Scholars, religious leaders, and representatives of international organisations from eighteen countries met for lectures, communal meals, and visits, on the occasion of the 4^th World SangSaeng Forum hosted at Daejin University in South Korea from 23 to 27 October 2025. The programme was rich and varied including both keynote lectures by well‑known international scholars and parallel sessions on emerging religions, the ethics of reconciliation, and comparative spirituality, and also moments specifically devoted to interreligious dialogue with East Asian religious movements, as well as a field trip to the National Museum of Korea and an academic visit to Yeoju.

by Alessandro Amicarelli — Rev. Jesse Jackson's death feels, for many of us, like the end of a long season in the history of civil rights in the United States. For over fifty years, he was a famous name and a regular presence on television. Someone people expected to see turning up at times of protests, rallies, and anytime marginalised communities needed help and support. For this reason, most people still associate his face first and foremost with the civil rights movement. And religious freedom for Rev. Jackson was part of those battles, a pillar of human dignity.

Good news from Pakistan. The Punjab government has issued an ordinance effective immediately, setting the minimum marriage age for both boys and girls at 18. Violations of the law are now classified as prosecutable, non-bailable, and non-reconcilable offenses. The law applies to all Pakistanis, both Muslims and non-Muslims. The intent is to eliminate the barbaric practice of conversions and forced marriages perpetrated by Muslims to which young women (often minors who are still children) belonging to Christian and Hindu minorities are subjected.

On October 28, 2021, the Supreme Court of Russia ruled that Jehovah's Witnesses who pray in groups are not committing a crime and therefore cannot be prosecuted, opening a loophole in Article 282.2 of the controversial Yarovaya Law. Now, the Russian political party New People, founded in January 2020 and considered “liberal,” has proposed draft laws in 2024 and 2025 aimed at restricting religious services, rites, and ceremonies within residential and non-residential buildings, thus limiting several inalienable freedoms, as illustrated in the following article by Human Rights Without Frontiers.