Striving for Human Rights in an Age of Religious Extremism

Religious extremism has spawned academic and policy attention on religion, and this attention largely stems from an impulse to control ‘religion.’ Approaching this challenge from the perspective of international human rights law reveals interesting challenges regarding both ‘religion’ and ‘human rights,’ and the relationship between them. Bahá’í perspectives give multiple accounts of religion: as something that should result from individual search; that can stimulate service and fellowship on the one hand and ignite a world‐devouring fire on the other. Considering the global onslaught of religious extremism, what is the scope for seeking to bring the positive role of religion into the frame?

  • Nazila Ghanea

    Dr Nazila Ghanea is Associate Professor in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford. She serves as Associate Director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub and is a Fellow of Kellogg College. She serves as a member of the OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief and on the Board of Trustees of the independent think tank, the Universal Rights Group. She has received a number of university scholarships and academic awards. Nazila has acted as a human rights consultant/expert for a number of governments, the UN, UNESCO, OSCE, Commonwealth, Council of Europe and the EU. She has facilitated international human rights law training for a range of professional bodies around the world, lectured widely and carried out first hand human rights field research in a number of countries including Malaysia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. She is a regular contributor to the media on human rights matters. 

The views expressed in this recording are those of the presenter and do not necessarily represent the views of the Association for Bahá’í Studies, nor the authoritative explications of Bahá’í writings.