International Humanist and Ethical Union

IHEU's International Director Babu Gogineni has written to President Musharraf asking him to review the case of British Muslim Mirza Taher Hussain. Mirza Hussain has been in detention for 18 years and on the death row for 16 years on murder charges which Pakistani courts too have rejected. Mirza Hussain is scheduled to be executed next month.

IHEU has also asked President Musharraf to revoke the Qisas and Diyat Ordinances, which allow justly-convicted murderers to escape punishment by payment of 'blood money' to the victim's families.

Please write to President Musharraf at http://www.presidentofpakistan.gov.pk/WTPresidentMessage.aspx

Ana Lita, Director of the IHEU-Appignani Center for Bioethics, spoke at the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for the Advancement of Women on June 6, 2006. The meeting was chaired by Ms. Rachel Mayanja, UN Assistant Secretary General and Special Advisor to UN Secretary General Kofi Annan on Gender Issues and Women's Advancement (OSAGI). Over 20 high-ranking UN officials attended the meeting.

The text of her paper, "New vaccines for cervical cancer and new controversies", is available here. We also have photographs from the meeting.

"International Humanist and Ethical Union 1952-2002 - Past, present and future" was published in 2002 to celebrate IHEU's 50th anniversary. What did IHEU achieve in its first 50 years? How is the experiment of federating over 100 organizations from 40 countries progressing? How is Humanism relevant to the modern world? What are the Humanist perspectives for the future? What does Humanism have to offer in the modern globalizing world?

IHEU is happy to be able to republish this important book as a free online illustrated ebook. The full, searchable text of the book is now also available, chapter by chapter. A full alphabetical index and bibliography, which were not included in the printed book, are now also available online. Extraits disponible en Francais ici et ici.

To download and read this PDF ebook, please click on the link under Attachment below...

The UN has published IHEU's two final submissions in the final days of the Human Rights Commission (now in the process of being replaced by the new Human Rights Council). The two statements are: 'The 1988 Covenant of the Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement - Hamas' (joint statement) and '"Islamophobia" and Freedom of Expression'.

In the second of his new series of articles The Human Angle, Babu Gogineni turns his attention to the abolition of the caste bar to priesthood in India. This will have far reaching consequences for the unequal social order that orthodox Hinduism promotes.

IHEU member organization IHEYO announces its 5th International Conference in Vijayawada, India under the theme "Critical Thinking & Free Inquiry Education". The conference will be held in collaboration with IHEU member organization Atheist Centre from 28 October to 4 November 2006 in Vijayawada, India.

IHEU and 42 other NGOs represented at the United Nations have written to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. In their letter, the NGOs call for the High Commissioner to appoint a team of human rights monitors large enough to ensure that the ceasefire becomes truly effective and refugees can safely return to their homes. The letter goes on to say that the new Human Rights Council will, in part, be tested by the way it deals with the Darfur conflict.

In the first of a new series of articles, The Human Angle, Babu Gogineni, who inaugurated the Humanist Association of Nepal in 1997 in Khatmandu, looks at the latest developments there.

For long the world's only Hindu Kingdom, Nepal recently declared itself secular. This is not just a symbolic move, but the culmination of a silent People's Revolution aiming to restore democracy and the rule of civilised law in the land. Is a People's Democratic Republic far away? And will the People's Revolution last?

IHEYO has called for the European Union to take action to support European civil society. An important step forward, in IHEYO's view, would be the establishment of a statute for a European Association. IHEYO gives several reasons for formalising such a statute.

Reuters reports that the United Nations Committee against Torture has told the United States that secret jails for foreign terrorism suspects, as well as the Guantanamo Bay prison, are illegal and should be closed.