International Religion and Law Symposium Delegates Hope to Effect Change

At the close of the International Law and Religion Symposium, Professor W. Cole Durham, Jr., who is also the director of the Symposium’s sponsoring organization, urged those in attendance to take what they had learned during the conference and apply it in their respective nations.

“There’s a lot of empirical evidence that if you go to a conference and don’t write down what you’re going to do as a result, you won’t do anything,” Professor Durham said.

After his call to action, Professor Durham revealed that he hoped the symposium had planted seeds of collaboration and mutual understanding.

“We’ve had some remarkable sessions,” Professor Durham said. “This was an opportunity to meet people, to share new ideas and to establish contacts.”

Then, he invited six delegates to share their final thoughts about the symposium. Hailing from Colombia, Canada, Ukraine, China, Bangladesh and India, the delegates’ perspectives were varied, yet still shared a common thread.

“This has been an extraordinary experience,” said Dr. Kamal Hossain, distinguished former government minister from Bangladesh, who was one of the principal authors of his nation’s constitution. “It has been a unique forum given its diversity and its format. But it has had all the warmth of a family reunion… What is quite extraordinary is that from Bangladesh to Chile, and including the diversity of all the nations represented here, you really feel you could connect [with each other].”

“This conference, in furthering friendship, which is one of the forms of love,” observed Iain Benson, a noted Scottish-Canadian lawyer, scholar, lecturer, and consultant who lives in France and teaches in South Africa. “This is a move in the right direction and a strong beginning.”

Posted: October 19, 2010

Posted: December 31, 1969