31 May 2008
The following declaration was agreed by the Board on 5 October 2007 in the light of discussion at the General Assembly in Torino in June. Faced with the threat of terrorism a legitimate and democratic government has a dual responsibility to its citizens: not only to protect them from death, injury or other detriment but also to maintain democratic freedoms and the rule of law. The European Humanist Federation (EHF) is gravely concerned that, since… read more »
27 May 2008
In recent years an alliance of Islamic states at the United Nations has made determined and partially successful attempts to subvert the right to freedom of religion or belief by declaring that defamation of religion – especially Islam – is not protected by that right. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights invited submissions on two very similar resolutons passed by the Human Rights Council (resolution 7/19 of 27 March 2008) and by the General… read more »
20 May 2008
The need to treat Sidmennt (the humanist association) equally with churches under tax law Sidmennt, our member organisation in Iceland, has for long been asserting its right to be treated equally with churches. Members of churches can assign to them part of their income tax, whereas Sidmennt’s members cannot assign to it an equivalent amount of their tax: instead it is used for general public purposes, such as the University. This letter was sent to Sidmennt… read more »
17 May 2008
This one-day conference was held on 17 May in association with the 2008 General Assembly. The programme was:- 10.00 David Pollock: Humanism and Human Rights 11.00 Panayote Dimitras (Greek Helsinki Monitor): Greece, a religious state – on the Alexandridis vs. Greece judgement in the European Court of Human Rights and beyond. 11.45 Werner Schultz: Preserving Human Rights while Combating Terrorism – the EHF Policy 12.05 Baard Thalberg: Marriage Laws – the EHF Policy 14.00 Keith… read more »
Address by David Pollock, EHF President, to the symposium on secularism and human rights held in Athens on May 17 2008 Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury and head of the Church of England, gave a lecture on May 1 at LSE. He was looking for a foundation or basis for human rights – quoting the philosopher Alasdair McIntyre’s concern that the language of human rights amounts to no more than assertion and he was seeking… read more »
Speech by Kristin Mile, Norwegian Humanist Association, to the symposium on secularism and human rights held in Athens on May 17 2008 On June 29th 2007 we found good reasons to celebrate in The Norwegian Humanist Association. More than 10 years of fight throughout the Norwegian court system ended with a sweet victory in the Grand Chamber of European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The background of this case was the establishing of a… read more »
The situation in the UN Human Rights Council Paper by Keith Porteous-Wood, Executive Director, National Secular Society (UK)* I want today, though, to talk about Human Rights, the essential bedrock of all civilisation and all secular democracies. And I want to talk about the particular and precious human right of free expression. Alarm bells rang for me when I attended a session of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva. To my dismay, it turned… read more »
Address by Andrew Copson, Director of Education and Public Affairs, British Humanist Association In my remarks today, I want to say that the legal framework of human rights can be used by humanists to advance secularism, where secularism is the impartiality of the state and public institutions in matters of religion or belief and give a few examples from experience in Britain where this has been done with some success. In 2001 the UK’s Human… read more »
Panayote Dimitras spoke of numerous cases the Greek Helsinki Monitor had taken and won against Greece for a legal system that assumed Greeks were members of the Greek Orthodox Church and made it difficult for people to be recognised as having other – or no – beliefs. This notice of one of their victories gives an example of the sort of case involved. GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR (GHM) Address: P.O. Box 60820, GR-15304 Glyka Nera Telephone:… read more »
15 May 2008
Click here to open EHF annual report for 2006.