BYU to host 26th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium

The International Center for Law and Religion Studies will be hosting the 26th Annual International Law and Religion Symposium from Oct. 6-8. The theme of this conference is titled “Human Dignity and Freedom of Religion or Belief: Preventing and Responding to Persecution.”

Speakers will include ambassadors, religious leaders, journalists, etc. visiting from as far as Egypt and Algeria.

Elizabeth Clark, associate director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, talked about how the purpose of the symposium is to encourage discussion about religious persecution around the world and to discuss ways to stop it.

This will be the largest Annual International Law and Religion Symposium since it was founded in 1994. There will be 100 delegates representing various faiths from 55 countries across the world such as Lord Alton of Liverpool, who will be giving a keynote address. Bishop Efraim Tendero, incoming co-president of Religions for Peace and secretary-general and CEO of the World Evangelical Alliance, will also be a keynote speaker.

And to symposium attendees, Clark offers this advice:

“I’d tell them to come with questions in their mind; to come thinking about the people who are going to speak many of them are people who are leading in the field.”

The symposium’s opening session will begin on Oct. 6, 7 p.m. at the law school and will conclude on Oct. 8 at 5:30 p.m.