EHF
13 May 2012
The EHF has written to the Ombudsman with firm comments on the EU Commission’s response to our complaint about their approach to the Article 17 dialogue with us and in particular their treatment of our request for a dialogue seminar. Our covering letter is here. It attaches our detailed comments, which have three enclosures: a letter from BEPA to the EHF dated 16 November 2011; an email from BEPA to the EHFdated 5 May 2011 and a letter… read more »
The Ombudsman in March 2012 forwarded to us for comment the EU Commission’s response to our complaint about their discrimination against us in their implementation of the Article 17 dialogue. The Ombudsman’s letter and the EU response may be read here. For the EHF’s complaint, see here . For the Ombudsman’s request for comments from the Commission, see here. For the EHF’s comments to the Ombudsman on the Commission’s response, see here.
4 May 2012
EHF received an appeal from the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) for support for an Indonesian civil servant, Alexander Aan, who is being prosecuted after creating an atheist group on Facebook. Some background is available on the New Humanist blog and the AHRC website has full details. We sent emails as requested to Prof. Harkristuti Harkrisnowo, the General Director of Human Rights at the Ministry of Law and Human Rights, to Mr. Suryadharma Ali, the Minister of… read more »
23 April 2012
Hans Christian Cars represented EHF at the meeting of the EU Fundamental Rights Platform for NGOs (the FRP) on 19-20 April 2012. He reports: It was as usual thoroughly well organised with two panel discussions with invited experts and some forty workshops of which thirty were conducted by NGOs and the rest by FRA staff. In the election for Advisory Panel members, six were elected from a pool of 24 candidates. Regrettably one of these was… read more »
13 March 2012
Our General Assembly and conference will this year be in Utrecht, Netherlands, on 25-27 May. Details of the General Assembly and Open Meeting on Friday 25 May are here. In parallel with these there will be a programme for European Humanist Professionals, details of which are here. Below are details of the conference on Humanism and Resilience, which runs from the evening of Friday May 25 to lunchtime on Sunday May 27. Details are… read more »
Parallel to the EHF General Assembly and Open Meeting there is the possibility for professionals to visit Dutch humanist professionals at their workplace. These visits have been organised by European Humanist Professionals (EHP) in cooperation with the Dutch Humanist Alliance. In the first part of the day, there will be two groups. One group will visit the University Medical Centre of Utrecht, which has between 15,000 and 19,000 visitors every day and about 11,000 employees. The… read more »
1 March 2012
Speaking at a seminar in Brussels yesterday, EHF president David Pollock suggested that all states in Europe were progressing, from different starting points and at different speeds, towards secularism. He was commenting on part of an EU-financed study on Identities and Modernities in Europe, a collaboration between several universities across Europe, part of which had looked at religion in schools in Bulgaria, Croatia, France and the United Kingdom – see here. He said: “From the time of… read more »
23 February 2012
David Pollock writes: The Vatican news agency proclaimed: “A decision by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to pass a resolution that calls for the prohibition of euthanasia, is being hailed as a major pro-life victory.” European Dignity Watch, under a headline “Council of Europe bans Euthanasia” hailed “a major victory for life and dignity of the weakest”. The European Centre for Law and Justice hailed a “Major Victory for Life in… read more »
22 February 2012
Our General Assembly, Open Meeting and Conference this year will be held at the end of May in Utrecht, Netherlands. The General Assembly and Open Meeting are on Friday 25 May. The conference starts with a keynote speech on Friday evening and ends at lunchtime on Sunday 27 May. Under the title Humanism and Resilience we will explore how humanism can help us in our everyday lives as citizens. Details of the conference are here and on the… read more »
4 February 2012
LATEST (21 February): The Christian Democratic Party has announced that it will abolish the requirement for compulsory sterilization of people undergoing a sex correction – see here. _____________________________________________________________________________________ In Sweden people who have their gender reassigned from male to female or vice-versa are forced by law to be permanently sterilised. The EHF has sent a protest to the Prime Minister of Sweden, Fredrik Reinfeldt, who – apparently for political reasons – is refusing to amend… read more »