{"id":37367,"date":"2017-09-06T16:00:50","date_gmt":"2017-09-06T16:00:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/queme.org\/?p=37367\/"},"modified":"2017-09-13T17:13:12","modified_gmt":"2017-09-13T17:13:12","slug":"vchr-and-eprid-organise-a-conference-on-religion-business-and-human-rights-at-the-ep","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/vchr-and-eprid-organise-a-conference-on-religion-business-and-human-rights-at-the-ep\/","title":{"rendered":"VCHR and EPRID organise a Conference on \u201cReligion, Business and Human Rights\u201d at the European Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

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On Wednesday 6 September 2017, Qu\u00ea Me: Vietnam Committee on Human Rights<\/strong> (VCHR) and the European Platform against Religious Intolerance and Discrimination<\/strong> (EPRID), in collaboration with the office of Ramon Tremosa i Balcells MEP<\/strong>, organised a Conference on \u201cReligion, Business and Human Rights\u201d<\/strong><\/em> at the European Parliament.<\/p>\n

Speakers included Dr Brian Grim<\/strong>, President of the Religious Freedom & Business Foundation (USA); Dr J\u00e1n Figel\u2019<\/strong>, Special Envoy on the Promotion and Protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief outside the EU; Amarjit Singh<\/strong>, Partner at Ernst & Young LLP (UK); Michael Wakelin<\/strong>, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, and Merete Bilde<\/strong> of the European External Action Service.<\/p>\n

The Conference was chaired by MEP Ramon Tremosa i Balcells<\/strong>, moderated by Penelope Faulkner<\/strong>, member of EPRID\u2019s Board of Coordinators and Vice-President of VCHR, and attended by wide diversity of MEPs and staff, diplomats, officials from EU institutions, religious leaders and human rights defenders from the EU and Asia.<\/p>\n

Below is a snapshot photo-report of the Conference. We will follow up soon with a more detailed account including conclusions and recommendations.<\/p>\n

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\u00a9 European Union 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Photo
\u00a9 European Union 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Ramon
Ramon Tremosa i Balcells MEP, ALDE Coordinator for the EP Committee on Economic and Monetary Affairs (ECON) \u2013 \u00a9 European Union 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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“Freedom of Religion or Belief is close to the core of every human being, so that some have argued that religion should be a private matter. So what has the business world to do with this human right? More than you might think!<\/em><\/p>\n

Every day, businesses around the world bring together people from different backgrounds and religions to accomplish a shared purpose \u2013 producing a product or service for others. At the same time, societies are becoming more religiously diverse. The Sustainable Development Goals 2030 include several references to diversity and inclusion, and it is widely accepted that diversity will increasingly impact employees and markets. Facilitating this diversity is one component of a company\u2019s overall strategy to value their employees and increase their loyalty for the benefit of customers and shareholders.”<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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\"Dr
Dr Brian Grim, founder and president of the US-based Religious Freedom & Business Foundation \u2013 Photo \u00a9 European Union 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Dr.
Dr. J\u00e1n Figel\u2019, Special Envoy for promotion of freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) outside the EU \u2013 Photo \u00a9 European Union 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Merete
Merete Bilde, policy advisor at the European External Action Service (EEAS) \u2013 Photo \u00a9 European Union 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Michael
Michael Wakelin, Executive Associate in Public Education for the Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, former head of Religion at the BBC \u2013 Photo \u00a9 European Union 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Amarjit
Amarjit Singh, Partner at the company Ernst and Young, wealth and asset management, chair of the Ernst and Young Sikh Network \u2013 \u00a9 Photo VCHR 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Penelope
Penelope Faulkner, member of EPRID\u2019s Board of Coordinators and Vice-President of VCHR \u2013 Photo \u00a9 European Union 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Penelope
Penelope Faulkner and Ramon Tremosa MEP \u2013 Photo \u00a9 European Union 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"VCHR
VCHR President V\u00f5 V\u0103n \u00c1i and Peter Van Dalen MEP, Co-Chair of the European Parliament Intergroup on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Religious Tolerance \u2013 Photo \u00a9 VCHR 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Dr
Dr Susan Kerr (far right), member of EPRID\u2019s Board of Coordinators, prepares the conclusions for the Conference \u2013 Photo \u00a9 VCHR 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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\"Saumura
Saumura Tioulong, Member of the Cambodian Parliament, and Sam Rainsy, leader in exile of the Cambodian opposition \u2013 Photo \u00a9 VCHR 2017<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

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    On Wednesday 6 September 2017, Qu\u00ea Me: Vietnam Committee on Human Rights (VCHR) and the European Platform against Religious Intolerance and Discrimination (EPRID), in collaboration with the office of Ramon Tremosa i Balcells MEP, organised a Conference on \u201cReligion, Business and Human Rights\u201d at the European Parliament. Speakers included Dr Brian Grim, President …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":434,"featured_media":37368,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,113,104,98,64],"tags":[509,510],"class_list":["post-37367","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-latest-posts","category-news","category-photos","category-press-release","category-vchr","tag-figel","tag-religion-business-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37367","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/434"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37367"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37367\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37368"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37367"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37367"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/queme.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37367"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}