General Assembly 2009 and Related Events

5 March 2009

Our General Assembly for 2009 will be held in London on Friday June 5.  It will be part of almost a week of humanist events.  This page will be updated whenever new information is available: bookmark it and check it regularly!

All proceedings on Friday 5 June and Saturday 6 June will be simultaneously interpreted into French by a team of volunteer professional interpreters.

PROGRAMME

Friday 5 June:

Morning: EHF open meeting

We shall start at 9.0 with a discussion on the first of two areas of policy: rule of law.  Vera Pegna, EHF representative to OSCE, will introduce this.  At 10.30 after a coffee break we will move to the second policy topic: education, with as guest speaker the UK contributor to the Council of Europe project on religious dimension of intercultural education, John Keast, followed by contributions from humanists from the Netherlands, from Belgium and from Berlin (where a crucial referendum on whether confessional religious instruction should be introduced has just been defeated).

Afternoon: EHF General Assembly.

The annual General Assembly for members of the EHF will include discussion of our report for 2008, our plans for 2009/10 and also a long-term plan and a long-term vision for what EHF might become!  For further details see below.

Evening:

There will be an informal dinner at a restaurant for those who notify us in advance they wish to attend.

Saturday 6 June:

Conference: Darwin, Humanism and Science

This exciting one-day conference, jointly organised by the EHF, IHEU, South Place Ethical Society and the British Humanist Association, will feature addresses by Professor Richard Dawkins and Professor A C Grayling as well as distinguished speakers from Belgium, Germany, England and India on evolution and creationism in schools and evolution today.  The full programme is now available.

Conference dinner

There will be a conference dinner in the evening.  All those registering for the conference will be sent an invitation.  The cost will be £40.00.

Sunday 7 and Monday 8 June:

International Humanist and Ethical Union General Assembly

This is for IHEU’s member organisatons.

Monday 8 June, afternoon:

There will be a meeting to celebrate the life of Harold (H.J.) Blackham, one of the founders of international humanism, who died earlier this year at the age of 105.

Tuesday 9 and Wednesday 10 June:

IHEU World Conference on Untouchability

This two-day conference is supported by the British Humanist Association and South Place Ethical Society.

Untouchability existed in France, Spain and Sweden not too long ago, and it persists in India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Yemen and Nigeria. What answers can Humanism provide to this terrible problem which afflicts nearly 250 million people? What is IHEU doing to make a difference to a problem which has its roots in religion? Get a better understanding of the issue, be inspired by the stories of some exceptional people, watch movies and find out how you can make a difference.

REGISTRATION

To attend any of these events you need to register here.  PLEASE DO SO AS SOON AS POSSIBLE! This link also takes you to suggested hotels – early booking is strongly advised.

EHF GENERAL ASSEMBLY

Full Member Organisations should note that:-

  1. Nominations of proposed Board Members should be sent to the EHF at least 30 days in advance of the General Assembly – i.e., before 6 May.
  2. Proxy arrangements are set out in Article 16 of the Bylaws.
  3. Papers for the meeting will be posted on the ehffhemo Yahoo group.

This content last updated 11 February 2013 @ 3:16 pm