Nearly 150 delegates from around the world gathered in Provo, Utah, to participate in Brigham Young University’s International Center for Law and Religion Studies’ 32nd annual International Law and Religion Symposium Oct. 5-7.
The symposium’s theme was “Building Paths to Flourishing: Regional, National and International Protections of Religious Freedom,” according to a news release on ChurchofJesusChrist.org.
All delegates, representing 47 countries, were invited to attend the October 2025 general conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Oct. 4-5.
The symposium, regarded as one of the leading global forums for the analysis and promotion of religious freedom, united individuals from diverse backgrounds and faiths to foster tolerance, understanding and international cooperation for religious freedom.
Plenary sessions and working groups focused on topics such as interreligious coexistence, minority protection, the religion-state relationship and the role of faith in building more just and peaceful societies.
Simon O’Connor, a former New Zealand member of parliament and advocate for family values, spoke about the increasing challenges to freedom of religion and conscience in the delegates’ countries. He emphasized religious freedom as a cornerstone of all other rights.
“It is the right on which all other rights find their grounding, from freedom of speech to freedom of association,” he said in the news release.
Pastor Martha Alejandra Ibarra Merito, of the Covenant Church in Mexico, spoke about the challenges displaced people face and how religion can help them feel supported, healed and included while they are far from home.
“Religion acts as a catalytic force; it can be a symbolic, effective and sociable space that allows us to rebuild a possible world in the midst of uprooting and uncertainty,” she said.
Delegates from eight African countries — Botswana, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, and Tanzania — participated in the symposium, presenting on religious freedom issues in their respective nations while also learning from their peers.
“The symposium was fantastic,” said Ahmed Salisu Garba, vice chancellor of Al-Muhibbah Open University in Abuja, Nigeria.
Learn more about the 32nd annual International Law and Religion Symposium at ChurchofJesusChrist.org and at the International Center for Law and Religious Studies website, iclrs.org.
