International Humanist and Ethical Union

IHEU member organization Solidaritatea pentru Libertatea de Conştiinţă (Solidarity for Freedom of Conscience) is organizing a protest Folk-Rock Concert in Constitution Square, Bucharest, Romania on Saturday, 28 October 2006, 17:30 to protest against Art.

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Humanism and African Youths: The Way Forward for a Progressive Partnership

Africa Working Group (AWG), the regional arm of IHEU member organization IHEYO, coordinating the growth of Humanism in Africa, is organizing a nine-day e-conference to enable young Africans to discuss the fundamental issue of the advancement of Humanism in Africa. The online conference will be held in parallel with the IHEYO conference in Vijayawada, India: see also the conference announcement.

Report on the chaotic second session of the new Human Rights Council

In 2005, the UN Commission for Human Rights was scrapped. In the words of UN Secretary General Kofi Annan, it had become too selective and too political in its work, and was in danger of bringing the entire UN system into disrepute. After several months of debate in the UN General Assembly a new forum, the Human Rights Council was created, designed to overcome the problems that had bedevilled the Commission. But Annan’s bold initiative was watered down in the General Assembly. The Council now has 47 elected member states, all of whom have pledged themselves to adhere to and fully uphold the principles of universal human rights. The reality however is a Human Rights Council barely distinguishable from the old Commission. Many of the old faces: China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are still there. The United States is not. Having seen the extent to which Kofi Annan’s bold initiative was compromised in the General Assembly, the US voted against the creation of the Council and chose not to stand for election.

IHEU deeply regrets to announce that Prof Alexandre Marius Dées de Stério died in a train accident in France on 11 October 2006.

Marius Dées de Stério began his long association with IHEU many years ago as a member of IHEYO. He served as the IHEU Main Representative at the Council of Europe for over 20 years, was Rapporteur of the NGO Liaison Committee at the Council of Europe and spoke on numerous occasions in the Council on Human Rights and on other issues. He was a recipient of the prestigious Pro-Merito Award of the Council of Europe for publicizing its work in the media. He was President of the Union Radical-Humaniste Luxembourgeoise.

In 2005, at the Paris World Humanist Congress, he received the IHEU Distinguished Humanist Award in recognition of his tireless work for international Humanism.

We offer our deepest condolences to his wife and family.

Matt Cherry, secretary of the United Nations Non-Government Organizations (NGO) Committee on Freedom of Religion or Belief and Executive Director of IHEU member organization Institute for Humanist Studies, has made a presentation at a conference co-sponsored by the NGO Committee. Th conference was titled "The 1981 U.N. Declaration on Religious Tolerance and Non-Discrimination: Implementing Its Principles After Twenty-five Years" and the presentation was made for the panel on "Perspectives on Implementing the 1981 Declaration: History, Philosophy and Suggestions for Enhanced Implementation". The full text of the presentation is available here.

IHEYO, the International Humanist and Ethical Youth Organisation, has prepared a short manual on how to fund-raise. This will be uesful for groups seeking brief guidelines on how to find and approach funders and write a proposal. It provides many practical suggestions, points to keep in mind (do's and don't's), and good questions. Individual chapters are available separately. The document is available at http://www.iheyo.org/think/fundinglinks.htm.

Humanism and African youth: the way forward for a progressive partnership

Africa Working Group (AWG), the regional arm of IHEU member organization IHEYO, coordinating the growth of Humanism in Africa, is organizing a nine-day e-conference to enable young Africans to discuss the fundamental issues of humanism advancement in Africa. Founded a year ago, AWG has watched with keen interest the zeal with which young Africans promote the ideals of Humanism through their activities, amidst crass religiosity. To assist them in achieving more, IHEYO is poised to utilize the partnership and collaboration tools of organizational growth and development, to achieve our common goal of popularizing Humanism in Africa.

In a statement to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, IHEU has condemned attempts to stifle legitimate criticism of religion and academic research into religious history and custom on the grounds of supposed "defamation of religion", in particular the resolutions on "Combating Defamation of Religions" passed at the Human Rights Commission from 1999 to 2005.

Extended program - New deadline

The Baltic Humanist meeting in Sweden is now only five weeks away. Applications may be submitted until October 15th. Participants from over twenty countries have already registered. Go to the Humanisterna web site to register.

Additional seminars will deal with Euthanasia, "Europe and Islam" and "Minorities and Human rights in the Baltic states". Full information on the updated program will follow in the next few weeks.

IHEU member organization Libre Pensée has condemned recent death threats for “blasphemy” against Robert Redeker as a blatant attempt at intellectual oppression. Libre Pensée has called on the French authorities to ensure the protection, at public expense, of Mr Redeker, on the grounds that the right to life and absolute freedom of conscience are guaranteed constitutionally by the laws of the French Republic and the 1905 law of separation of religion and state.

The Libre Pensée statement (in French) is published here.