BQ 828 – 8/2025
Christine Schirrmacher as speaker at the R20 UDHR Conference in Princeton

22. January 2025

(Bonn, 22.01.2025) Prof. Dr. Christine Schirrmacher, an expert in Islamic Studies, took part in a conference entitled “The Future of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. An International Consultation among Senior Religious and Academic Leaders”, the so-called R20 UDHR Conference, at Princeton University (New Jersey/USA), which was held there on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the adoption of the 1948 UN Charter of Human Rights.

The theme of the conferen­ce was a retrospective view of the formulation and implementation of the UN Charter of Human Rights in 1948 and a prospective view of the chances and limits of enforcing its principles in a globalized modern world.

The approximately 50 par­ticipants from all parts of the world had come to­gether at the invitation of Princeton University’s James Madison Program for American Ideals and Institutions, the Center for Shared Civilizational Values (CSCV), and the largest Islamic organization worldwide, the Indonesian Nahdlatul Ulama, as well as the movement of “Humanitarian Islam”, to discuss obstacles and resistance to the increased enforcement of human rights.

Christine Schirrmacher during the conference © IIRF/Thomas Schirrmacher

Schirrmacher also signed the “R20 Princeton Declaration” adopted by the participants, which was subsequently published by the International Institute for Religious Freedom (IIRF), among others. In it, the religious leaders and scholars stand behind the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, but also urge that its original meaning not be diluted in favor of ever new political agendas.

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