Introduction - The Shift in FocusPart I - From Religion and International Law to Religious Actors in International Law1: Religion and International Law Revisited2: Religious Actors as an Analytical CategoryPart II - Operationalizing the Analytical Category of Religious Actors3: Religious Organizations Under the European Convention Regime4: The Holy See - Vatican State-Like Construct5: The Organization Of Islamic Cooperation as Interpreter of Human Rights in the Context of IslamConclusions - Accountability and Legitimacy
Ioana Cismas is Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for Human Rights and Global Justice at NYU School of Law. Prior to moving to NYU she was the Coordinator of the Law Clinic at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights and an OHCHR consultant to the UN Special Rapporteur on transitional justice. She was previously a researcher at the Geneva Academy focusing on the intersection of economic, social and cultural rights and civil and political rights. She provided legal and policy expertise to various stakeholders, including the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs, and acted as legal adviser to a member of the UN Human Rights Council Advisory Committee. While in Switzerland she focused on corporate complicity in international crimes and humanitarian engagement of non-state actors while working in research institutions and non-governmental organizations.
Ioana Cismas tests the relationship between religious actors and
their rights and obligations under international law in a most
novel and compelling way. [A]n insightfully researched and very
well written bookâ represents a stimulating addition to the
literature on non-state actors and human rights. In the end, it is
another strong recognition that the present rules of international
law not only regulate the behaviour of states, but also many other
entities participating in the international sphere.
*Ezequiel Heffes, Human Rights Law Review*
Overall, this book is a welcome and refreshing addition to the
growing literature on religion and human rights. Human rights
activists, diplomats, and scholars would benefit from paying more
attention to religious actors and the ways to hold them accountable
to international human rights law, rather than engaging in
exegetical debates with them on the right way to interpret
religious texts.
*Turan Kayaoglu, Global Policy*
This book makes an invaluable contribution to the growing
scholarship in this field. It takes us beyond debate about whether
religious doctrines-practices are compatible with international
law, the classification of religious actors as essentially private
entities, and the classical focus on the special rights associated
with religion. In a set of meticulous case studies, the book
proposes that religious actors do not form an autonomous category
in international law, but are subject to norms also applicable to
non-religious entities. Cismas is to be applauded for the
innovative and challenging thesis that the best defence of their
autonomy is to embrace human rights in their own internal
governance and life in order to operate in a legitimate way in
society and under international law.
*Norman Doe, Professor and Director, Centre for Law and Religion,
Cardiff University*
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