18 September 2011
The Swiss Freethinkers Association reports: The Swiss Freethinkers Association’s “Denkfest” has triggered a very positive response from the skeptics community and the public at large. From 8 – 11 September 2011, more than 400 people attended the conference in Zurich, many staying for several days. They grasped the opportunity to meet some 40 experts coming from 4 continents to engage in the promotion of critical thinking, science and a general understanding of “how the world… read more »
7 May 2010
EHF President David Pollock took part in an international conference on Religious Freedom in Democratic Societies in Cordoba on 3-4 May 2010. The conference was run by the EU Council’s current Spanish Presidency and the UN Alliance of Civilisations. About 200 people from across Europe took part – academics, religious figures, politicians, diplomats and people from a variety of NGOs. David Pollock reports: This was a rich occasion, impossible to summarise save to say that… read more »
3 March 2009
Address by David Pollock, EHF President, to a conference at the European Parliament on 3 March 2009 organised by Veronique de Keyser MEP on the subject of Secularism and the European Union For much of history, and still today in too many places, life and liberty have been little valued, at least by those in power when the lives and liberties in question were those of people who stood in their way or dared to… read more »
11 November 2008
Remarks by David Pollock, EHF President, at EU conference on “Intercultural Dialogue – A Challenge for Faiths and Convictions?” organised within the framework of the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue 2008 by EU Directorate General for Education and Culture and held in the Berlaymont Building, Brussels, 11 November 2008 In the limited time available, I want to make just three points. Dialogue between groups defined by religion or belief must include the non-religious. Separation of… read more »
13 October 2008
In the morning before the General Assembly, EHF held a seminar on its work in the main European institutions. Vera Pegna spoke on our work in the OSCE. Georges Liénard spoke on the Council of Europe. David Pollock spoke on the EU and the European Parliament. OSCE – Vera Pegna This morning you will hear reports on EHF activity in three European organisations: OSCE, CoE and the EU. I am going to report on our… read more »
16 June 2008
Vera Pegna represented EHF at a conference on “Secularism and Religious Pluralism as Prerequisites for Democracy” which was convened on June 16 2008 in Zagreb, Croatia, by the Open Society Institute (part of the Soros Foundations network) together with some NGOs based in Serbia, Kosovo, Bosnia Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro. There were about 100 participants, many of whom journalists, academics, representatives of religions (Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Jewish, Moslem, Quakers) and a couple of atheist NGOs. The… read more »
16 June 2007
This public one-day conference in Torino, Italy, on Saturday 16 June 2007 was organised in collaboration with the Consulta Torinese per la Laicit delle Istitutzioni and the Unione degli Atei e degli Agnostici Razionalisti (UAAR) and run in conjunction with the 2007 General Assembly. Programme Introductory remarks by EHF President David Pollock Speech by Claude Singer
SEPARATION OR COMMUNITARIANISM or: Is the French model really only French? Everybody knows that France lives under a regime of separation of religions and the State. This separation – which is called [la cité] secularism and I’ll debate this point later – appears through three great pillars of our republic: the laws on education at the beginning of the 1880’s, the 1905 law itself, called law of separation between the Churches and the State, and… read more »
Introductory remarks by EHF President David Pollock I wish first to thank the eminent representatives of Piedmont and of Torino for their warm welcome, and then to welcome the IHEU delegates who are joining the EHF for this one-day conference, and with them so many of our Italian friends. Europe was once a Christian continent. It barely is so any longer. Some countries have a majority of unbelievers. In many others most who call themselves… read more »
9 November 2006
Presentation by Georges Liénard to Bergamo conference Broadly speaking, communications in the European Union are “one way”, from Europe to the citizen, and it is the citizen who has to make the effort to check to find out if anything of interest to him or her. Citizens of member countries often have the impression that European policy is made behind their backs and that they have no opportunity to participate. You hear “Brussels decided…” when… read more »