Engaging Religious Leaders
to Generate Respect for Humanitarian Norms in Armed Conflict
16 January 2023, 15:00 - 17:00 (CET)
Auditorium A1B, Geneva Graduate Institute
Live-streamed online
Public conference co-organised by
the Delegation of the European Union to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva,
the Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN and other international organisations in Geneva,
and the University of York
This conference seeks to engage academic, humanitarian, diplomatic and religious circles in a conversation about why and when engagement with religious leaders can be beneficial to humanitarian norm-compliance and how it can be pursued effectively.
The event will present the findings of the applied research Generating Respect for Humanitarian Norms: The Influence of Religious Leaders on Parties to Armed Conflict - The Generating Respect Project, developed by the University of York’s Centre for Applied Human Rights and York Law School, in close partnership with Geneva Call and the Diakonia International Humanitarian Law Centre, and funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK).
The Generating Respect Project aimed
To provide empirical evidence for the influence of religious leaders on state and non-state parties to armed conflict;
To conceptualise why and how religious leaders exert influence on armed actors, how they interact with humanitarian norms anchored in international humanitarian law and human rights law, and how their influence can be leveraged for norm-compliance generation;
To operationalise the findings in the form of guidelines to enable effective engagement between humanitarians and religious leaders.
The research is based on extensive desk analysis and empirical data collected through online and in-country interviews with religious leaders, armed actors, humanitarians, scholars, and other key stakeholders from Colombia, Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Syria, and Yemen.
15:00 – 15:10 Welcome Addresses
Moderator: Ms Vanessa Vuille, Legal Adviser, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs FDFA, Permanent Mission of Switzerland to the UN
Address by Mr Predrag Avramovic, Head of Humanitarian and Migration section at the Permanent Delegation of the European Union to the United Nations Office and other international organizations in Geneva
15:10 – 16:00 Conceptual and empirical findings from the Generating Respect Project: Why and how to engage with religious leaders in armed conflict?
Dr Ezequiel Heffes, Senior Policy and Legal Advisor, Geneva Call – Overview of the Generating Respect Project’s findings & outputs
Dr Ioana Cismas, Co-Director, Centre for Applied Human Rights & Reader, York Law School, University of York – Launch of the Considerations and Guidance for the Effective Humanitarian Engagement with Religious Leaders
Questions & Answers
16:00 – 17:00 Interactive panel discussion Engaging religious leaders for norm-compliance: Reflections from religious, humanitarian, and academic circles
Moderator: Ms Reka Dobri, Team Leader for Sectoral Polices and Mainstreaming, Humanitarian Aid Thematic Policies Unit, Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (DG ECHO)
Panellists:
Sheikh Maytham Al Salman, Muslim Cleric & Researcher, University of York
Ms Nathalie Weizmann, Senior Legal Advisor, United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)
Dr Kathrine Fortin, Associate Professor, University of Utrecht
Questions and Answers
17:00 – 18:00 Cocktail