Grigory Mavrov, an Islamic scholar, Master of Islamic Studies, Hamad bin Khalifa University (Doha, Qatar), gave a lecture as part of the IIIT lectures series for CIS countries on "How does Islamic law interact with the concept of human rights?
The lecturer outlined the main aspects of the interaction between Islamic law and the universally recognised concept of human rights, tracing the evolution of Islamic legal principles relating to human rights from the classical period to the modern era. The lecture aimed to identify the different ways in which Islamic law, with its various interpretations, interacts or diverges from international human rights norms.
Gregory Mavrov suggested the main approaches of Islamic scholars of the classical period to the principle of universality of human rights, and that many of those rights now recognised as universal were formulated by Islamic scholars long before they were codified in the relevant international legal instruments. The lecturer proposed to consider two main approaches: communalists and universalists. Proponents of communalism assume that human rights are not universal and are closely linked to the civil/religious affiliation of a particular person. Whereas the proponents of universalism believe that human rights are not dependent on civil/religious affiliation but are linked to belonging to humanity.
After the migration of the Muslims of Mecca to Medina (622), a political entity was established under the leadership of the Prophet, which, among other things, enshrined several important provisions on rights and freedoms. The agreement guaranteed: life, property, honour, and freedom of worship for all the inhabitants of Medina.
About 60 participants from Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan registered for the lecture. The participants were interested in the historical features of human rights.
A recording of the lecture is available on the Institute Of Knowledge Integration YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5oehZUg5V8.
