In Episode 4 of The FoRB Podcast, Merilin Kiviorg and Dmytro Vovk invite Jocelyn Getgen Kestenbaum of the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law to discuss political, legal, and social responses to the 2014 Yazidi genocide committed by ISIS. Jocelyn elaborates on the roots of the genocide and addresses the challenges and threats Yazidi communities have faced post-genocide. She also discusses state responsibility and measures, often ineffective, implemented by the Iraqi government and other national and international actors to hold perpetrators accountable. Jocelyn further explains why detention camps for former ISIS members and their families can foster a new circle of violence and how the Yazidi genocide has changed our understanding of international criminal law.

Timeline:

1:36 – Introducing the topic

4:23 – Who Yazidis are (religion, ethnicity, and caste system)

12:39 – The long-standing history of persecutions and violence against Yazidi people

13:34 – Religio-ethnic nature of the ISIS atrocities against Yazidi

15:32 – State responsibility and individual criminal accountability for the genocide of the Yazidi

21:33 – Why does the Iraq legal system address the genocide of Yazidis ineffectively?

24:24 – Yazidis' access to asylum due to the genocide (and the recent EU Court of Justice's decision on Afghan women)

26:10 – More about state responsibility and the genocides of Yazidis

29:50 – Yazidis in the post-genocidal situation

34:14 – Detention camps for suspected ISIS members and their families

40:21 – How the Yazidi case has changed our understanding of international criminal law

In Episode 3 of The FoRB Podcast, Dmytro Vovk and Merilin Kiviorg invite Catherine Wanner and Thomas Bremer to discuss the Russian world (Russky mir)—a narrative utilized by the Russian government and the Russian Orthodox Church to justify Russia's aggressive war in Ukraine and to portray Russia as an "anti-Western civilization." They touch on the ideological origins and content of the Russia world, the Russian Church's involvement in the war, political and legal responses to the Russky mir narrative by Russia's neighboring states (Ukraine and Estonia), and debates over these issues in the United States and Europe.

Timeline:

2:55 The Russian world as a concept: anti-Westernism and the Russian language

7:00 Brodsky's belonging to the Russian language

9:14 Conservative communitarianism of the Russian world

14:55 The Russian world is more a narrative than an ideology

19:20 Political instrumentalization of the Russian world

21:10 "The Russian world has become married to the concept of victimhood"

25:25 The Estonian response to the Russian world

28:56 American debates over the Russian world and Ukraine

37:19 Little attention to the Russian world in German politics

41:27 Is the Russia-Ukraine war going over the Russian world and its values?

44:58 Traditional values and Ukrainians' choice in favor of the European Union

52:42 The Russian world is something bigger than the personalities of Putin and Kirill

In episode 2 of the Talk About: FoRB Podcast, Dmytro Vovk and Merilin Kiviorg invite Matteo Corsalini (University of Siena) to discuss religious freedom in the workplace. Matteo explains the economic aspect of FoRB, elaborates on the trend in EU Court of Justice (EUCJ) jurisprudence to expand the discretion of public and private employers in FoRB matters, and traces the EUCJ's approach to the Court's nature and history. He also guides Dmytro and Merilin through legal reasoning developed by the EUCJ, the European Court of Human Rights, and the U.S. Supreme Court in similar cases.

Ed Brown from Oslo-based Stefanus Alliance International joins Dmytro and Merilin to discuss Qur'an-burning cases in Scandinavian countries and beyond. They touch on state responses to Qur'an burning, goals of religious and anti-religious expressions, Pussy Riot songs and Buddha statues, the capitalist logic behind religious tolerance, and why criminalization is not the best way to protect religious minorities from anti-religious speech.