The project, which has been renamed The Religion and Human Rights Project at Emory University, is an independent initiative founded in 1993 by a group of religious leaders, scholars and activists. According to Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na'im, a member of the Emory law faculty and project co-director, the project's goals are to increase understanding of the relation between religion and human rights and to develop practical resources for human rights advocates, religious communities, educators, journalists and governments.
In addition to An-Na'im, the project will be co-directed by professors John Witte and Johan van der Vyver under the auspices of Emory's Law and Religion Program. A native of The Sudan, An-Na'im is an internationally recognized scholar in comparative and Islamic law who joined the faculty this fall. Most recently he served as executive director of Human Rights Watch/Africa in Washington, D.C. Witte, a member of the Emory law faculty since 1989, also is director of the Law and Religion Program and Jonas Robitscher Professor of Law and Ethics in the Professions. Van der Vyver joined Emory in January as I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights and was named fellow for human rights at The Carter Center this spring.
The project initially was "undertaken in the conviction that the complex relation between religion and human rights is not adequately understood and that the need for a new inquiry is critical," according to the project's published mandates. "The idea was to form a group that would study the relationship between human rights and religion, then work toward promoting strategies of response," said An-Na'im.
To date, the project has produced two major conferences and a primer volume outlining the project's objectives and the extensive issues to be addressed, and has served as a clearinghouse for data on religious rights abuses and religious rights advocacy around the world.
"This has been a unique effort designed to remedy the traditional deprecation of religion in the human rights field," said Witte. Currently, the co-directors are redesigning the structure and mandate of the project and have begun negotiating for long-term support with major foundations. "The project will add another dimension to the Law and Religion Program's inquiries into the cardinal questions of law, religion, democracy and human rights," Witte said.
"We have a vehicle under which we can take many initiatives," said An-Na'im. "Emory is an academic institution ideally suited for this type of work. We're pulling together project teams to undertake analysis following the scholarly canons in place here."
"I know firsthand the human cost of religious conflict," said An-Na'im, "but as a Muslim I know the human/humane side -- this is a practical thing to do."
The project addresses a broad range of issues on the relationship between religion and human rights, but focuses on four major areas: religion and violence, religion as a resource for peace and human rights, the status of human rights vis-a-vis religious traditions, and the politics of recognizing oppressed groups. The co-directors claim that "there is much to be done; so far the project has only barely scratched the surface, and continuation of this work is essential if we hope to see religions contribute further to the strengthening and expansion of human rights in the modern world."
Previously, the project was directed by Bishop Paul J. Moore, former bishop of New York of the Episcopal Church; Rabbi J. Rolando Matalon and the late Rabbi Marshall T. Meyer, both prominent Jewish leaders with congregations in New York City; and Kusumita Pedersen, a scholar of Asian religions in New York.
Pedersen said that after the project's successful launch, its "steering committee was unanimous that they did not want the project to stand on its own. We wanted it to be incorporated into an institution as a second project." Pedersen said that Witte had always been "extremely supportive" of the endeavor, and when An-Na'im, who had been "a pillar of the project from the beginning," came to Emory, the directors were "delighted" to have the project move to Atlanta.
-- Danielle Service
Editor's Note: See a related story on Johan van Der Vyver's
appointment as Carter Center Fellow for human rights.