The outspoken atheist Christopher Hitchens died Thursday, December 15, at the age of 63, after battling esophageal cancer. Humanist groups and atheist activists around the world are paying tribute to the life and work of the prolific writer.

When Rob Buckman – Humanist, oncologist, and TV personality – realized he was dying from an autoimmune disease, he thought it would be useful to make a film to help others learn from his death. He was right about the value of the film: Your Own Worst Enemy was a great critical success and helped countless people address a topic that is taboo and yet unavoidable. But Rob was wrong about the subject of the film: thanks to a new treatment he survived another three decades after the 1981 movie. And those three decades were filled with the love, learning and laughter that made him a hugely popular figure on both sides of the Atlantic.

On behalf of Humanists and other secular people across Europe and the rest of the world, the International Humanist and Ethical Union (IHEU) and the European Humanist Federation (EHF) express their profound sorrow at the mass murders in Norway.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) reports with sadness the death of Claire Rayner, BHA President from 1999 to 2004, and a Vice-President since 2004. From knowing little about organised Humanism, she became a vigorous advocate of Humanist philosophy and causes.  In a contribution to the BHA’s membership leaflet she said:

Lloyd Morain, the last surviving member of the International Humanist and Ethical Union's founding generation, died yesterday, July 13, at the age of 93.

We honour a man today who was always able to question superstition and strip it bare; make scary religious stories look ordinary; challenge traditional and conservative thinking, and make rational thinking remind us of the greatness in us all.

Learning that he had terminal cancer of the stomach, and knowing that Basava Premanand, the 79 year old doyen of Indian rationalism, did not have much time left to live, I went to visit him in Coimbatore in South India earlier this year.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) has expressed its sadness at the death of Sir Ludovic Kennedy (1919-2009), author, campaigner, Humanist and distinguished supporter of the BHA.

It is with great sadness that we report the death of Premanand, the leading Indian campaigner against superstition. He died on Sunday 4 October 2009 after a long battle with cancer, which he fought with grim determination. Roy Brown writes: "Premanand was an inspiration to the entire Humanist movement. I will never forget the first time I saw his anti-superstition show - in Mumbai at the World Humanist Congress in 1999, It was truly sensational.

Harold John Blackham (born 31 March 1903), ‘architect of the British and international Humanist movements’ and ‘founder of the British Humanist Association’, has died at the age of 105 (on 23 January 2009).