Talk About: FoRB

Dmytro Vovk, Merilin Kiviorg

Hosts Dmytro Vovk and Merilin Kiviorg discuss freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) with other experts in the field. Hosts will focus on topical issues related to religious freedom, church-state relations, and religion and politics. The podcast is an extension of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies' blog Talk About: Law and Religion.

Episodes

  1. 12/23/2024

    Justice and Accountability for the Yazidi Genocide Ten Years On

    In Episode 4 of The FoRB Podcast, Merilin Kiviorg and Dmytro Vovk invite Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law to discuss political, legal, and social responses to the 2014 Yazidi genocide committed by ISIS. Jocelyn elaborates on the roots of the genocide and addresses the challenges and threats Yazidi communities have faced post-genocide. She also discusses state responsibility and measures, often ineffective, implemented by the Iraqi government and other national and international actors to hold perpetrators accountable. Jocelyn further explains why detention camps for former ISIS members and their families can foster a new circle of violence and how the Yazidi genocide has changed our understanding of international criminal law.  Timeline: 1:36 – Introducing the topic 4:23 – Who Yazidis are (religion, ethnicity, and caste system)  12:39 – The long-standing history of persecutions and violence against Yazidi people 13:34 – Religio-ethnic nature of the ISIS atrocities against Yazidi 15:32 – State responsibility and individual criminal accountability for the genocide of the Yazidi 21:33 – Why does the Iraq legal system address the genocide of Yazidis ineffectively? 24:24 – Yazidis' access to asylum due to the genocide (and the recent EU Court of Justice's decision on Afghan women) 26:10 – More about state responsibility and the genocides of Yazidis 29:50 – Yazidis in the post-genocidal situation 34:14 – Detention camps for suspected ISIS members and their families 40:21 – How the Yazidi case has changed our understanding of international criminal law

  2. 10/01/2024

    The Russian World Narrative and the Russian Aggression in Ukraine

    In Episode 3 of The FoRB Podcast, Dmytro Vovk and Merilin Kiviorg invite Catherine Wanner and Thomas Bremer to discuss the Russian world (Russky mir)—a narrative utilized by the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church to justify Russia's aggressive war in Ukraine and to portray Russia as an "anti-Western civilization." They touch on the ideological origins and content of the Russia world, the Russian Church's involvement in the war, political and legal responses to the Russky mir narrative by Russia's neighboring states (Ukraine and Estonia), and debates over these issues in the United States and Europe.  Timeline: 2:55 The Russian world as a concept: anti-Westernism and the Russian language 7:00 Brodsky's belonging to the Russian language 9:14 Conservative communitarianism of the Russian world 14:55 The Russian world is more a narrative than an ideology  19:20 Political instrumentalization of the Russian world 21:10 "The Russian world has become married to the concept of victimhood" 25:25 The Estonian response to the Russian world 28:56 American debates over the Russian world and Ukraine  37:19 Little attention to the Russian world in German politics 41:27 Is the Russia-Ukraine war going over the Russian world and its values? 44:58 Traditional values and Ukrainians' choice in favor of the European Union  52:42 The Russian world is something bigger than the personalities of Putin and Kirill

About

Hosts Dmytro Vovk and Merilin Kiviorg discuss freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) with other experts in the field. Hosts will focus on topical issues related to religious freedom, church-state relations, and religion and politics. The podcast is an extension of the International Center for Law and Religion Studies' blog Talk About: Law and Religion.