IHEU Articles
Don’t mention the caste system!
In October 2010, the UN Human Rights Council working group on the implementation of the Durban Declaration and Program of Action held a two-week workshop which discussed, inter alia, “structural discrimination”. The report of that workshop was presented to the plenary of the Human Rights Council on 22 March 2011. Strangely, the report contained no mention of what is unquestionably the most widespread, pernicious and deeply-rooted example of structural discrimination on Earth: I refer of course to the caste system.
-->Dr Leslie Cannold is Australian Humanist of the Year for 2011
The Council of Australian Humanist Societies is pleased to announce that Dr Leslie Cannold, writer, commentator, ethicist and researcher, is the 2011 Australian Humanist of the Year (AHOY). This award has been bestowed on Leslie in recognition of her valuable contribution to public debates on a wide range of ethical issues, particularly to do with women and family life. She is an outstanding secular voice in Australian public life. Her public contributions, whether in daily newspapers or on radio and TV, are always considered and well informed.
-->IHEU attacks “traditional values” which undermine human rights
In a morning-long debate on traditional values at the Human Rights Council on Tuesday 22 March 2011, the Pakistani delegate, speaking on behalf of the 57 member states of the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) was allowed by the president to overrun his allotted three minute by a further seven in order to express his outrage at an incident reported just that morning. Was it the massacre of peaceful demonstrators in Damascus? No. The killing of peaceful demonstrators in Yemen or Bahrain? No. His diatribe was against the burning of a copy of the Quran in Florida.
-->Victory in sight on defamation of religion?
In what looks like a major climb down on the part of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) this grouping of the 57 Islamic states in the UN has tabled a draft resolution at the Human Rights Council: “Combating intolerance …and violence based on religion or belief”.
-->IHEU criticizes Mauritania over slavery and the death penalty for homosexuals
The friends of Mauritania, mostly Islamic states, who spoke in an hour-long debate in the Human Rights Council Friday, 18 March 2011, would have us believe that this vast but under-populated West-African desert state was a model in its efforts to comply with international human rights law.
-->International Humanist youth camp in Norway, August 2011
Norwegian Humanist Youth will host an international summer camp the week before the Humanist World Congress. The summer camp will be held from the 6th to the 11th of August 2011, in Numedal folkehøgskole, in Eastern Norway. The main themes at the camp will be “Humanism and Peace”.
-->Humanists welcome same sex partnership law on the Isle of Man
IHEU again calls Holy See to account at UN
With the recent discovery of new evidence that the Vatican ordered Catholic bishops not to cooperate with the civil authorities in Ireland and the United States, IHEU representative Keith Porteous Wood called upon the Human Rights Council to take action against the Holy See. In a powerfully-delivered speech on Tuesday, 15 March 2011, Keith also attacked the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child for its failure to insist that the Holy See deliver its report on children, now 13 years overdue.
-->Do Islamic states really care about incitement to hatred and violence?
In a joint statement by the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) and Centre for Inquiry (CFI) at the UN Human Rights Council on Tuesday, 15 March 2011, IHEU main representative Jack Jeffery challenged the Organization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) to broaden the scope of its oft-repeated resolutions on defamation of religion to encompass any actions or conduct leading to incitement to hatred or violence.
-->IHEU collaborates with Center for Inquiry on attack on blasphemy laws at UN
When IHEU were prevented on a technicality from delivering a speech on blasphemy and violence in the name of religion at the 16th session of the UN Human Rights Council meeting in Geneva, Center for Inquiry kindly agreed to collaborate and deliver a statement jointly crafted by the two organizations. Unfortunately, Georgina Hutchinson, CFI main representative in Geneva was unable to deliver the speech when the session ended early on Friday 11 March, and the speech was actually delivered by Jack Jeffery of IHEU at 9:15 this morning. Here is the speech in full.
-->
