IDS Research Fellow and Director of the IDS-led Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID), Professor Mariz Tadros, has been appointed to the Council of Experts for the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance (IRFBA).
Founded in 2020, the Alliance is a network of like-minded countries who commit to advance Article 18 of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, which states that ‘everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion’.
The Alliance is currently chaired by Fiona Bruce MP, the UK Prime Minister’s Special Envoy for Freedom of Religion or Belief (FoRB), and aims to agree co-ordinated actions to promote FoRB and protect people worldwide who are persecuted or discriminated against on account of their religion or belief.
Government officials from 37 countries take part with the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance and the Council of Experts provides technical support on policy.
Professor Tadros will bring her expertise from her own research and from convening the Coalition for Religious Equality and Inclusive Development (CREID) that works with partners to ensure that development programmes and policies are sensitive and responsive to inequalities on the grounds of religion or belief.
Professor Mariz Tadros, Research Fellow, Institute of Development Studies and Director of CREID, said:
“I am grateful for the opportunity to share the work of CREID and its approach of putting the experiences of marginalised individuals and groups at the heart of any FoRB-promoting approach. I look forward to learning from the diverse expertise and experience of members of the IRFBA.”
CREID’s latest research is published in a new eBook, ‘What About Us?’: Global Perspectives on Redressing Religious Inequalities’ edited by Mariz Tadros, about the individual and collective struggles of the religiously marginalised to be recognised and their inequalities, religious or otherwise, redressed. It is also about the efforts of civil society, governments, multilateral actors, and scholars to promote freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) whatever shape they take.
For more research and resources on religious inequalities and development see the website www.creid.ac
