All over the world, people celebrate important transitions in life with special ceremonies. These rites of passage are as old as mankind itself. Humanist freethinkers also feel the need to celebrate these transitions in life.

Oh! Do atheists have ceremonies? Aren’t ceremonies only for religious people? These are some of the questions asked by people to atheists. Well! Atheists do have ceremonies and celebrate them with all colour and festivity, but with a rational outlook. The Atheist Centre has been in the forefront of encouraging such secular ceremonies.

When I was thirteen I lost God. Miss Mary F B Neilson, M.A. (Glasgow), principal of the Presbyterian Ladies’ College in Melbourne, Australia, told us during daily prayers: “Ladies, keep your heads down and your legs together.

IHEU international representative Keith Porteous Wood has been reappointed (in a personal capacity) to the Panel of nine civil society representatives assisting the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency in Vienna. The Agency advises the European Commission on discrimination and equality matters and has a formal obligation to engage with and receive feedback from civil society.

Members of the British Humanist Association (BHA) conducted Humanist funerals, weddings and baby naming ceremonies for their friends and acquaintances even before the association emerged in its current formation in 1967.

Mr. King refers to an article and an interview. There was no article, just an interview, with the entire text being the words of Dr. Bhattarai. It was the first interview granted by Dr. Bhattarai after being sworn in as Deputy Prime Minister of the new Republic of Nepal.

In July 2008 when the Registrar General for Scotland announced that Humanist weddings were now the fourth most popular form of marriage in the country, the media had a field day.

45th session May 13–27 in Banjul Gambia

Statement by the International Humanist and Ethical Union

Read by: Leo Igwe, IHEU Representative for West Africa: 14 May 2009

Madam Chairperson

I would like to start with the famous quote from The Little Prince by Antoine de Saint Exupery.

“What is a rite?” asked the Little Prince.
“Those also are actions too often neglected,” said the fox. They are what make one day different from other days, one hour from other hours.”

20 – 24 April 2009, Palais des Nations, Geneva

Statement by the International Humanist and Ethical Union

Read by: Roy W Brown, IHEU Main Representative, UN Geneva: 24 April 2009

Thank you, Mr President