PUBLIC CONFERENCE
12 November 2005
SPEAKERS

Ruth Dreifuss is currently chair of the Commission on Intellectual Property Rights, Innovation and Public Health constituted by the General Assembly of the World Health Organization (WHO). Dreifuss worked as a civil servant in the field of development cooperation, and as a leader of the Swiss Labour Union. Member of the Social Democrat Party, she was elected as one of the seven members of the Swiss government (the so-called Federal Council). From early 1993 to the end of 2002, she acted as minister of domestic affairs, including public health, research, higher education, social security. In 1998, she became the vice chair of the Federal Council, and during 1999 was the president of the Swiss Confederation.

Marc Raphaël Guedj was chief rabbi of the Geneva traditional Jewish congregation from 1995-2001. In 2001, he founded the Fondation Racines et Sources (Roots and Sources Foundation) whose mission is to share the universal dimension of Jewish wisdom, and inter-religious research and dialogue. From 1981-1989, Guedj served in Paris as rabbi of a local Sephardic congregation, directed the Talmudic department of the Yavne School, taught Talmud and Jewish thought at the Jewish Seminary of France, and lectured in training at the Rachi Centre in partnership with the Sorbonne University. In Metz from 1989-1995, Guedj served as chief rabbi of Metz and the Moselle region, and as a professor and lecturer at Metz University.

Jean-Claude Basset has been a pastor of the Protestant Church of Geneva since 1980, and is the founder of the Plateforme interreligieuse de Genève (Geneva interreligious platform). A pioneer of inter-religious dialogue in French-speaking Switzerland, he is lecturer in the science of religions (Islam and inter-religious relations) at the University of Lausanne, and the author of an annual inter-religious calendar.

Lama Wangchouk is a prominent teacher at Dharma University and the Sangha Rimay spiritual community, both in France; he is in charge of Sangha Rimay long-term spiritual retreats. Wangchouk studies and practises Buddhism under the guidance of Lama Denys. From 1997-2001, he observed an extended retreat in the Shangpa and Dzoghen streams of the Tibetan Budddhist tradition. Since 2001, he has striven to transmit Buddhist tradition through teaching, translation and participation in inter-disciplinary and inter-religious meetings.

Larbi Kechat is an Algerian sociologist, practicioner of interreligious dialogue, and rector of the Adda'wa mosque and socio-cultural centre in the rue de Tanger, Paris.