ICLRS Director Cole Durham chaired a session at the international Symposium “Religious Diversity and the European Workplace,” which convened at the Law Faculty of Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium, on 13 January 2011. The event was organized by the University’s Institute for Migration Law and the Anthropology of Law under the umbrella of FP7 Religare. Religare, “Religious Diversity and Secular Models in Europe: Innovative Approaches to Law and Policy, ” is a 3-year EU 7th Framework Program (2010-2013) addressing the challenges of religious pluralism in contemporary Europe. It explores the ways equality is challenged by the increasing diversity of religions and other convictions transforming Europe into a new type of entity. The focus is on ten target countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Professor Durham is a U.S. advisor to the project. 

The next day, January 14, Durham attended a Religare Policy Meeting, organized by the Centre for European Policy Studies (CEPS) and hosted by Senator Rik Torfs, leader of work package 4, in the buildings of the Belgian Senate, followed in the afternoon by a Religare Consortium Meeting at CEPS (1, Place du Congres, Brussels).

For more information on Religare, see www.religareproject.eu.