Workshop on Religion and Conflict/Religion and Peace under the auspices of the OSCE Network of Think Tanks and Academic Institutions, John Hume Boardroom, Maynooth, 13 April 2018 

Thursday 12 April 

17:30 “Education as the Making of a World in Common Across Difference” – inaugural lecture of Professor Carl Anders Säfström, Professor of Educational Research,

Friday 13 April, John Hume Boardroom, North Campus

09:30 Opening Session

Introductory remarks by Dr. Peter Cassells, Director, Edward M. Kennedy Institute, National University of Ireland, Maynooth; and Rev. Dr. Michael Shortall, Registrar, St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth

Brief tour de table

10:00  Keynote address: Professor Michael O’Flaherty, Director, European Union Fundamental Rights Agency

10:30 – 11:15

Working Session I: constructive engagement of policymakers and religious leaders

Presentation by Professor Mohammed Abu-Nimer/Ambassador Alvaro Albacete (King Abdullah International Centre for Intercultural and Inter-religious Dialogue); response by Mario Buil-Merce, UN Office on Genocide Prevention and the Responsibility to Protect 

11:15 Break for coffee/ tea

11:30 to 12:45

Working Session II: religion, the common good, business, the economy

Presentations by Professor Suzanne Mulligan (St. Patrick’s College Maynooth), Michael Wakelin (Coexist), Philip McDonagh (Kennedy Institute, on behalf of Professor Helen Alford, Vice-Rector, the Angelicum)

13:00 lunch

14: 30 – 15:45

Working Session III: religion, security, reconciliation

Presentations by Dr. Kishan Manocha (ODIHR); Professor Martin Leiner/Dr. Zeina Barakat (Centre for the Study of Reconciliation, Jena); Dr. Frank Evers (Centre for OSCE Research, University of Hamburg). 

15: 45 Break for coffee or tea

16:00 – 16:30  Working Session IV: the State and religious communities- Swiss Political Culture: Addressing Religious Conflicts in a Practical and Consensual Manner

Presentation by Owen Frazer, Centre for Security Studies,  ETH Zurich

16:30 – 17:15 Working Session V: next steps

Can the OSCE or OSCE participating States do more to engage with religious actors? Can the OSCE as a values-led Organisation benefit from a deeper dialogue around concepts having some of their roots in a religious view of life? 

Dinner