New Partner in Uganda

Hivos and Kosmopolis will cooperate with the Cross-Cultural Foundation of Uganda (CCFU) to start up the Promotig Pluralism Knowledge Programme in East Africa. Starting from September 2008, CCFU will look for academics and practitioners that have experience and that are active in the field of pluralism. Together they will identify major themes and formulate the first research questions. Up to four mapping studies will be carried out. In the beginning of 2009, a permanent team of academics and...

Homophobia in Uganda: Documentary screened at Hivos-conference in The Hague

LGBT’s in Uganda suffer from a coalition of religious leaders against homosexuality. The documentary 'Victor and Georgina' by Amakula shows the life and work of two transgender activists in that country. Their portrait demonstrates the difficulties for homosexuals in the Ugandan society, ranging from verbal and physical abuse to prosecution.

State must be secular so that society can be religious

In many parts of the world religion is on an upsurge. Religious revivalism and emergent forms of fundamentalisms challenge the capacity of the state to deal with religious diversity. The Hivos-Kosmopolis conference 'Rethinking secularism' (25-26 May, Utrecht, NL) brought together academics, activists, legal experts and policy makers from various parts of the world to debate the future of secularism. Among them: Sudanese thinker and activist Abdullahi An-Na'im and Justice Aftab Alam, sitting j...

Who is afraid of Religion?

Religion is a vital source of inspiration in many societies. Development cooperation, however, mostly works through other channels than religion. This symposium investigated whether this should change. The event was held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the ISS Chair of Religion and Development, held by Prof. Gerrie ter Haar. Members of the panel were among others Islamic reformer Tariq Ramadan, liberal rabbi Awraham Soetendorp and Hivos' pluralism programme co-chair Ute Seela.

Three papers on women & fundamentalisms

AWID, the Association for Women's Rights in Development, launched an initiative that focuses on fundamentalism in 2006. The project is entitled "Resisting and Challenging Religious Fundamentalisms: An advocacy-research project". It explores various forms of fundamentalism and the effects on the position, rights and freedoms of women. From all over the world, AWID has gathered examples from women organisations and activists about how they approached the situation in their own countri...

Promoting pluralism? Diminish the donor dependency!

Abdullahi Ahmed An-Na’im, human rights activist and researcher on Islam and secularism, has been fighting for decades to promote the acceptance of human rights in Muslim countries. Foreign donors can only play a limited role, he thinks.

New Paper on Promoting Pluralism

Professor Henk Manschot and doctor Caroline Suransky (Kosmopolis Institute, University for Humanistics, the Netherlands) have written an article entitled Promoting Pluralism: an International Collaboration of Academics and Development Practitioners. The paper gives an understanding of the concepts pluralism and fundamentalism and how these are shaped in today's world. The situation in Indonesia is explored as an illustration of how pluralism can be approached in society. You can download the...