International Symposium on the Right to Freedom of Thought: Call for Participants

26 Jul 2022

The virtual symposium will be held at 12 noon on Wednesday 23 November 2022 and will explore how the right to freedom of thought is protected. 

The right to freedom of thought is recognised as a distinct right in international human rights treaties and in domestic law across multiple jurisdictions. But the jurisprudence, scholarship, and commentary on the right to freedom of thought is relatively sparse. Possibly this is because, traditionally at least, the right was considered to hold more symbolic importance than practical value and/or the interests that fall under its protective remit were considered to be adequately protected by other rights such as the right to freedom of expression or the right to privacy.  More recently, however, scholars have paid increasing attention to this right, especially in the context of socio-technological transformations (e.g. Blitz and Bublitz, 2021; Alegre, 2021).

Bethany Shiner (School of Law, Middlesex University and DPhil Candidate, Oxford) and Patrick O’Callaghan (School of Law, UCC) will host a virtual symposium on the right to freedom of thought at 12 noon UK/Irish time on Wednesday 23 November 2022. The purpose of the event is to sketch out the legal status and applicability of the right to freedom of thought across multiple jurisdictions. At this stage, we are seeking expressions of interest from potential participants. We are eager to hear from lawyers in as many different jurisdictions as possible but are particularly interested in hearing from lawyers in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Oceania.

This event will be the first step in a larger research project on the right to freedom of thought, which will lead to an edited comparative study of the interpretation and protection of the right. Full details of the symposium can be found in the following document: Freedom of Thought Symposium - Call for Participants