Mahfoud Ali Zoui is a professor of civilization at the Department of English, Guelma University, Algeria. He is the author of many papers including: “Freedom of Expression and the Right to Offend: Western Vs. Islamic Perspectives”, and “Media Discourse and Intolerance of Muslim Post -9/11 Visibility in the West: The British Context”. He presided over the organizing committee of the international conference “15 Years in the New Millennium: The Grand Upheavals; Global Security, Ideological Conflict and Literary” held at Guelma University in November 2016. His research areas of interest include faith minorities and intercivilizational dialogue, political Islam, and multiculturalism.
Muhammed Haron is a South African professor who is based in the Department of Theology & Religious Studies at the University of Botswana. He authored The Dynamics of Christian-Muslim Relations (2006), edited Going Forward: South African-Malaysia Relations (2008), compiled/edited South Africa’s Muslims: Annotated Bibliography (1997), and South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission: An Annotated Bibliography (2009), and co-edited Islamic Civilization in Southern Africa (2009) and Muslim Higher Education in Postcolonial Africa (2016). He edited special issues on ‘Arabo-Islamic Manuscripts [in Africa]’ for Tydksrif vir Letterkunde (Pretoria 45:1, 2008), and a special issue on ‘Muslims in Southern Africa’ for BOLESWA: Journal of Theology, Religion and Philosophy (University of Botswana 4:1, 2012). He co-edited Annual Review of Islam in Africa (Cape Town 2015/2016).
Kgomotso Moeketsi-Seitlhomolo is the Registration Superintendent (Northern Region) at the Ministry of Nationality, Immigration and Gender Affairs. Kgomotso previously served as Secretary General of the Advisory and Arbitration Council, Assistant Registrar of Societies, Manager of Civil and National Registration, and as an environmental planner for MLHA. Kgomotso has a BA in Social Sciences, Demography and Environmental Science.
Hon. Lady Justice Tujilane Rose Chizumila is a national of Malawi and was elected Judge of the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights in January 2017 during the 28th Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union, for a six-year term. Justice Chizumila has a masters in International Law and has held several positions in the judicial, legal, academic, diplomatic, administrative, governance and corporate fields in Malawi, including Judge of the High Court of Malawi, State Advocate and Legal Aid Advocate with the Ministry of Justice, Secretary of the Law Society of Malawi, first Female Ombudsman, Malawi High Commissioner to Zimbabwe, and Proprietor and Founder of Chizumila and Company. She has a number of publications to her credit, including “A widow’s perspective – a personal experience’’, a publication which led to the enactment of a law in Parliament, making property grabbing an offence in Malawi. Justice Chizumila speaks English and Swahili.
Kouassi Louis Kouadio is a teacher-researcher at the training and research unit in administrative legal sciences and management at Alassane Quattara University in Bouaké. He has a Doctor of Law in History of Law and Institutions.
Dr. Vanja-Ivan Savić earned a first law degree (cum laude), a master’s degree in Science in Law, and a PhD in Legal Theory and Corporate Criminal Law from the University of Zagreb. In 2005 he was British Chevening Scholar at The University of Edinburgh, where he clerked for Rt. Hon. John Robert Reed, now judge of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and in 2010 he was an International Fellow at DePaul University’s International Human Rights Law Institute. Most recently he served as Distinguished Visiting Research Fellow at the University of Adelaide’s Research Unit for the Study of Society, Law and Religion, a visiting scholar at the Buffett Center at Northwestern University, and a guest professor at DePaul University. Dr. Savić was also visiting researcher and lecturer at the University of Vienna, and serves as an assistant professor at the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Law where he works as Head of the Legal Theory Department. His area of expertise includes legal theory, theory of law and state, law and religion, corporate criminal law, and human rights. He has published articles in Croatian, English, and Vietnamese including a textbook on criminal liability of juristic persons, and co-created an academic blog. He is co-editing a book with Paul Babie that is forthcoming. In 2016 he was a Croatian representative for the European Consortium for Church and State Research, and a consultant for OSCE’s platform for making Guidelines for FoRB practices in OSCE member states. Dr. Savić has conducted workshops on combatting human trafficking in Vietnam and in Croatia, and has been a participant and speaker at various conferences and workshops including the "Religion and The Rule of Law" training program in Myanmar 2017.
Halefom Abay Ayele obtained a BA Degree in History, Education, and Sociology and Social Anthropology in 2011 and 2012 respectively from Addis Ababa University. Currently, he is Director of Religious Organizations and Associations Registration Directorate at Ministry of Federal and Pastoralist Development Affairs.
Hon. Amadou Camara is a member of the National Assembly of the Republic of The Gambia represengintgNianija. He serves on the following parliamentary committees: the select committee on Health, Women, Children, Disaster, Refugees and Humanitarian Relief; the select committee on Monitoring of Government Projects and Programs; the select committee on Environment, Sustainable Development and NGO Affairs. Hon. Amadou Camara also serves as a steering committee member of AFRiPAHR.
Professor Heiner Bielefeldt was appointed as United Nations Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief on 18 June 2010. Holding both a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Tübingen and a post-doctoral Habilitation Degree in Philosophy from the University of Bremen, following upon undergraduate studies in Philosophy and Catholic Theology at both institutions, Professor Bielefeldt teaches in the areas of political science, philosophy, law, and history. He has taught in faculties of law and philosophy at the universities of Tübingen, Mannheim, Heidelberg, Toronto, and Bielefeld. From 2003-2009 he served as Director of the German Institute for Human Rights, and during 2008-2009 he was Chair of the Subcommittee on Accreditation of National Human Rights Institutions, International Coordinating Committee, Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In 2009, he was appointed professor in the newly created Chair of Human Rights and Human Rights Policy at the University of Erlangen, which position he held at the time of his appointment as Special Rapporteur.
Brent Belnap earned a BA in Political Science from Brigham Young University and a JD in Law from Columbia Law School. He is an attorney and has served as Senior Vice President and Counsel for Citigroup, Inc., Senior Vice President and Acting General Counsel for iQor, Inc., and acted as Managing Director for Odyssey Capital Group, LLC in New York. He has been Of Counsel and Regional Legal Counsel to Kirton McConkie. He is a senior fellow for the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University.
Kofi Quashigah is Dean of the School of Law, University of Ghana. Before joining the University of Ghana he taught at the University of Nigeria Enugu Campus. He was a Fulbright Scholar at the Harvard Human Rights Program between 2001-2002 and a McArthur Foundation Visiting Scholar at the University of Wisconsin in 1992. His teaching and research interests include Constitutional Law, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, Jurisprudence, Governance, Elections Law, Law and Religion, and Alternative Dispute Resolution. He is a member of the General Legal Council of Ghana and on the Advisory Board of the Ministry of Justice. For several years he has been the President of the Ghana Association of Certified Mediators and Arbitrators.
Jonathan Fox (Ph.D. University of Maryland, 1997) is the Yehuda Avener Professor of Religion and Politics at Bar Ilan University. He specializes in the influence of religion on a wide variety of political and social phenomena including government religion policy, religious minorities, conflict, and international relations. He is the author or editor of ten books on these topics and over ninety articles and book chapters. Currently he is focusing on the issue of government religion policy as part of the Religion and State (RAS) project (www.religionandstate.org). The RAS project collects data on government religion policy in over 180 countries around the world and has produced numerous articles and three books, most recently Political Secularism, Religion and the State: A Time Series Analysis of Worldwide Data (Cambridge University Press, 2015) and The Unfree Exercise of Religion: A World Survey of Discrimination against Religious Minorities (Cambridge University Press, 2016). His other recent books include Religion in International Relations Theory: Interactions & Possibilities (Routledge, 2013, with Nukhet Sandal) and An Introduction to Religion and Politics: Theory & Practice (Routledge, 2013).
Elder Joseph W. Sitati was sustained as a General Authority Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on April 4, 2009. At the time, he was serving as President of the Nigeria Calabar Mission. Elder Sitati has served as a counselor in the Africa West Area Presidency. At Church headquarters, he has served as a member of the Self-Reliance/PEF Committee, as an Assistant Executive Director in the Priesthood and Family Department, as a member of the Boundary and Leadership Change Committee, and as an Assistant Executive Director in the Missionary Department. He is currently serving as First Counselor in the Africa Southeast Area. Elder Sitati earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Nairobi in 1975 and a diploma in accounting and finance from the Association of Certified Accountants. He worked as an executive for Reach the Children, a nongovernmental charitable organization. Prior to that, he worked in several positions with the Total Group, the fourth-largest oil and gas company in the world, including as strategy manager at Total Kenya and consultant for the overseas division. Since joining the Church in 1986, Elder Sitati has served in a number of Church callings, including branch president, district president, counselor in a mission presidency, stake president, Area Seventy, and mission president. He also served as the Church’s international director of public affairs for Africa.
Jamal C. Dehtho, Jr. is currently the Associate Dean and Assistant Professor Law at the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law, University of Liberia. He is also a senior associate in Tax and Legal Services for PricewaterhouseCoopers (Liberia) LLC. He was previously associated with Dunbar and Dunbar Law Offices, served as a legal consultant for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and for the Ministry of Justice, and has volunteered with Acres of Hope Liberia. He obtained a Master of Law degree in Energy, Environmental and Natural Resources Law from the University of Houston Law Center, and a Certificate in International and Domestic Commercial Arbitration. He also has an LLB from the University of Liberia and a BSc (cum laude) in Biology and Chemistry from Cuttington University.
•Daniel Thera is an Advisor to the Ministry of Religion and Cult Affairs of the Malian Government since May 2014. He also serves as Secretary of External Relations of AGEMPEM since September 2012 (a church network in Mali encompassing almost 50 protestant denominations). He is a member of the Africa Christian Lawyers Fellowship, Advocates International, and Advocates Mali, and is the Secretary in Charge of Conflict Affairs. Thera is the Chief Executive Officer of the Centre Protestant Pour l’Assistance Médicale au Mali (CPAM), an NGO in Koutiala, Mali. He is Chairman of the World Vision Mali Advisory Council Board. Previously, as a Regional Governor in Mali he oversaw community development for villages in Segou region, including water projects, and health and human services projects. He also served as Executive Director, CPAM, and was responsible for the organization and development of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital in Koutiala, Mali, as well as six medical centers in the Bako Region of Mali. He provided oversight of the staff of the Women’s and Children’s Hospital; negotiated government agreements and contracts; established a nursing school; and developed a $4M hospital project (averaging 3000 successful births per year). He earned his degree in Judicial Law and an MBA from the University of Bamako.
T. Jeremy Gunn, now at the International University of Rabat, was previously Professor of International Studies in the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Al AKhwayn University. Prior to these appointments in Morocco, he served as director of the program on Freedom of Religion and Belief at the American Civil Liberties Union and as director of research at the US Commission on International Religious Freedom. He earned his PhD from Harvard University, JD from Boston University (magna cum laude), MA from the University of Chicago, and BA in International Relations and Humanities from Brigham Young University. His publications include his Harvard dissertation, published as A Standard for Repair: The Establishment Clause, Equality, and Natural Rights, and the articles 'Religious Symbols in Public Schools: The Islamic Headscarf and the European Court of Human Rights Decision in Sahin v. Turkey'; 'Permissible Limitations on Religion'; 'Freedom of Religion and International Politics', World Politics Review; 'Religious Symbols and Religious Expression in the Public Square'; 'The Human Rights System'; and the book, No Establishment of Religion: America’s Original Contribution to Religious Liberty, ed. with John Witte Jr. (OUP 2012).
Amal Idrissi is Professor in the Faculty of Law at the University of Moulay Ismail in Meknès, Morocco. She is the first woman to be promoted to full professor in the law faculty at the university. She previously taught at University Hassan I in Settat, Morocco. She received a National Doctorate in Public Law from Hassan I University in Casablanca. In addition to teaching public law and constitutional law, her research interests and publications focus on the rights of women, and religion and law. She wrote, with T. Jeremy Gunn, the article on Morocco for the Brill Encyclopedia of Law and Religion.
HRM Oba (Dr) Michael Odunayo Ajayi, Arowotawaya II became the Elerinmo of Erinmo in Oriade LGA of Osun state in July 2014 after a career in the private sector, first with UAC of Nigeria Plc, and later with Nigeria German Chemicals Plc (Hoescht) as Head of Consumer Healthcare. He was seconded to Ghana to head the West African operations as Managing Director of AH Tradelink, and later as the expatriate Executive Vice President of Phyto Riker exporting generic pharmaceutical products to over 20 African countries. When he left paid employment, he set up a management consultancy firm importing for distribution pan West Africa own branded medical devices. He later became the founding Director General of the Ghana - Nigeria Chamber of Commerce and Industry and was the Founding President of the Forum of Nigerian Professionals in Ghana. He has a first degree in Sociology with a minor in Accounting and Business Admin from the University of Ilorin, an MBA in Marketing with first class distinction from Lagos State, and a Hon PhD in Commerce. He is a member of the Board of Trustees of the Yoruba Oodua Union, and of the Nigeria - US Trade Council, and a patron for several other organizations. Oba Odunayo Ajayi has received awards and was the first Nigerian monarch to be a guest at the opening bell of the New York Stock Exchange in April 2017. Oba Arowotawaya II has written and published five books. His Oba Arowotawaya Foundation has offered full scholarships to students in his domain, while the vocational school he introduced gives free training to equip hundreds of young people and women with practical skills.
Priscilla Ankut is a peace and development practitioner with over 20 years of experience in the field of law, development, governance, human rights, conflict resolution and peacebuilding. She is the current Chief Executive Officer of the Kaduna State Peace Commission, an agency established to promote peaceful and harmonious co-existence in communities in the state. Before the Peace Commission, Ms. Ankut held several technical leadership and managerial roles in donor funded programmes notably with the British Council, UK-DFID, European Union Delegation in Nigeria as well as with the United Nations Development Programme. She holds an LLM (master’s degree) in Human Rights and Democratization in Africa from the University of Pretoria, South Africa, a law degree from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, and has been called to the Nigerian Bar.
Ayodele Atsenuwa is a solicitor and advocate of the Supreme Court of Nigeria. She holds an LLM in Law and Development from the University of Warwick and another LLM degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from the University of London. A Professor of Law at the University of Lagos, her research and teaching areas span human rights, criminal law and justice, and gender and the law.
Wahab Egbewole is a legal practitioner and academic. He was called to the Nigerian Bar as a solicitor and advocate on 20th August 1985, and holds a Master’s and PhD in Law. Currently, he is a professor in the Department of Jurisprudence and International Law at the University of Ilorin. He served in various capacities in the Faculty including the office of the Dean, University of Ilorin. He is a member of the Governing Council of University of Ilorin representing the Senate and Director of General Studies Unit. He is a member of several learned societies including the African Consortium on Law and Religion, Law and Society Association, and the Nigerian Bar Association, and is a Fellow, Society for Peace Studies and Practice. At the 2015 International Bar Association held in Vienna, Austria he was unanimously elected as Newsletter Editor of the IBA Damages and Negligence Committee. He has published widely in the areas of Jurisprudence and Legal Theory and has five books in his name including Jurisprudence of Election Petitions by the Nigerian Court of Appeal (LAP Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany). He has attended several conferences including those of the American Society of International Law, the International Bar Association, and the Law and Society Association. He has served in executive positions of many learned societies, and is serving as External Examiner in a few Universities across the continent.
Ahmed Salisu Garba attended the University of Jos, Faculty of Law, earning First and Second Degrees in 2004 and 2011 respectively. Called to the Nigerian Bar in 2005, he is still in active legal practice and has held the position of Head of Chambers in the law firm of ABC Attorneys. He is presently the Acting HOD in the Department of Private and Business Law. He teaches law at the Bauchi State University, Gadau, in Nigeria. A PhD candidate at the Faculty of Law, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria, he is working on the regulation of religious preaching in Nigeria with a focus on Islamic Preaching Board Laws. He was a visiting scholar at the University of Iowa College of Law in the United States from August–December 2013. His publications include a recent article in the Annual Review of Islam in Africa published by the University of Cape Town.
Akinola Ibidapo-Obe is Professor and former Dean of the Faculty of Law, University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos, Nigeria. As Dean of Law, he pioneered the introduction of Law and Religion studies as an approved course in the Curriculum of the Faculty of Law of the University of Lagos for the 2016/2017 session. He is the former Director of the Centre for Human Rights (CHR) in the Faculty of Law. Professor Ibidapo-Obe's involvement with the law and religion movement began when he attended the 21st International Conference on Law and Religion held in Provo in October 2014. His faculty subsequently hosted an International Conference, "Towards Law and Religious Freedom in Africa", with support from Brigham Young University (BYU). Ibidapo-Obe together with his colleagues in several other Nigerian Universities and the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) branches in Lagos and Ikeja, have formed the Nigeria Association for Law and Religion Studies (NALARS) and the West African Regional Centre for Law and Religion Studies (WARCLARS) to promote teaching and research on law and religion in Nigeria and the West Africa sub-region. NALARS, WARCLARS, ACLARS, ICLARS, and the National Judicial Institute of Nigeria are also collaborating to organize the 1st National Judicial Roundtable on the Intersection Between Law and Religion: World Perspectives in the Nigerian Capital, Abuja on June 20, 2016.
Adesina J. Olukanni joined the International Center for Law and Religion Studies as Senior Fellow for Africa upon his retirement in late 2016 after nearly a decade of service in Public Affairs for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Africa. He has served in numerous Church positions, including Area Seventy, and counsellor in the Africa West Area Presidency. He was the Country Director in Nigeria for Church Education Systems of the Church between April 2004 and March 2007. In April of 2007 he became the Director of Public Affairs for the Church in the Africa West Area and the Africa South East Area and served as Director in the Africa West Area until his retirement. During his tenure in Church public affairs, he helped launch and establish public affairs work in more than 30 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. His work for religious freedom in Africa has led to annual religious academic conferences in Nigeria and Ghana and the formation of the Law and Religion Center and Association in West Africa and Nigeria. Adesina was the Head of Information Technology, Department of the West African Portland Cement Plc. Lagos, Nigeria for 11 years out of a total of 17 years he spent working for the Company. Before that he worked in management positions in other blue chip companies in Nigeria, including the A. G. Leventis Group. Adesina has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science and Economics from the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife) and a Master of Science degree in Computer Science from the University of Lagos, Nigeria.
Dr. Kishan Manocha is Senior Adviser on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the Organization for Security and Co-operation Europe Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in Warsaw. He has served as Director of the Office of Public Affairs of the Bahá’í community of the United Kingdom. He holds degrees in medicine and law from the Universities of London and Cambridge respectively. He has extensive experience in religious freedom and minority rights issues in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia as a consultant to international and non-governmental organizations. He first trained in psychiatry, completing a Research Fellowship in Forensic Psychiatry, before studying law. He specialized in international criminal and human rights law for his LLM and practiced as a barrister in a number of international criminal law cases before the English courts. He has worked at the Special Court for Sierra Leone and has been a Visiting Research Fellow at the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard as well as a Fellow of the Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies at Concordia University. He has lectured at universities in the United Kingdom and Pakistan, and is a Research Fellow at the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation, a Professional Associate at the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University, and a member of the Advisory Council of the Centre for Religion and Global Affairs.
Yacine Gaye studied at Cheikh Anta Diop University, where she graduated with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in lettres modernes. She spent 3 years teaching languages until 2013 when she returned to Dakar and joined the Ministry for Higher Education and Research as National Liaison Assistant for IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) where she served until January 2016. She moved to the position of Coordinator of the Direction of Public Rights at the General Direction of Territorial Administration of the Ministry of Interior. In April 2018, she was chosen by the Minister of Interior to go to South Korea to take part in the capacity building program.
Penda Mbow is an associate professor of history at Cheikh Anta Diop University in Dakar, Senegal, as well as the Senegalese president’s personal representative to the International Organization of La Francophonie. Among her many areas of expertise are African intellectual history, Islam, and gender studies. In the past, she served as Senegal's Minister of Culture and as Cultural Advisor to the Senegalese Department of Ethnography and Historical Heritage. Mbow has received numerous academic awards, including a Fulbright grant and a Rockefeller Foundation award for research at the Bellagio Center in Italy. She received the Jean Paul II Peace Prize from Boston University to honor her work to advance peacebuilding and conflict resolution. She was named a Knight of the French Legion of Honor (Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur Francaise) in 2003 and a Commander of the National Order of Merit (Commandeur de l'Ordre National du Merite) in 1999. Mbow holds a doctorate in medieval history from the University of Aix-Marseilles.
Rev. Dr. Usman Jesse Fornah has experience in many fields such as human rights, psychosocial care delivery, and conflict resolution. He has participated and presented papers in various international conferences. Rev. Dr. Fornah has served the Wesleyan Church of Sierra Leone for 31 years as a local pastor in a number of Local Churches across the country and many other additional responsibilities such as; National Director for Youth and Young Adults, District Superintendent, National Secretary and Director of Administration of the Wesleyan Church – a position he held until he was elected as National Superintendent (Bishop) in May 2009. His passion for pastoral ministry is equaled only by his passion for effective Church leadership which led him to pursue a master’s degree in Ministerial Leadership through Wesley Seminary, Indiana Wesleyan University, USA. He also has a Doctor of Divinity Degree (Honoris Causa) from Kingswood University in Sussex, Canada. In the field of Ecumenism and interfaith dialogue, he served as President of the Evangelical Fellowship of Sierra Leone, First Vice President of the Council of Churches in Sierra Leone, Chairman of the Board of Directors for The Evangelical College of Theology (TECT) and General Secretary of the Inter-Religious Council of Sierra Leone (IRCSL).
Retired professor of Theology at the University of Stellenbosch, Professor Coertzen still teaches a course in Comparative Canon Law at the KU Leuven every year. He is chairperson of the Unit for the Study of Law and Religion in the Beyers Naudé Centre for Public Theology, Faculty of Theology, University of Stellenbosch and is past President of the African Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ACLARS). He holds seven degrees: BA, BA Hons, and MA in Philosophy (Pothefstroom University for Christian Higher Education); Bachelor of Theology, Licentiate in Theology, and Master of Theology in Ecclesiology, and doctorate degree in Theology (Ecclesiology) (University of Stellenbosch). For the Dutch Reformed Church, he has served in many capacities, including Parish Minister, Actuarius, and Church Law Committees. He was Senior Lecturer in Ecclesiology, Professor, and Dean of the Faculty of Theology (University of Stellenbosch). He has published 36 articles in NGTT (of which he has been editor for many years), has written 14 books, and is co-author or editor of more than 30 other publications. Among many honors and activities: Chairman of the Huguenot Memorial Museum in Franschhoek.
Dr. Valery Ferim is a senior lecturer and Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations at the University of Fort Hare in South Africa. He holds a BSc (Political Science - University of Buea, Cameroon), BA Honours (Peace Studies and International Relations, MA (International Relations (North West University, South Africa) and PhD (Conflict Transformation and Peace Studies – University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa). He has presented numerous papers in local and international conferences some of which have been published as book chapters and journal articles. He is a member of the South African Association of Political Science.
Hon. Sharon Hoosen is a member of Parliament. She is skilled in politics, strategic planning, public speaking, social media, and community work. Sharon is currently completing a Bachelors of Law Degree from University of South Africa/Universiteit van Suid-Afrika.
Hon. Thembisile Angel Khanyile is a member of the National Assembly. She is on the provincial list for the province of Pbumalanga. She is a member of the Portfolio Committee on Human Affairs.
Hon. Nqabayomzi Kwankwa has been a member of Parliament of the Republic of South Africa since August 2013, and is Chief Whip and Deputy President of the United Democratic Movement, one of the opposition parties in South Africa. He serves as a full-time member of the Standing Committee on Finance and of the Portfolio Committee on Public Enterprises. In 2016, the Sunday Times, South Africa's leading weekend newspaper, selected him as the best MP in South Africa, and he has received various international awards for the positive role he played during the outbreak of xenophobic violence in South Africa in 2015. Nqabayomzi Kwankwa is the Chairperson and Founder of the African Parliamentarians Association for Human Rights (AfriPAHR), a network of predominantly young African Parliamentarians who are committed to the promotion of democracy and the right to freedom of religion or belief in Africa.
Hon. Sibusiso Christopher Mncwabe is a former member of the National Assembly, Parliament of the Republic of South Africa. He served on the Portfolio Committee on Small Business Development and the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education. He is a leader in the African Parliamentarians Association for Human Rights (AfriPAHR).
Professor Mosoma is a former Vice Chancellor at the University Of South Africa (UNISA). He serves as Chairperson of the CRL Commission. He brings to the commission vast interpersonal expertise and is a renowned academic.
Hon. Gordon Gcinikhaya Mpumza is a member of the National Assembly and a member of the African National Congress. He represents the province of Eastern Cape. He is a member of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Hon. Faith Muthambi previously served as the Minister of Public Service and Administration. She has been a Member of Parliament and the Pan African Parliament since April 2009. Among her string of qualifications, she obtained a BProc degree from the University of Venda in 1996 and completed her Attorney's Admission Examination in 2000. She is an admitted attorney of the High Court of South Africa. She was the Chief Whip of the Portfolio Committee on Communications and served in the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA). She has worked as a Senior Manager: Corporate Services in the Mutale Municipality and as Manager: Labour Relations in the Premier’s Office in Limpopo. Prior to her appointment to this portfolio, Ms. Muthambi served as the Communications Minister.
Hon. Gizella Opperman is a member of the National Assembly for the proovince of Northern Cape. She is an alternate member of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Hon. Moloko Maggie Tlou is a member of the National Assembly and a member of the African National Congress. She is on the provincial list for the province of Gauteng. She is a member of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Helena van Coller is Associate Professor and course co-ordinator for Commercial Law 1 in the Faculty of Law at Rhodes University, South Africa. She also teaches Administrative Law to final year LLB-students. She joined the Faculty in July 2005. She obtained her LLB and LLM degrees (both with distinction) from the University of the Free State and an LLM (with distinction) from the University of Utrecht. She lectured part-time at the University of the Free State and supervised students from the Governance Programme, after obtaining a Master’s degree in Governance and Political Transformation from UFS in 2008. She was admitted as an advocate in 2004. She submitted her LLD (in Administrative Law) at the end of 2011 and graduated in 2012. She is an Advocate of the High Court of South Africa.
Hon. Phindisile Pretty Xaba-Ntshaba is a member of the National Assembly. She is a member of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
Hon. Mboni Mohamed Mhita is a constituent member of the National Assembly. She has a Bachelor of Business Administration and Management from Couterbury University and a Certificate of Law from Cardiff University. She has served a member of the Constitution and Legal Affairs Committee and the National Executive Council, among others. She has also bee Deputy Secretary General of Pan African Youth Union and National Vice Chairperson of CCM Youth Wing.
Hon. Lyandro Komakech is a member of Parliament representing the Gulu Municipality in the 10th Parliament of Uganda. He is currently the Chairman of the Greater North Parliamentary Forum, a member of the Human Rights Committee and Committee of Foreign Affairs. Recently, he was a senior research and advocacy officer and Deputy Head of Programme Conflict, Transitional Justice and Governance at the Refugee Law Project, Centre for Justice and Forced Migrants, School of Law, Makerere University. He holds a master’s degree in development studies from Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi, a master’s in international relations and diplomatic studies from Makerere University Kampala, a bachelor’s degree in social science with a major in international relations from Makerere University, and an associate bachelor’s degree in democracy and development studies from Uganda Martyrs University Nkozi. He was part of the team that implemented the transitional justice project (Beyond Juba II): “Moving through individual and community repair to national healing”. He was part of the team that implemented BJP III- “Using our past as a resource for the future.” He was lead researcher on traditional justice mechanisms. His publications include a working paper titled ‘Tradition in transition; drawing on the old to develop a new jurisprudence for dealing with Uganda’s legacy of violence’ and a book chapter titled ‘Exploring the place of traditional justice in Uganda’. He was one of the authors of Compendium of Conflicts in Uganda. Lyandro’s research interests include peace and conflict analysis, transitional justice, governance, forced migration, and international human rights law.
Rev. Canon. Aaron Mwesigye is a celebrated theologian, writer, development worker, and a teacher of Development Ethics. He has taught Ethics and Development Studies at University for eight years and served in various positions advocating for rebuilding moral infrastructure in the country. He has served as a lecturer, Chief Executive Officer, and Senior Presidential Advisor on Investment Matters, and currently is the Director for Ethics and Religious Affairs, Office of the President. He is coordinating the development of a national policy to monitor and regulate religious activities and operations in Uganda. The Department for Religious Affairs, Office of the President, is mandated to enhance, collaboration and good working relationships between religious organizations and government in promoting their full participation in the fight against corruption and offshoots of moral decadence.
Mark Hill QC is a barrister specializing in ecclesiastical law and religious liberty. He has represented clients in the UK Supreme Court and the European Court of Human Rights. He is a recorder on the Midland Circuit (sitting in criminal, civil and family cases) and Deputy Judge of Upper Tribunal, Immigration and Asylum Chamber. He sits as judge in ecclesiastical courts of the Church of England and is Visiting Professor at Cardiff University’s Centre for Law and Religion (United Kingdom), at University of Pretoria in South Africa, and at the Dickson Poon School of Law at King’s College, London. Publications include Magna Carta, Religion and the Rule of Law, Religion and Law in the United Kingdom, Religion and Discrimination Law in the European Union, Ecclesiastical Law, Religious Liberty and Human Rights, and English Canon Law. He is a Consultant Editor of the Ecclesiastical Law Journal and a member of the Editorial Boards of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion and the Revista General de Derecho Canónico y Derecho Eclesiástico del Estado. He is Ecumenical Fellow in Canon Law at the Venerable English College in Rome, and a former President of the European Consortium for Church and State Research. He is an accredited mediator, current co-chair, and a founder of BIMA, a charity which promotes faith-based mediation.
David Berrett received a BA in Political Science from Brigham Young University and a JD in Law from the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University. He practiced law for several years in Denver, Colorado before becoming the Director of Legal Services in the Human Resources Department for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He later served as a mission president in India for the Church. From 2016-2018 he was Of Counsel for Kirton McConkie. He is a senior fellow for the International Center for Law and Religion Studies, J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University.
Cole Durham is Founding Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies (ICLRS) and the former Susa Young Gates University Professor of Law and at the J. Reuben Clark Law School of Brigham Young University. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Law School, where he was a Note Editor of the Harvard Law Review and Managing Editor of the Harvard International Law Journal. He has been heavily involved in comparative law scholarship, with a special emphasis on comparative constitutional law. He is a founding Editor-in-Chief of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion. He served as the Secretary of the American Society of Comparative Law from 1989 to 1994. He is an Associate Member of the International Academy of Comparative Law in Paris—the premier academic organization at the global level in comparative law. He served as a General Rapporteur for the topic 'Religion and the Secular State' at the 18th Congress of the International Academy of Comparative Law, held in July 2010. He served in earlier years as Chair both of the Comparative Law Section and the Law and Religion Section of the American Association of Law Schools. Professor Durham was President of the International Consortium for Law and Religion Studies (ICLARS) from 2011-2016.
Roger Finke is a professor of Sociology and Religious Studies at The Pennsylvania State University and Director of the Association of Religion Data Archives. He is a former President of the Association for the Sociology of Religion. Roger Finke earned his doctorate in sociology at the University of Washington in 1984, and held faculty positions at Concordia College in Illinois, Loyola University of Chicago, and Purdue University before joining the faculty at The Pennsylvania State University in 2000. Professor Finke co-authored two books with sociologist of religion Rodney Stark. The Churching of America, 1776-1990: Winners and Losers in Our Religious Economy, and Acts of Faith: Explaining the Human Side of Religion. Additionally, Finke is the co-author of The Price of Freedom Denied: Religious Persecution and Conflict in the Twenty-first Century and Places of Faith: A Road Trip Across America's Religious Landscape. He is author or co-author of numerous peer-reviewed articles. In November 2015, Finke and fellow Pennsylvania State University professor Dane Mataic published a report entitled "Exploring the Trends and Consequences of Religious Registration: A Global Overview." Finke is also a fellow of the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion, and a past president of the Association for the Study of Religion, Economics, and Culture.
Prior to receiving her PhD in Religious Studies from the University of Aberdeen, Scotland, Rosalind Hackett taught at Nigerian universities. Since moving to the US, she spent a year as Liberal Arts Fellow in Law and Religion, Harvard Law School, and Senior Fellow, Center for the Study of World Religions. She was also a Rockefeller Research Fellow at the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame. She was appointed a Mellon Fellow at the University of Cape Town in Religious Studies in 2014. She spent 2014-15 as Visiting Professor and Research Associate at the Women’s Studies in Religion program at Harvard Divinity School. She has published widely on religion in Africa. notably on new religious movements, religious media, gender and religion, regulation of religious diversity, and religion and conflict Recent (co-edited) publications include Displacing the State: Religion and Conflict in Neoliberal Africa (2011), The Anthropology of Global Pentecostalism and Evangelicalism (2015) and New Media and Religious Transformations in Africa (2015). She is the editor of Proselytization Revisited: Rights Talk, Free Markets, and Culture Wars. She served as President of the International Association for the History of Religions (IAHR) from 2005-2015 and is now an Honorary Life Member. She is a co-founder of the IAHR Women Scholars Network, a founding member of the African Association for the Study of Religions, and is part of the founding steering committee of the African Consortium on Law and Religion Studies. She has served as President of the North American Association for the Study of Religions (NAASR), and is Founder/coordinator of Jazz for Justice Project and UT Gulu Study and Service Abroad Program (GSSAP) in northern Uganda.
David Moore is Wayne M. and Connie C. Hancock Professor of Law, and an associate director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at the J. Reuben Clark Law School, Brigham Young University. Between 2017 and 2019, Professor Moore served, variously, as the Acting Deputy Administrator and General Counsel of the U.S. Agency for International Development. Prior to his appointment at USAID, he was Associate Dean for Research and Academic Affairs at the BYU Law School. His research focuses on U.S. foreign relations law, international law, international human rights, and international development, and appears in leading journals, including the Harvard, Columbia, Virginia, and Northwestern law reviews. Prior to joining the law faculty at BYU, Moore researched and taught as an assistant and then associate professor at the University of Kentucky College of Law and as an Olin Fellow at the University of Chicago Law School. Moore clerked for Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr. on the U.S. Supreme Court during the 2007 Term, and for Judge Alito on the U.S Court of Appeals for Third Circuit from 2000 to 2001. Moore began his legal career as an Honor Program trial attorney at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Division, Federal Program Branch. He graduated summa cum laude from Brigham Young University Law School and Brigham Young University.
Brett G. Scharffs is Rex E. Lee Chair and Professor of Law and Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies at Brigham Young University Law School. He received a BSBA in international business and an MA in philosophy at Georgetown University and, as a Rhodes Scholar, earned a BPhil in philosophy at Oxford. He received his JD from Yale Law School, where he was senior editor of the Yale Law Journal. He is a recurring visiting professor at Central European University in Budapest and at the University of Adelaide Law School. He has for several years helped organize certificate training programs in religion and the rule of law in China and in Vietnam and has taught and helped organize programs at several Indonesian universities on sharia and human rights. Author of more than 100 articles and book chapters, he has made more than 300 scholarly presentations in 30 countries. His casebook, Law and Religion: National, International and Comparative Perspectives (with Cole Durham, 2nd English edition forthcoming 2017), has been translated into Chinese and Vietnamese, with Turkish, Burmese, and Arabic in process. He is author with Elizabeth Clark of Religion and Law in the USA, a 2016 contribution to Wolters Kluwer’s International Encyclopaedia of Laws.
Johan van der Vyver is I.T. Cohen Professor of International Law and Human Rights, Emory University, and Extraordinary Professor in the Department of Private Law of the University of Pretoria, South Africa. Formerly, he was Professor of Law at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, and the Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education in South Africa. He served as the Human Rights Fellow of The Carter Center from 1995-1998. Current teaching obligations include Public International Law, International Human Rights, International Criminal Law, International Humanitarian Law, Comparative Bills of Rights, and Implementation of International Law in the United States. He holds the degrees of Bachelor of Commerce, Bachelor of Laws, Honours Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy (Potchefstroom University); Doctor of Laws (University of Pretoria); and the Diploma of the International and Comparative Law of Human Rights (International Institute of Human Rights, Strasbourg). He was awarded honorary Doctor of Laws degrees by the University of Zululand in 1993 and Potchefstroom University in 2003. The author of eleven books and monographs and close to 300 chapters in books, law review and other articles, and book reviews, his research interests include human rights, and international criminal law among others.
John A. Zackrison is former lawyer with Kirton & McConkie. He received his Doctor of Law from Harvard Law School. Zackrison has served as Mission President of the South Africa Durban Mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He served on the International Legal Counsel for Europe for the Church from 2005-2009.
Marky Chuma Majata has a Bachelor of Law from the University of Zimbabwe and a Master in Human Rights, Peace and Development from Africa University. She worked under the Attorney General's civil division for two years focusing on civil litigation on behalf of the Government. She transferred to the Ministry of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare where she served as a legal officer for 5 years. Ms. Majata was promoted to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Cultural Heritage where she is a deputy legal advisor. Her responsibilities include amendments of laws administered by the Ministry, drafting contracts, attending to litigation cases on behalf of the Ministry, and providing general legal advice. Currently, the Ministry is working on a law governing the operation of religious organizations in Zimbabwe.