Strasbourg Conference Consortium Works to Establish Electronic Forum for High-Level Analysis of Cases and Issues

In 2005, a loosely-affiliated consortium of academic institutions with interest in freedom of religion or belief assembled with the aim of developing an electronic forum, possibly stimulated from time to time by relevant academic conferences, to encourage in-depth discussion of issues pending before the European Court of Human Rights and other international institutions. This consortium has come to be known as the Strasbourg Consortium. The first conference of the Consortium was held 28-30 July 2005 in Strasbourg, France. The discussion at that time focused primarily on Leyla Sahin v. Turkey, a case before the Grand Chamber of the European Court of Human Rights at that time dealing with the issue of headscarves in government universities. This initial conference resulted in a wealth of scholarly analysis and discussion on the important issues implicated by the Sahin case. The weekend of 20-22 June 2008, will again mark an important opportunity to move forward with the basic idea that emerged at the time of the Sahin case in the European Court: namely, to provide a forum where high-level academic analysis can be made available on an expedited electronic basis to enrich the materials that the European Court of Human Rights and other international tribunals can draw on when addressing issues of freedom of religion or belief. This meeting of the Consortium will be held in connection with the Focus on FORB meeting in Geneva, Switzerland. This will allow the Consortium to benefit from the excellent work done by Focus on FORB on forefront issues in the U.N. setting. Sunday afternoon discussion will be focused on several pending cases before the European Court of Human Rights. Finally, the members of the Consortium will discuss how to best organize efforts to attract early focused analysis on the range of emerging issues. Since the decisions on the important issues pending before the European Court of Human Rights will shape the basic contours of freedom of religion or belief for years to come, the kind of work envisioned by, and carried out by, the Strasbourg Conference Consortium is particularly critical.