Religious Freedom and Non-discrimination Project
Carolyn Evans and Beth Gaze – 2007-2009 ARC Discovery Project
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Project Title
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Non-Discrimination Laws and Religious Freedom: Current Conflicts and Future Directions
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Duration
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2007-2009
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Funding
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$ 162 000
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Chief Investigators
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Carolyn Evans and Beth Gaze
Carolyn is a recognised expert on religious freedom. She will take primary responsibility for the research into the issues for religious freedom raised by the research.
She will also have primary responsibility for the work on the international law on both religious freedom and discrimination, as she has both teaching and research experience in international law.
Beth is a highly experienced discrimination lawyer and academic. She will take charge of the research associated with domestic discrimination provisions in the comparator countries. This will include research into the interpretation and application of these laws by the relevant courts, tribunals and officials.
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Research Assistance
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Kirsty Souter and Samantha Jeewa
Kirsty is completing a combined LLB/BA degree at The University of Melbourne. Samantha is completing an honours degree in Sociology at The University of Melbourne. They will be assisting on literature collection and conducting interviews. |
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Project Summary
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Achieving the right balance between adequately protecting religious freedom while staying true to principles of non-discrimination is far from easy. This project will advance understanding and analysis of religious freedom and equal treatment in Australia, in principle, in law and empirically. In the context of community tensions along ethno-religious lines, it will benefit Australia to have the issues at stake described and clarified. The project will identify the relevant interests at stake and develop policy recommendations for their protection. The aim is to contribute to inter-religious (and inter-cultural) harmony, as an element of safeguarding Australia.
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Publications
EVANS, C and Gaze B: Between Religious Freedom and Equality: Complexity and Context 49 Harv. Int'l L. J. Online 40 (2008) see http://harvardilj.org/index.php
EVANS, C and GAZE, B – ‘Religious Freedom and Non-discrimination Laws’ (2007) 16 Human Rights Defender 5
EVANS, CM, HOOD A & MOIR J – From Local to Global and Back Again: Religious Freedom and Women’s Rights in Chen K, Puig G and Walker G (eds) Rights Protection in the Age of Global Terrorism 112-130 (Federation Press, 2007)
Conference presentations
EVANS, CM - The Uneasy and Under-theorised Relationship between Non-discrimination Laws and Religious Schools, International Conference on Law, Religion and the State: South Asia and Beyond, New Delhi 14-16 February 2008
EVANS, CM – ‘Religious Controversy and Curriculum Design in State Schools: An International Human Rights Perspective’ (Hanoi, Vietnam, conference on Religion and the Rule of Law in South East Asia, 2-4 November 2007)
EVANS, CM – Religious Freedom and Women’s Equality (Athens, Greece: World Conference of Constitutional Law,
EVANS, CM – ‘Spirited Girls who would not Know their Place’: Religious Speech Directed Against Women’s Equality (University of Cambridge, conference on Extreme Speech and Democracy, 21 April 2007; repeated at Bristol Faculty of Law, 25 April 2007)
EVANS, CM – Religious Freedom and Women’s Rights (Oxford Society for Law and Religion, 24 April 2007; repeated at Liverpool Law Faculty, 26 April 2007)