Parliament of Worlds Religion 2009 Melbourne Australia

Author(s): Parliament of the World’s Religions
Publisher: USA Parliament of the Worlds Religions

Page 148

PROGRAME
Friday, December 4, 2009
Freedom of Religion and Belief: The Project of the Australian Human Rights Commission
Conrad Gerschevitz
Hass Dellal
Gary Bouma Room 204 Lecture
The freedom to practise freely one's chosen religion and to change one's religious allegiance is one of the most fundamental human rights. Yet the freedom of religion and belief remains under attack in various parts of the world. Challenges have recently arisen in Australia, prompting the Australian Human Rights Commission to appoint the Australian Multicultural Foundation to conduct a project examining freedom of religion and belief. The session will provide an overview of the project, examining the key issues such as religious vilification or hatred laws, the exemptions given from the requirements of the Equal Opportunity legislation for religious organisations regarding gender equality, and the discrimination against personal lifestyles not in accord with certain religious sensibilities.
For the last three years, Conrad Gerschevitz has managed a unit responsible for programs and policies broadly related to racial and religious. discrimination at the Australian Human Rights Commission. Previously, he was the director at FECCA, Australia's peak multicultural NGO. He has worked in a number of Commonwealth agencies with particular responsibilities for programs associated with cultural diversity and human rights. He has also been a Visiting Fellow at the Australian National University, where he has focused on issues related to sustainable cultural development.
Dr Hass Dellal is the executive director of the Australian Multicultural Foundation. He has over twenty years of experience in policy, management, community development and programming for cultural diversity. He is a special advisor to the National Police Ethnic Advisory Bureau, Committee Member of the European Multicultural Foundation, board member of the Adult Multicultural Education Services and Fellow of the Williamson Leadership Program.
Gary Bouma is the Emeritus Professor of Sociology at Monash University and an Associate Priest at St John's East Malvern. His research has primarily focussed on the interaction between religion and society in Western societies including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe. He has been named the UNESCO Chair in Interreligious and Intercultural Relations.
Strengthening One's Faith Through Interfaith Dialogue
Peta Pellach
Jeremy Jones
Room 207
Interactive Workshop
In Australia and around the globe, the experience of interfaith dialogue has enriched the faith of those who have embraced it. The presenters of this workshop have represented their faith, Judaism, and represented their country, Australia, in diverse interfaith settings on five
144 PWR-Parliament of the World's Religions
Jain Education Intemational
9:30-11:00am INTRARELIGIOUS SESSION
continents. Each experience has brought with it rewards and challenges. This interactive workshop will explore what makes a successful dialogue experience and how encountering, listening to and learning from believers of other faiths can enhance one's own faith.
Peta Pellach is a teacher of Judaism and an active participant in interfaith dialogue in Australia, including the Women's Interfaith Network, the Uniting Church-Jewish Dialogue, the Jewish dialogue with the Catholic Bishops' Conference and the Australian National Dialogue of Christians, Muslims and Jews. She was an Australian delegate to the Regional Dialogue on Interfaith Cooperation in Indonesia in 2004 and in the Philippines in 2006.
Winner of the 2007 Australian Human Rights Medal, Jeremy Jones is highly regarded as an advocate for interfaith dialogue. His award cited his contribution to religious understanding and promoting interfaith cooperation in Australia. He is the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council's Director of International and Community Affairs, Member, Order of Australia, long-time anti-racist and interfaith activist, and a member of key international Jewish bodies dealing with anti-Semitism, interreligious dialogue and global challenges.
Indigenous Biodiversity
Dr Rosita Worl, USA: Tlingit, Moderator Alejandro Argumedo, Peru: Quechua Marcos Terena, Brazil: Terena
Room 208
Panel Discussion
All Indigenous cultures have lived on this earth with the knowledge necessary to sustain our ecosystems. Waste and destruction were not a part of their existence. There was a balance in their cultures but now power, greed and politics have seriously destroyed this delicate balance on Earth. Humans as well as all living beings need a healthy environment in which to survive. The panel members will share some innovative and creative changes that can serve as models to restore biodiversity to the world. Rosita Worl, whose Tlingit names are Yeidiklats okw and Kaa.hani, is Tlingit, Ch'aak (Eagle] moiety of the Shangukeidi Clan from the Kawdliyaayi Hit (House Lowered From the Sun) in Klukwan. She is President of Sealaska Heritage Institute, a nonprofit organisation dedicated to perpetuating the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian cultures. Formerly an Assistant Professor at the University of Alaska Southeast, she has a PhD and MS in Anthropology from Harvard University and a BA from Alaska Methodist University.
Mr Alejandro Argumedo, a Quechua from Peru, is Executive Director of the autonomous international NGO, Cultural Survival Canada, focusing on the connection between cultural and biological diversity and on Indigenous peoples' traditional resource rights. Mr Argumedo is coordinator for the Indigenous Peoples' Biodiversity Network (IPBN) and is a member of the steering committee and advisory group for IPBN's Indigenous Knowledge Programme. He holds a degree in agriculture from McGill University.
Marcos Terena is a professor of Traditional and Spiritual Knowledge of the Indigenous People and Coordinator of the International Indigenous. Forum on Biodiversity. He founded the United Indigenous Nations, the first Indigenous movement in Brazil and he was a leader in gaining recognition for Indigenous rights in the Brazilian Constitution. He is a spokesman for Indigenous rights for the UN and President of the Intertribal Committee and VIATAN, an Indigenous information centre.