Contributor(s): Dr Rowan Williams | The idea of human rights is often traced back to the characteristically religious insight that every individual is unique in the eyes of God. This explanation of why human dignity is important held sway for centuries, but it has lost much of its grip on society in these uncertain, post-modern times. Many adherents of human rights today see no need to root their beliefs in any religious (or specifically Christian) set of beliefs. Indeed some would go so far as to see religion as distinctly hostile to human rights. Are they right to do so? What is the true relationship between religion and human rights? Rowan Williams was enthroned as the 104th Archbishop of Canterbury in February 2003. Following ordination in 1978 he combined teaching and pastoral work in Cambridge and then Oxford (where he was Lady Margaret Professor of Divinity from 1986-92) until his election as Bishop of Monmouth in 1991 and subsequently Archbishop of Wales from 2000.

Contributor(s): Nicholas C Garganas | The introduction of the euro posed unique challenges for monetary policy. Some observers took the view that a single monetary policy for all euro-area countries would not succeed because the euro area did not fulfil the pre-requisites of on Optimum Currency Area (OCA). In his lecture Mr Garganas will argue that the traditional way of thinking about OCAs overlooks the fact that the criteria used to judge optimality are, to some extent, endogenous. He will also argue, the experience of the euro area demonstrates that the creation of a monetary union can itself create conditions that are favourable to the well-functioning of the union. Nicholas C Garganas is governor of the Bank of Greece, a member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee, a member of the Governing Council and the General Council of the European Central Bank, and a governor of the International Monetary Fund for Greece.

Contributor(s): David Goodhart, Professor John Keane, Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh | Capture started: 2008-04-29 18:31

Contributor(s): Professor Spike Peterson | This lecture considers how tremendous growth of licit and illicit informal sector activities tends to exacerbate gender, race, class and geopolitical hierarchies and ultimately fuels conflicts at multiple levels, including civil wars. Spike Peterson is the Leverhulme visiting professor, LSE Gender Institute and the Department of International Relations.

Contributor(s): Sir John Holmes, Professor James Putzel | Emergency relief efforts face multiple challenges in the next five years: preserving 'humanitarian space' and staying independent of political/military action in places like Darfur, Iraq and Somalia; increasing effective coordination of the many humanitarian actors in the field; rising to the challenge of ever more natural disasters from the effects of climate change; and coping with the immediate consequences for the poorest of the recent structural shift upwards in food prices. How central a role can the UN play in addressing these challenges, and how can UN agencies, international and national NGOs and the Red Cross/Crescent movement work together most effectively? John Holmes is UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, a position he has held since March 2007. He succeeded Mr. Jan Egeland in this post.

Contributor(s): Steve Coll | Steve Coll's new book 'The Bin Ladens: The Story of a Family and its Fortune' charts the rise of a family, and the story of the Saudi royal family they loyally served. Steve Coll is most recently the author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning bestseller Ghost Wars. He also won a 1990 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory journalism. He covered Afghanistan and the Washington Post's South Asia bureau chief between 1989 and 1992 and was the Washington Post's managing editor from 1998 to 2004. He is now staff writer at the New Yorker. He is the author of five books, including On the Grand Trunk Road and The Taking of Getty Oil. He lives with his wife and three children in Maryland.

Contributor(s): The Honourable Kevin Rudd MP, Prime Minister of Australia | The Australian Prime Minister, Mr Rudd, was elected to office in November last year and moved quickly to ratify the Kyoto Protocol and deliver a national apology to the Stolen Generations of Indigenous Australians. He has identified fighting inflation, acting decisively on climate change, improving the health and hospital system, investing in education and putting fairness back into Australian workplaces as his Government's key priorities. Mr Rudd has said that his Government's mandate is to build a modern Australian economy capable of dealing with the challenges of the 21st century.

Contributor(s): President Michelle Bachelet | Michelle Bachelet, was born on September 29, 1951. She is a trained paediatrician and public health specialist who also holds degrees in military science. A member of the Socialist Party and mother of three, Dr. Bachelet was the first woman in Chilean and Latin American history to hold the Health and Defence portfolios. On January 15, 2006 she became Chile's first-ever woman president.