welcomed. Please
email applications to george.wilkes@ed.ac.uk before 31 March 2014.
Concept Note
This workshop aims to deal with key issues
and opportunities arising for civilian protection programming in situations
where conflict is associated with religion or with differences over religion
and secularism. The encounter and exchange between academics and practitioners
will be central to the event: it seeks to bring together decision-makers, educators
working in security forces and specialists from across different academic
disciplines.
Central Questions
Religion is a salient force in many of
today’s conflicts. In very different ways, it has shaped the approaches taken
to military ethics of state and non-state combatants, of civilian populations,
and of public voices prominent in debate about humanitarian and peacebuilding
needs. This influence may be felt in subtle forms: religious legacies which
shape notions of secular, universal or pragmatic ethics – as was acknowledged
by the ICISS in generating the ‘responsibility to protect’ framework – or
now-secular rituals through which legitimate action is conceived. The
consequences for civilian protection of engaging with potentially divisive
approaches involving religion are controversial and little understood, and call
for a dialogue about responsible engagement between divergent parties, scholars
and the range of communities involved. This stakeholder workshop is designed to
investigate how a dialogue involving multiple stakeholders can advance options
for credible and serious study and action.
What do humanitarian and human rights NGOs
need to do in order to address the impact of religious actors and communities
on their work? When compromises are demanded in exchange for humanitarian
access, how may the religious components at stake best be dealt with?
How do militaries and governments respond
to the impact of religious and post-religious division in embarking upon or
engaged with civilian protection in the context of humanitarian and
peacebuilding missions?
To what extent is civilian protection
practice marked by conflicts over religion or secularism?
How do norms justified in terms of
interreligious or religious-secular conflict affect breaches of humanitarian
norms, and how do these norms impact on efforts to promote the protection of
civilians?
Organisers: the Project on Religion and
Ethics in the Making of War and Peace (http://relwar.org) and the Just World
Institute (www.sps.ed.ac.uk/jwi) at the University of Edinburgh
This event is sponsored by the Political
Studies Association of the UK and the British International Studies Association
Working Group on Religion, Security and International Affairs. Co-sponsors from
the University of Edinburgh include: the College of Humanities and Social
Science, the Global Justice Academy
Objectives
To engage practitioners and academics in a
common effort to identify key issues and opportunities for civilian protection
programming arising in situations where conflict is associated with religion or
with differences over religion and secularism.
To reinvigorate the conceptual and
political debate on preventing atrocities by linking practitioner insights with
academic discussions.
To network practitioners and academics
across disciplines and professions with an interest in exploring and discussing
the practical and conceptual issues at stake
To develop a rudimentary knowledge base and
network between interlocutors which could serve as a framework for further
discussion and collaborative research
To produce a report following the event for
wide circulation, to serve as the beginning of further discussion of the
practical challenges facing actors in religiously-charged situations who are
promoting the norms associated with civilian protection.
Preliminary Programme
Session 1 – What is at stake in invoking
religious perspectives on civilian protection and humanitarian interventions?
Introductory intervention: Muhamed Jusic,
journalist, social activist, prominent figure in the Bosnian Islamic community,
genocide survivor.
Session 2 – What is at stake for
humanitarian actors working with state and non-state combatant forces?
Introductory intervention: Ronald
Ofteringer, ICRC, responsible for coordinating global work with regard to
dialogue with Islamist groups, community and religious leaders, academics and
others.
Session 3 – What is at stake for human
rights work with state and non-state combatant forces?
Introductory intervention: Joe Stork, HRW
Deputy Director of the Middle East and North Africa Division, author of a
report on engaging non-state forces with civilian protection responsibilities
under international law.
Session 4 – What is at stake for militaries
in designing civilian protection in religiously-sensitive contexts?
Introductory intervention: speaker tbc
Session 5 – What is at stake in designing
humanitarian interventions in religiously-sensitive contexts? Diplomatic
challenges
Introductory intervention: speaker tbc
Session 6 – State of the academic field:
selected presentations
Practicalities
Lunch and refreshments will be provided for
all invited participants.
Chatham House rules may be applied to
facilitate discussions.
A list of hotels will be sent to
participants on request.
Participants
International specialists working on
civilian protection through diverse lenses, from humanitarian and human rights
organisations, to diplomats, journalists and military ethics specialists
Academics from across the UK and from
across academic disciplines and area specialisms
Topics for discussion to include:
The impact of local religious and political
sensitivities on civilian protection interventions
Approaches taken within militaries and
non-state armed groups to religion, military ethics and humanitarian law/law of
armed conflict
The impact of religion on engagement
between armed forces, local populations and humanitarian and human rights
defenders, from education and awareness raising to building supporting
communities and effecting practical interventions
Religious and non-religious influences on
the diplomacy surrounding humanitarian interventions
Religious and non-religious influences on
military ethics formation
University of Edinburgh
EH8 9YL
United Kingdom