11.6.14

I will be speaking at the workshop in Edinburgh on Preventing Atrocity: Reasons to Engage with the Religion and Ethics of the Other

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