Multiculturalism Symposium Honors Professor Tore Lindholm in Oslo, 26 May 2011

Two of the more than one dozen papers delivered in as many countries by Cole Durham during the spring of 2011 were given during the course of “Multiculturalism and Human Rights – a Symposium in Honor of Tore Lindholm,” held 26 May 2011 in Oslo, Norway. The symposium, which was conducted in English because of the participation of Professor Durham and Professor Hurst Hannum of Tufts University, was sponsored by the Human Rights and Diversity Working Group of the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights (NCHR) of the Faculty of Law of the University of Oslo. Noting the 70th birthday of Professor Lindholm – “one of the pillars of the NCHR” – the conference involved a rountable discussion on Multiculturalism and Identity Politics, “between Professor Lindholm and some distinguished friends and colleagues,” including Professor Durham, as well as a presentation, “The Place of the Right to Freedom of religion or Belief in the Constellation of Human Rights,” delivered by Professor Durham in honor of his colleague. Professor Durham also delivered a lecture entitled “Do We Need the Right to Freedom of Religion or Belief.”

Tore Lindholm is a member of the ICLRS Academic Advisory Board and is a frequent collaborator of Professor Durham and his ICLRS colleagues. He is Chair of the Oslo Coaltion’s Facilitating Freedom of Religion or Belief Project Group, of which Professor Durham and ICLRS Research Advisor Are Svendsen are members. In this capacity Professor Lindholm has co-edited Freedom of Religion or Belief: A Deskbook with Professor Durham, Professor (and ICLRS Associate Director) Elizabeth A. Clark, and Bahia G. Tahzib-Lie (Martinus Nijhoff 2004). Among his many other publications, Professor Lindholm contributed the chapter “Overlapping Justification,” to the Cole Durham/Brett Scharffs casebook Law and Religion. National, International, and Comparative Perspectives (Aspen Publishers 2010).