In addition to the main plenary sessions under the main Convention theme, the Convention runs concurrent sessions in three sub-themes.
Inter-religious Convention 2023
Faith change-makers: Affirming human dignity, justice, and freedom for all
Convention sub-themes:
- Advancing women’s rights and gender justice
- Faith partnering for justice and peace
- Co-creating freedom of belief and inclusive communities
Inspired by their faith, diverse actors from around the world come together to gain awareness, new knowledge and skills about their own and other religions and inter-religious action. They will learn from each other and share experiences on how to draw on religion to take social action. The Convention strengthens interpersonal relations, expressing solidarity for participants’ challenging situations while celebrating each other’s successes and achievements. It is also a space for planning and coordinating national, regional and international inter-religious actions and of course an opportunity to network and form strategic partnerships with other like-minded faith institutions and faith-inspired actors.
Convention sub-themes
Advancing women’s rights and gender justice
This Convention sub-theme will address a diversity of ways faith change-makers are advancing women’s rights and gender justice, from community-based initiatives in the prevention and survivor-led response to gender-based violence (GBV) to advocating in global policy arenas to defend sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR). Faith-based methodologies for transforming social norms, addressing barriers to health services (including family planning), and reforming discriminatory laws will be shared.
Faith partnering for justice and peace
This strand of the Convention invites participants to share their work, interventions, case studies, and experiences that highlight peace and security issues; inter-religious dialogue for peace; environment/climate and conflict; themes such as youth or women and peace and security; healing the healer; and more. Sharing innovative approaches and/or methods, best practice examples, but also less successful projects will help learning and designing transformative, solution-oriented interventions.
Co-creating freedom of belief and inclusive communities
Presentations under this Convention sub-theme may speak to religion and cultural traditions; inter-generational partnerships; migration, welcoming the stranger and living as neighbours; inclusion of less visible, marginalized and/or underrepresented members of faith communities (e.g., people living with disability, LGBTQI+, others). Ending prejudice and othering is fundamental to inter-religious respect and freedom of religious belief (FoRB); how to build and sustain FoRB is therefore crucial for thriving multifaith, multicultural communities and societies.
A particular focus of the Convention will be on interfaith, intersectional, and international approaches to topics and issues in the three Convention sub-themes of Advancing women’s rights and gender justice, Faith partnering for justice and peace, and Co-creating freedom of belief and inclusive communities. Convention attendees will engage in panel discussions, participate in plenaries, share in parallel sessions, and see poster presentations and exhibits.
Faith actors of all religions and spiritual traditions, faith-inspired change agents and others interested in participating in the Convention are invited to share abstracts through a structured application process. Please see the abstract submission guidelines here »
Translation will be available in English and French, Arabic tbc.
Convention objectives
The objective of the Inter-religious Convention 2023 is to stimulate participants’ inter-religious actions to uphold human dignity for all.
The desired outcomes of the Convention are that participants have:
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Gained awareness, new knowledge and skills about their own and other religions and inter-religious action,
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Inspired and learnt from each other and shared experiences on how to draw on religion to take social action,
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Strengthened inter-personal relations, expressed solidarity for participants’ challenging situations, celebrated each other’s successes and achievements,
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Planned and coordinated national, regional and international inter-religious actions,
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Found an opportunity to network and form strategic partnerships with other like-minded faith institutions.
