The following policy was agreed by the EHF Board in March 2008: Some people choose to live together and to found a family without marrying. This policy applies where legally-recognised marriage is concerned:- 1. Marriage is a voluntary and legal union between two people and commits them to sharing obligations with each other. 2. The right to marriage and divorce must be guaranteed and regulated by civil law. 3. The authorities must treat all who… read more »
For humanists education a matter of high importance. On this page we set out our fundamental policy and provide links to some pages dealing with the matter in more detail. General principles Education should fit the individual for life as a full participant in society, and teach self-respect and respect for the dignity of others. Education should promote intellectual honesty. It should foster a love of learning and an appreciation of the supremacy of reason… read more »
The EHF wrote on 4 October 2011 to Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary General of the Commonwealth, as follows: Please do your best to ensure that the appalling persecution of LGBT people is placed on the agenda for the Commonwealth Conference later this month. CHOGM [Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting] should mandate: Decriminalisation of homosexuality Laws to prohibit discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity Protection of LGBT people from hate crimes by full enforcement… read more »
Remus Cernea of the Asociaţia Umanistă Română informs us of a new case from Romania to the European Court of Human Rights regarding religious symbols in schools (case number 54529/09, Moise (3) c/Romania). He writes that it is quite different from the Lautsi case for at least three reasons: – the Lautsi case was lost in the Italian courts, whereas the Moise case was successful in the Romanian National Council for Combating Discrimination. The… read more »
[pdf version] Reflections after the congress By Staffan Gunnarson – Stockholm (Sweden) – Vice President of the European Humanist Federation – Member of the IHEU Policy Commission The most interesting and at the same time promising facts we know about war, lie in the clear statistics on armed conflicts from 1816-1991. They show the number of wars that have taken place between various countries in the world, categorized by political system: Non-democratic states vs… read more »
The huge majority of the information in the General Overview sections of the “Country Profiles” on this website comes by permission from “Notes on Church and State in the European Economic Area 2011“ by Frank Cranmer, Fellow, St Chad’s College, Durham and Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Law and Religion, Cardiff Law School. We are most grateful to him and to the Cardiff Law School. There is, however, no guarantee that the notes will remain… read more »
After the IHEU Congress in Oslo in August 2011 EHF Vice President Staffan Gunnarson wrote an article “Democratic Peace – a Blind Spot for International Humanism?” which was published in International Humanist News. PDF version for Google Translate
The EHF was represented at the 2011 conference in Warsaw (left, general view from the NGO seats) by its President, David Pollock, by its OSCE representatives Hans Christian Cars and (from member organisations) by Vera Pegna of the Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti (UAAR) and Pierre-Arnaud Perrouty of the Centre d’Action Laique in Brussels. We made three interventions in the session on 27 September on “Freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief”. David… read more »
Hope Knutsson writes: On Saturday October 1, 2011 Sidmennt, the Icelandic Ethical Humanist Association, held a secular alternative event for Members of Parliament instead of the Lutheran Mass in the National Cathedral which is held traditionally right before the opening session of Parliament every autumn. This is the fourth time that Sidmennt has offered an inspiring philosophical talk instead of the religious ritual which we consider inappropriate as the opening event for a secular government… read more »