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 »
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 »
29 January 2012
The EHF has adopted a policy on conscientious objection. It says that humanists set a high value on freedom of religion or belief. However, it draws attention to the c0nditions the European Convention on Human Rights imposes on the right to manifest such beliefs – for example, where that may interfere with the rights and freedoms of other people. Some claims to conscientious objection do have serious implications for the rights of others – rights… read more »
30 December 2011
Panayote Dimitras (founder of the Humanist Union of Greece) and some of his colleagues in the Greek Helsinki Monitor (affiliated to the International Helsinki Federation) have won a case against Greece at the European Court of Human Rights. In their work under the Helsinki process, they frequently have to make depositions or give evidence in court. Despite constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion or belief, Greek law requires that as a default they have to… read more »
1 December 2011
The third annual “summit” meeting of “philosophical and non-confessional” organisations with the three EU Presidents under Article 17 was held on November 30. The press conference: Presidents Buzek, Barroso and van Rompuy. David Pollock is between the first two; Pierre Galand at the extreme right. David Pollock took advantage of it to expose the dissatisfaction of the humanist and secularist movement with the way the Commission is implementing the dialogue under Article 17. The EHF… read more »
23 November 2011
The EU Ombudsman is taking seriously the EHF’s complaint about the EU Commisssion’s approach to the Article 17 dialogue with us and in particular its treatment of our request for a dialogue seminar. In a letter to the EHF dated 15 November, he tells us of the questions he has put to the Commission. See here for an EHF press release, dated 23 November. For the EHF’s complaint, see here . For the Commission… read more »
14 November 2011
Khalid Saeed is a Pakistani and he is also an atheist. He fled from Pakistan in 2009 to Sweden, where his brother has lived for many years. His request for asylum has just been rejected by the Swedish authorities. The EHF, together with the International Humanist and Ethical Union, has joined Humanisterna, our Swedish member organisation, in asking the Swedish authorities to reverse their decision. Our letter (in Swedish) is here; an English version is… read more »