29 October 2012
By Sid Lukkassen – It is part of mankind’s drive for knowledge to delve into the unknown, explore the undiscovered, dream up the uninvented. The founding fathers of Europe paved the way for the Industrial Revolution, and the scientific discoveries that allowed our continent to play a central role on earth for centuries. Today this is changing and we have to ask ourselves where we want to go, and how to get there. Surely we do… read more »
13 March 2012
Our 2012 General Assembly and conference were held 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 was a programme for European Humanist Professionals, details of which are here. Below are details of the conference on Humanism and Resilience, which ran from the evening of Friday May 25 to lunchtime on Sunday May 27. Details are also available… 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 »
18 July 2010
Our board member Tryntsje de Groot died tragically young from cancer on 15 July. It is a sad loss for the humanist movement in the Netherlands and for the European Humanist Federation. Tryntsje was trained and for several years worked as a kindergarten teacher. She moved from the kindergarten to primary and secondary school, and specialized in humanist education. Later she studied at the University of Humanistic Studies in Utrecht and was trained in social… read more »
17 March 2010
The wording says: ‘Abortion for Polish women – introduced by Hitler – 9 March 1943′ Meeting of the EP Platform for Secularism in Politics The European Parliamentary Platform for Secularism in Politics held a well attended meeting on 17 March 2010 to hear speakers on the influence of the church in matters of abortion, divorce, family planning etc, with speakers from Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands and Spain.Monika Karbowska told the meeting about the dire situation for… read more »
22 September 2009
The Dutch Humanist broadcasting foundation HUMAN has made a film about voluntary euthanasia for those with mental illness. Even in countries with euthanasia laws there are problems over how to apply them and the question of euthanasia in the case of mental illness is particularly difficult: here is a film that tackles the subject sensitively. HUMAN write to the EHF as follows: The documentary pays attention to the lack of help for people with a… read more »
16 June 2009
World Humanist Day on June 21 will be celebrated by the Dutch Humanists in an unusual way. The Dutch humanist broadcasting service, HUMAN, and the broadcaster VPRO have worked together with the humanist NGO Hivos to create five short films in which humanism, as a practical, life-affirming philosophy takes centre stage. These shorts follow five individuals from Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Namibia, Turkey, and China who shape their lives, regardless of governmental or other extrinsic powers…. read more »
31 March 2009
Europe’s humanist and secularist organizations display a wide range of opinions as to what is desirable in the way of religious, moral and humanist education. The EHF and national humanist and secularist bodies cannot dictate the pattern of education but the EHF can help clarify the issues at stake and try to prevent or remedy discrimination against people based on their religious or non-religious lifestances. We can define various options that do not offend humanist… read more »
15 October 2008
October 2008 meeting of Working Group on Separation of Religion and Politics With Veronique de Keyser, the Belgian socialist MEP, in the chair, the meeting on 15 Ocotber 2008 heard from Keith Porteous Wood, of the UK’s National Secular Society, about the problem of religious schools within the British system of public schools. By being selective (he said) these schools attracted middle class parents who were prepared to pretend a religious belief and to go… read more »