The International Centre for Ethnic Studies, together with the Centre for Asian Legal Studies at the National University of Singapore, and the Ralph Bunche Institute at the City University of New York, organized a workshop on ‘Gender Equality and Freedom of Religion’ to support the mandate of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed.

Women’s and LGBTQI+ rights activists, representatives of Human Rights organizations, and policy researchers were among the panelists and participants of the conference, and shared their experiences and insights on subjects such as Personal Law reform in Southeast Asia and in Sri Lanka, the role of religion in discrimination against women and LGBTQI+ communities, gender discrimination within religious institutions, and inter-religious disharmony and resulting infringements on the freedom of religion or belief.