• Roy Allison

Professor Roy Allison is Souede-Salameno Fellow and Professor of Russian and Eurasian International Relations at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and Director of the Russian and Eurasian Studies Centre. He earned his BA and DPhil at Oxford and has held academic positions at the LSE, Southampton, and Birmingham, as well as visiting roles at Moscow State University and the Brookings Institution. Formerly Head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House, he has served as Specialist Advisor to UK parliamentary committees.

• John Armour

John Armour is Professor of Law and Finance at Oxford University and a Fellow of the British Academy and the European Corporate Governance Institute. He is currently Dean of the Law Faculty at the University of Oxford. He previously taught at the University of Cambridge and holds degrees from Oxford and Yale. Armour has held visiting posts at leading institutions including Chicago, Columbia, Frankfurt, Penn, Sydney, and the Max Planck Institute in Hamburg. A member of the American Law Institute and the Chancery Bar Association, he has published widely on company law, financial regulation, and corporate insolvency. His research integrates legal and economic analysis, and he serves as Executive Editor of two major corporate law journals.

• Paris Asanakis

Paris Asanakis is a member of the  Imvrian Association and a distinguished legal professional with over 30 years of experience in Commercial, International, and European Law. A graduate of the Athens University Faculty of Law, he holds an LLM (with distinction) in European Law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB). A member of the Piraeus Bar Association, he is admitted before the Greek Supreme Court and the Council of State. He specialises in Shipping, Aviation, Competition Law, and Cross-Border Transactions, with extensive advisory and litigation experience, particularly in ship and aviation finance. He has represented major Greek and international banks, as well as leading shipping, aviation, and trading companies. Paris is also active in human rights and minority advocacy and, since 2021, has served as legal counsel to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople.

• Freya Baetens

Freya Baetens is Professor of Public International Law at the University of Oxford, Research Director of the Oxford Human Rights Hub, and GIC+ Project Director at Regent’s Park College. She is also affiliated with Pembroke College, the LEVEL Project (Oslo), and the Europa Institute (Leiden). A member of the Brussels Bar, she acts as counsel and expert before international courts and tribunals, including the ECHR, ICJ, and ICSID. Her research spans human rights, international investment law, and sustainable development. She has held visiting positions worldwide and was awarded the Francqui Chair (Belgium, 2024). She holds an LLB and LLM from Ghent, an LLM from Columbia, and a DPhil from Oxford.

• David Burrowes

David Burrowes is a solicitor and former member of Parliament. He served as the UK Prime Minister’s Deputy Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB) from January 2022 to July 2024. As a Member of Parliament from 2005 to 2017, he was a leading advocate for global religious freedom and co-founded the All-Party Parliamentary Group on International Religious Freedom. David then continued his public service as Parliamentary Adviser to Fiona Bruce MP. He currently sits as Chair of the Equity Release Council and since 2025 has been Director of the Cultural Heritage Protection Foundation. His work reflects a continued commitment to promoting human dignity, protecting fundamental freedoms, and strengthening policy engagement on FoRB worldwide.

• Dimitar Bechev

Dimitar Bechev is a Senior Associate at REES, St Antony’s College, Oxford, and Director of the Dahrendorf Programme, focusing on Europe’s role in a changing world. His research covers the Balkans, Turkey, the Black Sea, and Russian foreign policy. He is the author of Turkey under Erdogan (2022) and Rival Power: Russia in Southeast Europe (2017), among others. Bechev has held fellowships at Harvard, LSE, and Hitotsubashi University, and was a senior fellow at UNC Chapel Hill and ECFR. He also serves as a Senior Fellow at Carnegie Europe and holds a DPhil in International Relations from Oxford.

• Robert Blitt

Robert C. Blitt is the Woolf, McClane, Bright, Allen & Carpenter Distinguished Professor of Law at the University of Tennessee College of Law. He joined the faculty in 2007 and became a full professor in 2015. Previously, he served as International Law Specialist for the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and spent over five years working in the Middle East, including with Israel’s Ministry of Justice and Supreme Court. His scholarship examines international law, human rights, religion-state relations, and nonstate actors. Professor Blitt lectures internationally and teaches constitutional and international law.

• Elizabeth Cassidy

Elizabeth K. Cassidy served as the Director of International Law and Policy at the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), a position she has held since 2007. Prior to joining USCIRF, Cassidy worked in Geneva, Switzerland, as the Assistant Executive Director of UN Watch, a non-governmental organisation focused on human rights and UN accountability. She also spent time in Windhoek, Namibia, where she provided legal consulting services to several human rights NGOs.

• Illia Chernohorenko

Illia Chernohorenko is a part-time DPhil candidate in Law at the University of Oxford and a Research Resident at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights. He previously served as Director-General of the Rule of Law Directorate at the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and as a member of the Presidential Commission on Legal Reform. His career includes work at the Supreme Court of Ukraine, representation in the ECtHR Superior Courts Network, and justice-sector reform roles with the Council of Europe, EU, and EBRD. Illia’s research focuses on repurposing sanctioned assets as redress for human rights violations, and he regularly publishes and speaks on international human rights law.

 

• Elizabeth Clark

Elizabeth Clark is Associate Director of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies and the Center’s Regional Advisor for Europe. She has co-organised numerous international conferences and academic projects with scholars and government leaders, and has been a primary organiser of the annual International Law and Religion Symposium at Brigham Young University since its inception. Professor Clark has contributed to commentaries and legal analyses on legislation affecting religious freedom and helped draft amicus briefs for U.S. Supreme Court cases, including the Center’s brief in Hosanna-Tabor v. EEOC (2012). Fluent in Russian, Czech, German, and French, she lectures and writes widely on church-state and comparative law. She has taught Comparative Law, Comparative Constitutional Law, International Human Rights, and EU Law at BYU Law School, and has published extensively, including editing major works on law and religion in post-Communist Europe. Clark previously practiced at Mayer, Brown & Platt and clerked for Judge J. Clifford Wallace on the Ninth Circuit.

• Daniel Cloney

Daniel Cloney (DPhil Law) is a Senior Project Research Fellow at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, supporting the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. His research examines protection of human rights defenders, digital rights, freedom of religion or belief, and intersectional discrimination. Cloney’s doctoral research analyses international judicial and quasi-judicial approaches to violence against sexual and gender minorities. He holds a BA in International Relations (First Class Hons, Dublin City University) and an MSt in International Human Rights Law (Distinction, New College, Oxford). He has authored books, journal articles, and reports addressing human rights, digital security, and advocacy strategies.

• Michelle Coleman

Michelle Coleman is a lecturer at the Hilary Rodham Clinton School of Law, which she joined in August 2021 after previously serving as a lecturer at Middlesex University London. Before entering academia, she practiced law in a range of international and domestic settings, including work at the International Criminal Court and as a public defender in the United States.

Michelle holds a BA in Political Science from Bryn Mawr College, a JD from Villanova University, and an LLM (cum laude) from Utrecht University. She earned her PhD from Middlesex University London, where her doctoral thesis examined the presumption of innocence. This research was later published by Routledge in 2021 as The Presumption of Innocence in International Human Rights and Criminal Law.

• Joseph E. David

Joseph E. David is Professor of Law at Sapir Academic College in Israel and a Visiting Professor in Yale University’s Program in Judaic Studies and at Yale Law School. His scholarship focuses on law and religion, legal history, comparative law, and jurisprudence. He is the author of several books, including The State Rabbinate: Election, Separation and Freedom of Expression (2000); The Family and the Political (2012); Toleration within Judaism (2013); Jurisprudence and Theology in Late Ancient and Medieval Jewish Thought (2014); and Kinship, Law and Politics: An Anatomy of Belonging (2019). He has also edited volumes such as The State of Israel: Between Judaism and Democracy (2000), Questioning Dignity (2006), Nomos and Narrative for the Hebrew Reader (2012), and The Gift of the Land and the Fate of the Canaanites in Jewish Thought (2014). David has previously held academic appointments at the University of Pennsylvania, Rutgers University, NYU, the University of Oxford, the Hebrew University, IDC Herzliya, and the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology.

• Francis Davis

Professor Francis T. Davis is a social and political scientist working at the intersection of business, civil society, and government. An Honorary Professor of Public Policy and Communities at the University of Birmingham, he has advised UK ministers across three governments and served as a non-executive director of an NHS Trust. His recent work focuses on public service reform, complex community challenges, and inclusive private-sector investment, with projects in Rwanda, Pakistan, Iraq, Israel/Palestine, Bangladesh, South Africa, and the UK. He is an award-winning social enterprise leader and a frequent lecturer internationally, including at the Universities of Paris, Oxford, Antwerp, Leuven, and Dublin.

• Wim Decock

Professor Wim Decock is Full Professor of Roman Law and Legal History at Université catholique de Louvain (UCLouvain) and teaches legal history part-time at the University of Liège. Previously, he was a research professor at KU Leuven and led a junior research group at the Max-Planck-Institute for European Legal History in Frankfurt. He earned his PhD from Roma Tre University and KU Leuven (2011), with prize-winning research on the theological origins of contract law. Decock holds master’s degrees in law (Ghent) and classics (KU Leuven, summa cum laude) and is a member of the Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences in Brussels.

• Randle DeFalco

Randle DeFalco is an Assistant Professor of Law and a leading scholar of atrocity, international criminal law, and transitional justice, focusing especially on slow and invisible forms of mass harm such as famine and starvation. He holds a J.D. from Rutgers Law School and LL.M. and S.J.D. degrees from the University of Toronto, where he was a Vanier Scholar and won the Alan Marks Outstanding Thesis Medal. DeFalco previously taught at the University of Hawaiʻi and has held fellowships in the UK, Cambodia, and the U.S., including a Fulbright. His book Invisible Atrocities (CUP, 2022) earned an honorable mention for the Herbert Jacob Book Prize. He teaches criminal law, criminal procedure, international criminal law, and evidence.

• Dobromir Dimitrov

Rev. Dr  Dobromir Dimitrov is a Bulgarian Orthodox priest, theologian, and iconographer, teaching in the University of Veliko Trnovo, Bulgaria, and serving as parish priest in London and Kent with the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Orthodox Patriarchate. He earned master’s degrees in iconography (2001) and theology (2005) from Veliko Tarnovo University, and a PhD in theology (2014). Dimitrov was an OTEP scholar at Oxford University’s Regent’s Park College (2014–2016), blending pastoral ministry with theological scholarship and the art of iconography.

• Regina Elsner

Regina Elsner is a Catholic theologian and, since April 2023, Professor for Eastern Churches and Ecumenical Theology at the University of Münster, Germany. She previously worked as a researcher at the Centre for East European and International Studies (ZOiS). Between 1998 and 2005, Elsner studied Catholic theology in Berlin and Münster, and from 2005 to 2010 she served as project coordinator for Caritas Russia in St. Petersburg. From 2010 to 2013, she was a research associate at the Ecumenical Institute of the University of Münster, focusing on institutions and institutional change in post-socialist contexts. Her research examines Orthodox Churches in Eastern Europe, Orthodox social ethics, and issues of peace and gender justice. Elsner has published extensively on Orthodoxy’s interaction with modern society and its sociopolitical role in Eastern Europe during the 20th and 21st centuries. Her recent work addresses the Russian Orthodox Church, Ukrainian Churches, and contemporary challenges facing Orthodox and Catholic institutions.

• Malcolm Evans

Professor Sir Malcolm Evans, KCMG OBE, is Principal of Regent’s Park College, Oxford, and a distinguished scholar of international law. Formerly Professor of International Law at the University of Bristol, he specialises in human rights protection, particularly the prevention of torture and freedom of religion, for which he was knighted in 2015. His work also covers the international law of the sea, maritime boundaries, and human rights at sea. He served as Chair of the UN Subcommittee for the Prevention of Torture (2011–2020) and was a member of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. He holds a DPhil from Regent’s Park College and an Honorary Doctorate from Bangor University.

• Effie Fokas

Dr Effie Fokas is a Senior Research Fellow at the Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy (ELIAMEP), where she leads projects examining the intersections of religion, politics, and law. Her recent work includes a European Research Council-funded study on grassroots mobilisations related to religion-focused case law of the European Court of Human Rights (Grassrootsmobilise, 2014–2019). Effies is also Assistant Professor of International Relations and European Affairs at the American College of Greece (Athens) and a Research Associate at the London School of Economics’ Hellenic Observatory. She holds a PhD in political sociology from the London School of Economics. Her research focuses on religion in politics, law, human rights, nationalism, and European identity. She has authored and co-edited several influential publications, including Religious America, Secular Europe? (with Peter Berger and Grace Davie), Islam in Europe: Diversity, Identity and Influence (with Aziz Al-Azmeh), and The European Court of Human Rights and Minority Religions (with James T. Richardson).

• Nazila Ghanea

 Nazila Ghanea is the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, a mandate she assumed on 1 August 2022. She is Professor of International Human Rights Law and Director of the MSc in International Human Rights Law at the University of Oxford. With nearly three decades of academic and policy engagement, Ghanea has taught in the UK and China, served as a consultant to numerous international organisations, and published extensively on human rights. Her work focuses on advancing principled understandings of Freedom of Religion or Belief and its relationship to other rights. She has supervised more than 100 graduate theses and co-authored a major 700-page Oxford University Press volume on FoRB and the UN system.

• Leonard Hammer

Leonard M. Hammer, Ph.D., LL.M. is the Co-Founder of the Human Rights Practice Program and Director of Outreach and Program Development for the Human Rights Practice Graduate Programs (SBS). He is also a Senior Lecturer at the Arizona Center for Judaic Studies and formerly the David and Andrea Stein Visiting Professor of Modern Israel Studies. Dr. Hammer holds a J.D. from Georgetown University, an LL.M. in International Law from New York University, and a Ph.D. in International Human Rights from the University of London (SOAS). He spent a decade as an International Scholar at the Open Society Foundation, where he developed human rights graduate law programs in former Soviet satellite states, including Azerbaijan, Georgia, Ukraine, and Kyrgyzstan. His research focuses on sacred spaces and holy places, particularly in Israel and Palestine, alongside broader issues in international law, human rights, and the Middle East. He has lectured and conducted research internationally, including in Israel, Turkey, Australia, Taiwan, and Canada, advancing human rights education and scholarship globally.

• Armen Harutyunyan

Dr Armen Harutyunyan has served as a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights since September 2015. Born in Yerevan, Armenia, he holds a Diploma in Law from Yerevan State University, a PhD from the Institute of State and Law of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, and a Doctor of Law degree from the Academy of Public Administration of the Russian Federation. Prior to his election to the Court, he was Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (2014–2015) and Regional Representative for the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in Central Asia (2011–2014). From 2006 to 2011, he served as Armenia’s Human Rights Defender (Ombudsman). Judge Harutyunyan has held numerous academic and advisory roles, including Rector of the Public Administration Academy of Armenia, legal advisor to Armenia’s Constitutional Court, and member of various constitutional reform commissions. His career combines extensive expertise in constitutional, international, and human rights law with decades of public service and judicial experience.

 

• Vlacheslav Havrilov

Vlacheslav Havrilov is Professor of Law and Head of the Chair of International Public and Private Law at the School of Law, Far Eastern Federal University, where he also directs the Master’s programs. Since 2009, he has led teaching and research initiatives in international law, focusing on comparative legal systems, international dispute resolution, and cross-border regulatory frameworks. Vlacheslav has published extensively on both public and private international law and has supervised numerous graduate theses. His work bridges academic scholarship and practical engagement in international legal education, fostering collaboration between Russian and global legal institutions.

 

• Harriet Hoffler

Harriet Hoffler is a senior foreign policy and strategic engagement specialist with a career spanning the UK Government,  the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, Ministry of Defence, Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and the U.S. Embassy in London. She has led major cross-government policy engagement programmes, including for the FCDO’s International Development White Paper, and has worked internationally on cultural and defence diplomacy, soft power, grand strategy and cultural heritage protection. Harriet previously directed the APPG on Modern Conflict in Parliament and served as a senior FoRB adviser to Commonwealth parliamentarians through the CIFORB initiative. With an early career background as a lecturer in human rights law, she remains an Honorary Fellow at the Edward Cadbury Centre and a Fellow of Cumberland Lodge.

 

• Susan Kerr

Dr Susan Kerr is Senior Adviser on Freedom of Religion or Belief at the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe’s Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) in Warsaw.  She brings over fifteen years of experience in European public affairs, human rights, and policy development. Prior to joining ODIHR, Susan led the Europe office of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a human rights organisation focused on freedom of religion or belief, and served on the Board of Coordinators of the European Platform against Religious Intolerance and Discrimination (EPRID). She has also worked within the European Parliament and undertaken consultancy for initiatives such as the FoRB Learning Platform. Susan is a senior research fellow at the Religious Freedom and Business Foundation and a member of the Board of Mentors of the Polylogos Association. She holds a PhD in Peace Studies from the University of Bradford and postgraduate degrees in business administration, international politics, and European studies from Durham University, the Free University of Brussels, and the University of Edinburgh.

• Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum

Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum is a Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, where she directs the Benjamin B. Ferencz Human Rights and Atrocity Prevention Clinic and the Cardozo Law Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights (CLIHHR). Her research and practice focus on human rights, public health, and atrocity prevention, with particular expertise in addressing sexual and gender-based crimes, slavery and the slave trade, genocide, Indigenous rights, and human rights violations affecting minority communities. Professor Kestenbaum combines legal scholarship with practical engagement, training law students in advocacy and research aimed at preventing and responding to human rights violations globally. She holds a J.D. from Cornell Law School and an MPH from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, reflecting her interdisciplinary approach to law, policy, and public health. Through her work, she contributes to advancing accountability, prevention, and protection of vulnerable populations worldwide.

• Svitlana Khylyuk

Svitlana Khyliuk (PhD, Associate Professor) is the Dean of the Faculty of Law at the Ukrainian Catholic University. She has extensive academic and professional experience in criminal law, legal education, and human rights. Dr Khyliuk previously practiced law and served as an attorney from 2008 to 2017. She pioneered Ukraine’s first university course on the application of European Court of Human Rights case law in criminal law. She is a member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine and serves as a Legal Expert for the OSCE, the Council of Europe, the EU “Pravo-Justice” Project, and the U.S. Department of Justice.

• Merilin Kiviorg

Merilin Kiviorg is an Associate Professor of International Law at the University of Tartu, School of Law. She holds a DPhil from the University of Oxford and a Mag. iur. cum laude from the University of Tartu. A former Max Weber Fellow at the European University Institute in Florence, her research focuses on human rights, law and religion, religion and security, and religion in public spaces and education. She is the principal investigator of the project “Russia and Consolidation of Regional International Law in Eurasia” and advises governmental and non-governmental bodies in Estonia on human rights. Kiviorg has served on the Chancellor of Justice’s Advisory Committee on Human Rights in Estonia, as a member of the OSCE/ODHIR Advisory Panel on Freedom of Religion or Belief (2016–2022), and as president of the European Consortium for Church and State Research (ECCSR), where she currently serves on the board.

 

• John Kinahan

 

John Kinahan is a founding member of Forum 18, an organisation that monitors violations of freedom of thought, conscience, and belief for all people, regardless of belief or non-belief. Forum 18 reports extensively on Central Asia, the South Caucasus, Russia, Belarus, and Russian-occupied Ukrainian territories. John has worked on issues of freedom of religion or belief since 1997 and currently serves on the ODIHR/OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Security (Ireland).

• Yannis Ktistakis

Dr Yannis Ktistakis has been a Judge of the European Court of Human Rights since March 2021 and President of Section since November 2024. He holds a Law Degree from Democritus University of Thrace, two master’s degrees in Political Science and Legal Theory, and a PhD in Law from the University of Athens. He has served as a lawyer at the Court of Cassation and Council of State, Associate Professor at Democritus University, Assistant Professor at Bosphorus University, and lecturer at the Greek National School for the Judiciary. Ktistakis has contributed extensively to human rights, equality, and anti-discrimination bodies in Greece and Europe.

• Nikos Maghioros

Nikos Maghioros currently serves as the Vice Rector of Academic Affairs and Development Professor at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and has been Professor of Canon and Ecclesiastical Law at the Department of Theology. He studied at Aristotle University and the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. Maghioros has taught Orthodox Canon Law, Sources of Canon Law, Comparative Canon Law, Ecclesiastical Law, and Church-State Relations in Greece and the European Union. He has organised and participated in numerous conferences on inter-Christian dialogue and the relationship between religion and the state. He serves as ECTS Coordinator of the School of Theology and is a member of the Committee on European Educational Programs at Aristotle University of Thessaloniki.

• Habib Malik

Habib Malik is a retired Associate Professor of history and cultural studies at the Lebanese American University and a prominent voice on human rights in the Middle East. Born in Washington, D.C. in 1954, he is the son of Charles Malik, a key architect of the UDHR. Malik studied at the American University of Beirut, Princeton, and Harvard, earning a PhD in modern European intellectual history. He has taught at AUB, the Catholic University of America, and LAU, and has held research fellowships at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the American Enterprise Institute. A human rights advocate, he co-founded the Foundation for Human and Humanitarian Rights in Lebanon and heads the Charles Malik Foundation.

• Andrew Methven

Andrew Methven has served as Chief of Staff of the AMAR International Charitable Foundation since 2016, organising the Windsor Dialogue conferences at locations including St George’s House, Windsor Castle, Cumberland Lodge, and Baghdad. He attended the first Windsor Conference and has been central to the Foundation’s initiatives on forced migration and humanitarian aid. Prior to joining AMAR, Methven served as an officer in the British Army, with deployments in Bosnia and Iraq. He holds master’s degrees from Cambridge, Cranfield University, King’s College London, and Imperial College London.

 

• Shabnam Moinipour

Dr Shabnam Moinipour is a Senior Project Research Fellow at Regent’s Park College, University of Oxford, supporting the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief. With over 15 years of human rights experience across North America, Europe, and the Middle East, her interdisciplinary research focuses on structural inequalities, discrimination, and social justice affecting marginalised populations. She has taught human rights measurement, assessment, and comparative case studies at institutions including the School of Advanced Study, University of London. Her work connects scholarship and practice, advancing human rights education, policy, and advocacy, particularly in areas of freedom of religion, minority rights, and social justice.

• Christina Murray

Christina Murray is an Emerita Professor based in Oxford, UK, and a visiting fellow at Kellogg College. From 2014 to 2024 (excluding 2016), she served on the UN Department of Political and Peacemaking Affairs’ Mediation Support Standby Team, specialising in constitutions and power-sharing. She has advised peace-making and constitution-building processes in Sudan, South Sudan, Yemen, Papua New Guinea (Bougainville), The Gambia, Tunisia, Libya, Chile and Somalia. Her work focuses on inclusive governance, transitional arrangements and negotiated political settlements.

 

• Aetios Nikiforos

 

The Grand Ecclesiarch Aetios Nikiforos (Ecumenical Patriarchate) (ὁ Μ. Ἐκκλησιάρχης Ἀέτιος) serves as Director of the Private Office of His All-Holiness Patriarch Bartholomew at the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Trained as an attorney, he earned his Master of Divinity summa cum laude from St. Vladimir’s Orthodox Theological Seminary in 2018, where he was class valedictorian. Ordained to the priesthood in 2019 in Istanbul, he was appointed Grand Ecclesiarch of the Ecumenical Patriarchate. In 2025 he completed his doctoral dissertation at Cardiff University on the development of Orthodox canon law and the Pedalion.

 

• Javier Oliva

Professor Javier García Oliva is a leading scholar of law and religion and constitutional law at the University of Manchester. Educated at the University of Cádiz (LLB, LLM, PhD cum laude), he has held academic posts across the UK and internationally, including at Oxford, UCL, Cardiff, Carlos III (Madrid), Sevilla, Chile, and Dalhousie. His work focuses on religious freedom, the legal status of religious denominations, law and education, and devolution in the UK. A prolific author with extensive comparative expertise, he also serves as Membership Secretary of the UK Constitutional Law Association and Book Review Editor for Law and Justice.

• Anthony O’Mahony

Anthony O’Mahony is a Research Fellow and tutor in World Religions at Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, where he also serves as a Graduate College Adviser. Formerly Reader in the History of Eastern Christianity and Director of the Centre for Eastern Christianity at Heythrop College (1999–2018), he later became an Associate Fellow at the School of Advanced Studies, University of London. He has held the Sir Daniel and Countess Bernardine Murphy Donohue Chair at the Pontifical Oriental Institute. His work focuses on Eastern Christianity, interfaith relations, and Jerusalem’s religious history, and he frequently contributes expert commentary to international media.

• Peter Petkoff

Peter Petkoff is Associate Professor, Tutorial Fellow in Law, and Director of the Centre for Law and Religion at Regent’s Park College, Oxford. He is Managing Editor of the Oxford Journal of Law and Religion and serves as Legal Consultant on Media Freedom and Freedom of Expression for the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. His research examines law, religion, politics, and human rights, including canon law and international legal frameworks. Peter engages with academics, policymakers, and religious leaders worldwide, contributing to interdisciplinary scholarship. He is currently authoring a book on Holy Sites under International Law for Oxford University Press.

• Andrea Pin

 Andrea Pin is Associate Professor of Comparative Public Law at the University of Padova Law School and Senior Fellow at Emory University’s Center for the Study of Law & Religion. He holds a JD from the University of Padua and a PhD in Public Law from the University of Turin. Pin has taught Comparative Public Law, Economic and Social Rights, Italian Constitutional Law, Islamic Law, and Human Rights, and has held visiting positions at Emory, Notre Dame, and Trinity College Dublin. His research focuses on comparative constitutional law, European Union law, Middle Eastern constitutionalism, and law and religion. He has authored major works including The Legal Treatment of Muslim Minorities in Italy (2016) and Religious Freedom Without the Rule of Law (2024), and published extensively in international journals.

• Thiago Alves Pinto

Thiago Alves Pinto is Director of Studies in Theology and Religion and a Lecturer in Legal and Diplomatic Studies at the University of Oxford’s Department for Continuing Education. An Academic Affiliate at the Bonavero Institute of Human Rights and Ordinary Fellow at Kellogg College, he researches the intersection of religion, law, and human rights. His DPhil focuses on offences to religious belief in international human rights law. Pinto has collaborated with NGOs and international bodies including UNESCO, OSCE, IOM, IPPFoRB, and the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief.

• Elizabeth Prodromou

Dr. Elizabeth H. Prodromou is a Visiting Professor in the International Studies Program at Boston College and an affiliated faculty member of the Boisi Center for Religion and American Public Life and the Islamic Civilizations and Societies Program. She is an expert on the intersections of geopolitics, religion, and human rights, with a focus on the Eastern Mediterranean, Near East, and Southeastern Europe. Prodromou served as Vice Chair and Commissioner of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (2004–2012) and was a member of the U.S. Secretary of State’s Religion & Foreign Policy Working Group (2011–2015). She co-chairs the Orthodoxy, Politics, and International Relations Group of the International Orthodox Theological Association and serves on editorial boards including The Review of Faith & International Affairs. Her research explores religious geopolitics, Russian influence through religion, and the impact of cultural heritage on religious freedom. She earned a Ph.D. and S.M. in Political Science from MIT, an M.A.L.D. from Tufts, and a B.A. in History and International Relations from Tufts University.

 

• Alastair Redfern

Rt Revd Dr Alastair Redfern served as Bishop of Derby from 2005 to 2018 and sat in the UK House of Lords. He specialises in theology, church history, social justice, clergy training, and leadership, with a focus on international development. Redfern contributed to the Modern Slavery Act 2015 as part of the parliamentary select committee and now chairs the Anti-Slavery Commissioner’s Advisory Panel and the Anglican Alliance. He is a Trustee of AMAR International Charitable Foundation and convenor of its Windsor Dialogue series on forced migration. He has authored 18 books, including Slavery and Salvation (2020).

• Javaid Rehman

Professor Javaid Rehman is a Professor of Law at Brunel University London and the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Iran. He previously held academic positions at Ulster University and the University of Leeds and served as Head of Brunel Law School. He is the founding Director of Brunel’s Centre for Security, Media and Human Rights and has published over 180 works, including International Human Rights Law and Unravelling Religious Moralities. Professor Rehman has contributed to international law reform, freedom of religion or belief, and Islamic law, and has advised governments, courts, and the UN on human rights issues.

• Ahmed Shaheed 

Professor Ahmed Shaheed is Professor of International Human Rights Law at the University of Essex, where he directs the Human Rights Centre’s Religion and Equality Project, the Global Alliance to Counter Islamophobia initiative, and the Essex Summer School on Human Rights Research and Practice. He advises the UN Office on Genocide Prevention on hate speech and serves on the OSCE Panel of Experts on Freedom of Religion or Belief. From 2016 to 2022 he was the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, having earlier served as Special Rapporteur on Iran and Foreign Minister of the Maldives. His research spans human rights implementation, FoRB, hate speech, emerging technologies, and progressive Islam.

• Victoria Schofield

 

Victoria Schofield is a British author, biographer, and historian known for her extensive writings on South Asia, military history, and political biography. Educated at the Royal Naval School for Girls and Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford, she later served as President of the Oxford Union, succeeding her close friend Benazir Bhutto. Her published works include Kashmir in Conflict, Wavell: Soldier and Statesman, The Black Watch (two-volume history), and The Fragrance of Tears, her memoir of Bhutto. She has held academic positions including the Alistair Horne Fellowship at St Antony’s College, Oxford, and contributes regularly to UK national and specialist media

• Kristina Stoeckl

Kristina Stoeckl is a Professor of Sociology at LUISS Guido Carli University in Rome, specialising in the intersection of religion, politics, and democratic values. Her research explores how value conflicts, religion, and democracy interact in contemporary societies, contributing to global debates on culture wars, illiberalism, and democratic resilience. Stoeckl’s work has earned multiple international book awards and major competitive grants, including support from the European Research Council (ERC STG). Beyond academia, she actively engages with policymakers, civil society, and media to foster dialogue on democracy, pluralism, and the role of religion in public life. She currently leads the team organising the European Academy of Religion Annual Conference 2026 and has shaped discussions on the challenges and opportunities facing modern democratic societies in an era of social and religious diversity.

• Yuri Stoyanov

 Dr Yuri Stoyanov is a scholar of religious history and comparative religion whose research explores a broad spectrum of cosmologies, soteriologies, and eschatologies across Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. His work focuses in particular on dualist, mystical, esoteric, and apocalyptic traditions within the Abrahamic faiths. He has written extensively on the religious and cultural interactions between the Romano-Byzantine and Iranian worlds, as well as on forms of Islamic–Christian syncretism.

His additional areas of expertise include Eastern Christian theologies of warfare, historical and contemporary Christian apocalyptic perceptions of Islam, and the study of religious sites, minority sectarian communities, and cultural heritage throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

• Kate Temoney

Dr Kate E. Temoney is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Religion at Montclair State University, where she also serves as Special Advisor to the Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives. A comparative religious ethicist, she works at the intersection of religion, human rights, genocide studies, and historical memory. Temoney is a member of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Committee on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust and an editor for Genocide Studies and Prevention. She teaches courses on religious ethics, genocide, African religions, and human rights. Her international scholarship addresses topics such as genocidal rape, white supremacy, moral injury, and post-genocide memory in Rwanda.

• Knox Thames

1. Knox Thames is a Senior Fellow at Pepperdine University, directing the Global Faith and Inclusive Societies Program, and serves as a Visiting Expert at the U.S. Institute of Peace. He has two decades of experience as a U.S. government civil servant, including as Special Advisor for Religious Minorities in the Near East and South/Central Asia at the U.S. Department of State. Knox has served in the Helsinki Commission, USCIRF, AmeriCorps VISTA, and as Adjunct Research Professor at the U.S. Army War College. He co-authored International Religious Freedom Advocacy (2009) and has testified before the U.S. Congress, European Parliament, and the UN. Knox holds a BA from Georgetown College, a JD from American University, and an MA in International Affairs from American University

• Renata Uitz

Renata Uitz is Professor of law and government at Royal Holloway, University of London. Previously, she taught comparative constitutional law at the Central European University, Budapest and Vienna (September 2001-August 2023) and served as the co-director of the newly established CEU Democracy Institute (February 2022-August 2023). Her major research interests lie in public law and comparative constitutional law, in transition to and from constitutional democracy, the protection of individual autonomy and religious liberty. Her current work focuses on illiberal constitutional practices and the normalisation of illiberal constitutionalism around the world.

• Konstantine Vardzelashvili

Konstantine Vardzelashvili is a former Vice President of the Constitutional Court of Georgia and current member of the UN Human Rights Committee, where he serves as Rapporteur. He previously held positions as Deputy Minister of Justice of Georgia, Ad Hoc Judge at the European Court of Human Rights, and member of the Venice Commission. Konstantine has lectured extensively on constitutional law, human rights, and legal reform at institutions including Ilia State University and the Free University of Tbilisi. His work spans human rights protection, legal education, and constitutional reform. He holds degrees in history and law from Tbilisi State University, the Central European University, and the Tbilisi Law Institute.

 

• Dmytro Vovk

Dmytro Vovk is a professor and legal scholar specialising in the rule of law, church-state relations, and comparative constitutional law. He directs the Centre  for the Rule of Law and Religion Studies at Yaroslav Muddy National Law University in Ukraine and teaches at the Ukrainian Catholic University. Currently in the U.S. due to the Russian invasion, he is supported by Yeshiva University and Cardozo School of Law. Vovk has been a Kenan-Fulbright fellow, visiting researcher at BYU, and an affiliated researcher at the University of Queensland. He serves on the OSCE/ODIHR Expert Panel on Freedom of Religion or Belief, coordinates its FoRB and gender working group, and has advised Ukrainian courts, UNFPA, OSCE/ODIHR, and other international bodies. He co-edited Religion during the Russian-Ukrainian Conflict (2019).

• Rebecca White

Rebecca White is CEO of the House of St Gregory and St Macrina, Oxford, a centre of studies for Orthodoxy and Christian unity, and works to further understanding of the traditions of Eastern Christianity and between Christians of East and West. She is a Researcher in the Centre for Law and Religion at Regent’s Park College, Oxford, Associate Editor of the Oxford Journal for Law and Religion and Programme Director of the Oxford Theological Exchange Programme (OTEP).

• Michael Wiener

Michael Wiener is a legal scholar and visiting fellow at Kellogg College, Oxford, specialising in international human rights law, particularly freedom of religion or belief, freedom of expression, and the prohibition of incitement to discrimination or violence. He holds an LL.M. from London, an Ass. iur. from Rheinland-Pfalz, and a Dr. iur. from Trier. Wiener works with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and contributed to drafting the Camden Principles on Freedom of Expression and Equality. In 2019, he, along with co-authors Nazila Ghanea and Heiner Bielefeldt, won the Premio Alberigo Senior Book Award for their commentary on freedom of religion (OUP, 2016).